Even from his earliest years Giovanni Melchior Bosco was an obedient and sensitive child. According to most biographies he was tending to cattle at age 4, gathering firewood for his widowed mother and two brothers. (Their father died of pneumonia when John was two). Although a serious student when he could attend school, the family's poverty cast serious doubt that John would ever attain a full education. But God had other ideas. His mother, Margaret, was a born educator and her lessons on faith and morality were absorbed by her son. He later would receive instruction from a parish priest.
But his vocation would be conveyed to him by one of the first of his inspired "dreams" in which he found
himself among a group of violent lads, some fighting, others swearing and talking foully. He started to beat them with his fists but he was stopped by the arresting presence of a figure so shining, so remarkable that he could not bear to look at him. Then he heard the person say: “Not with blows, but with gentleness and charity, you must take care of them and win their hearts,” he said, “teach them the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of sin.” There is more but the net effect was to confirm to young John his desire to become a priest. In practice he would follow the itinerant jugglers, acrobats and musicians around when they would come to town, study their tricks, and then duplicate them for his own audiences. Once he had the attention of his crowd, he would retell the homily from the previous Sunday. But he always insisted, first, on prayer, both before and after his demonstrations.
In 1835 John entered the seminary and became a priest in six years, stationed in Turino, Italy. It was here that he witnessed a ragged urchin being thrown out of a church. He rescued the boy, Bartolomeo, and befriended him, and thus began the work of his life, the rescue and instruction of wayward youths who he would invite to his new school, the Oratory. Eschewing hard punishments for kindness and understanding, Father Bosco went on to instruct and change the lives of hundreds of boys.
During his lifetime he was aided by a series of remarkable visions and dreams which he wrote down. Two of them we will mention here: the Vision of Hell and the Twin Pillars.
The Twin Pillars was a vision of a fleet of ships, led by the pope on the flagship (the Church), under attack from all sides by another fleet of deadly ships that are using every means possible to sink them. Their destination are two large pillars: "In the midst of the immense expanse of sea, two mighty columns of great height arise a little distance the one from the other. On the top of one, there is the statue of the Immaculate Virgin, from whose feet hangs a large placard with this inscription: Auxilium Christianorum - 'Help of Christians'; on the other, which is much higher and bigger, stands a Host of great size proportionate to the column and beneath is another placard with the words: Salus Credentium - 'Salvation of the Faithful.'"
The vision continues with the description of a council of captains with the pope and a time of trial as the enemy fleet throws its might against the Church. At one point the pope is struck down, but is revived. A second time the pope is struck down, to great mockery and triumph on the part of the enemy. But a new pope arises almost immediately and takes the mighty ship, with its fleet, to dock securely between the two pillars, leaving the enemy in ruin.
This remarkable vision almost perfectly fits the history of Pope John Paul II and his guidance of the Church through the tumult of his papacy, a time of almost unprecedented attack against the faith and against morality and virtue. However, when it comes to prophecy it is wise to be circumspect and acknowledge that there are often layers of foreshadowing in certain real events, so that it is possible that the late Pope John Paul II might be the forerunner of the pontiff of the vision.
The second vision of Saint Bosco involved a trip to hell, involving a tremendous amount of symbolism but also a definite amount of detail about the horrors one would expect there. Many times he is dismayed to see some particular young person tumbling toward hell, only to be advised by his tour guide that this is the natural consequence of being "dead in the faith" and of failing to sufficiently cleanse one's soul in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. John is relieved to learn that many of the souls he sees in hell are still alive in the temporal world and are yet within reach of salvation.
The vision is remarkable in its simplicity and its believability, and it is extremely effective for use in catechesis. One year I taught a very small class of 8th grade boys - there were four of us - who at the first did not display a great deal of knowledge of the faith. Whether they had forgotten what they had learned from prior years, or simply had learned little I cannot say, but it was clear that the textbooks we had been given were unsuitable. I began looking for other material centered around Bible stories and lives of the saints, reinforcing the lessons with current events and incidents from their lives, which they would bring up frequently. Over a period of several weeks of study and prayer the young men began to change their attitudes toward the class. There was an excitement in learning. Then I came across Saint John Bosco's Vision of Hell and felt the Holy Spirit telling me to share it with my class.
Trust the Holy Spirit! The boys were held spellbound by the narrative as we took turns reading. John Bosco's inspired words struck a resonant chord within them. Afterward we discussed the lessons learned by Saint Bosco, and by us. This led to many productive class sessions as we focused on the moral teachings of the Church. There was a pronounced acceleration in the boys' love for Jesus, Mary and the Church. It was as if the good Saint Bosco was overseeing the instruction himself, which perhaps in truth he was! One of the young lads expressed the thought that perhaps he was being called to become a priest one day. The others I also continue to watch from a distance as they get older, and I'm pleased to say that their behavior and the reports I receive indicate that their 8th grade lessons were not in vain.
The genius of John Bosco is that he never once attempts to impress you with his intellect or his piety. He frequently confesses to lack of courage and commitment, only to be reminded by saintly guests and guides that for God's will to be done his participation is required. He is an "every man" who is bound by love to do the will of his God, his Lord Jesus, and his Church. He is obedient out of love, and because experience has shown him that obedience to Christ has always been the prudent course.
There are few better resources today than the writings of this saint, who dedicated his life to saving troubled young men who otherwise would have been cast into prisons or otherwise forgotten by society. His lessons are not merely for the young, however. For those of use who live in a culture of arrested development, the perpetual pursuit of youth and its folly, John Bosco might well be the one voice who can, like the young juggler/magician he once was, capture our attention and imaginations and bring us close to Jesus, Mary and the Church. One of his primary rules is a prime guide for today. "Frequent confession, frequent Communion, daily Mass: these are the pillars which should sustain the edifice of education." His understanding of the moral dangers we face and the enemies who are angrily aligned against us, and his reliance upon the graces of Christ and the Church, is just what we need in a week in which so many tensions and concerns dominate the news, and too often our thoughts. Saint John Bosco, patron of youth, editors and educators, pray for us!
St. John Bosco
John Bosco, surely a saint for our times
This is a busy, mostly troubled week in the world. Tensions mounting over Iran and its development of nuclear energy/weapons, and its threat to decrease oil production. More tensions over oil as scattered violence against oil workers in Nigeria, market worries over futures prices and a growing concern that the theory of Peak Oil is true. (Peak oil basically says that, although the world still has a lot of untapped crude, the time and resources needed to get it to market are growing so that slightly less will be produced each year, this at the same time as rising demand.) Then there's the Iraq war, budget deficits, trade deficits, Alan Greenspan's retirement, the confirmation of Samuel Alito, the State of the Union address and, lest we forget, the buildup to the weekend's Super Bowl. And that's just a short list!
Lost for too many of us is the sense of the sacred, the peace of knowing that our chief responsibility in this life, at this time, is to discern and do the will of God in our lives. Everyone needs this peace, and many yearn for it, but we are all so busy doing first what we think other people expect of us. What we need is a good role model, and someone whose words speak to us of nobler goals and worthier pursuits.
So on his Feast day, Tuesday, Jan. 31, we nominate Saint John (Don) Bosco, an Italian priest and founder the Salesian Order, a great mystic, a diligent servant of God, and a man who knows how to communicate to the young, and the young at heart.
