“Give Me Souls…Take Away The Rest!”

Today is his feast day of St. John Bosco known as Don (Father) Bosco. I’ve read many intriguing things about him over the years… his journey from poverty, his physical strength and athletic gifts… he was a magician, his great love for the poor and delinquent kids. He didn’t just preach, he developed practical ways to care for the young men, training them in human and spiritual traits. He taught them practical trades; he taught them how to be saints. He was an excellent teacher; his teachings were understandable …. they made sense. 

Listen to the following where he touches on a tendency common to man…. a tendency to hesitate returning to God after we sin.  “Although the motives for thanking God are without number, it would seem that the lovingkindness with which he welcomes the sinner deserves special gratitude, enabling the sinner to come with greater confidence before the Lord whom he has offended and who loves him most tenderly. The Lord assures us that he will not avert his face when we return to him. He himself invites us and assures us of his most eager and most loving welcome: Come back to me, O sinner, and I shall embrace you (Jer 3:12). Return to me, and I shall hasten to meet you (Zec 1:3). Oh, with what love, with what tenderness does God embrace a sinner who returns to him! Let us recall again the well-known parable of the lost sheep. The Good Shepherd finds the sheep, carries it on his shoulders, takes it back home, and calls his friends to share the good news: Rejoice, because I have found the sheep that was lost (Lk 15:6). What may drive sinners away is the fear that God might reproach them for their offenses. This is common enough with men who forget past injuries for awhile, only to remember them again at the smallest provocation. Not so with the Lord. He goes so far as to say that if the sinner repents, he wants to forget his sins as though they had never been committed. Hear his very words: If the sinner repents, he shall be forgiven, and I shall forget all his iniquities (Ez. 18:21–22).” (ref. Saint John Bosco, ”Hope For Us Who need Greater Faith” Magnificat, 1-31-24) 

In this meditation Don Bosco reveals his own heart which is a heart after the Lord himself… a tender and forgiving heart that always welcomes the sinner. Sin wounds the heart of the sinner and causes it to seek the shadows away from God, to hide from God. It began in the Garden where Adam & Eve, after they had sinned, “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.”(Gen. 3:8) Jesus reverses this curse of sin and welcomes home the sinner. Don Bosco understood this very important truth and attribute of our Lord and conveyed it to his young students who had grown up in an atmosphere of sin. That’s why the young men flocked to his care and guidance. Many saints developed in this atmosphere of mercy. 

One final beautiful attribute of this great saint was his humility. He didn’t call his new order the “Bosconians”; he named the order the Salesians, after St. Francis deSales who he loved and emulated. 

So let’s ask this great saint to pray for us and for our children and all our youth….  that we might always run to our Lord in our times of need to receive his wonderful grace and mercy. St. John Bosco pray for us.