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Homilies | Saturday, February 01, 2025

St. John Bosco knew love is the only power to change hearts

Archbishop Wenski's homily on the feast day of St. John Bosco

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily on the feast day of St. John Bosco, Jan. 31, 2025, at Immaculata-La Salle High School in Miami.

Today the Church honors St. John Bosco, the patron saint of young people. As a young priest in Italy, he befriended the poor and abandoned children of his time; today, in honoring him, we also ask that he asks God to give us some of that same spirit which inspired him to love those whom others considered unlovable. This mission continues throughout the world through the work of the Salesian priests, brothers, sisters and lay collaborators. And, even if we are not Salesians, we also pray that Don Bosco inspired us with the Salesian spirit to be more committed to the young people of our time, especially those who, because of poverty, the breakup of their families or the lack of immigration status, risk of becoming “throwaway kids” of today.

Whereas many saw these young people as problems, as lost causes, as “dead end” kids without hope or a future, Don Bosco saw them as his little brothers and sisters in Christ, and he reached out to them and befriended them. They say that he often had dreams that helped him to discern where God was calling him. As a child, he dreamt that someone who seemed like an angel told him: “You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows but with gentleness and kindness. So, begin to show them that sin is ugly and virtue beautiful.”

This was the beginning of what he called his “preventive system of education,” which emphasized reason, religion, and kindness, a system based not on punishment but on love.  When educational methods were very stern and corporal punishment quite common, John Bosco understood that love, not force or intimidation, was the only power capable of changing the heart of the human person and that of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations. Not only did he love those kids, but he also sought to give these kids hope by giving them a future by educating them. He not only loved those kids, but they also knew that he loved them.

The lives of the saints - like the life of Don Bosco - should be for each of us not merely some pious stories that we recall just to make us feel good; the lives of the Saints should be a daily challenge for each of us, a challenge to our complacency, a challenge to the easy compromises we make with the demands of Christian living, a challenge to the spiritual myopia that prevents us from seeing in our neighbor an image of Christ.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus put a little child before his disciples and said, "Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is not talking about children’s innocence or purity – some kids can be “holy terrors”; he is talking about their humility, their lowliness. So, while the disciples wanted to know what they have to do to become “great,” children are not worried so much about that, which is why Jesus put that little child in front of them and told them to be humble like they are.

He is trying to make an important point – and He drives it home with this example. He wants to remind us that the way things are valued in this world is not how they are valued in his kingdom. We do want to feel important, and we want to feel valued – and that’s what drives most of us to succeed in school and in our workplaces. We live in a very competitive society: It is dog eat dog out there; and to succeed, it seems that we have to be the meanest dog. The world tells us, nice guys finish last.

Jesus tells us something different. Yes, it’s good to be important; but it’s more important to be good.

Our Lord’s humility is what makes him accessible to us – and when we are humble, we become accessible to others, especially those most vulnerable, those most in need. Now, humility does not mean thinking less of oneself; it means thinking of oneself less.

This year, 2025, we are celebrating 2025 years since Christ was born. And so this is a special year, a Jubilee Year. Pope Francis has chosen as the theme of this year, “Pilgrims of Hope”. St. John Bosco was such a pilgrim. For he introduced thousands of young people to that hope which will never disappoint, the hope that is Jesus Christ. And today at Immaculate-LaSalle we pray that example of St. John Bosco and of his Salesian family will inspire us to continue our life journey as pilgrims of hope until we enter the Kingdom of God.

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