We take it for granted that our lives, as Salesian religious, cannot possibly be separated from the very real presence of God, from the demands of holiness. This holiness of the new age must be solidly based on two pillars that uphold our vocation: pastoral charity and ascetical discipline. These virtues were not lived fully only by Don Bosco; they are the two principal marks of every disciple of Christ, no matter what his vocation.
A. Pastoral charity is described in our renewed Salesian Constitutions as the sum and centre of our spirit. (C 10) It is our heritage from Saint Francis de Sales, doctor of charity, from whom we take our Salesian name. (C 4) Such charity demands from each of us a heart like Don Bosco’s. He said, I have promised God that I would give of myself to my last breath for my poor boys. (C 1) The Salesian spirit finds its model and source in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father.(C 11) Since, in the first place, our mission is entrusted to the community, (C 44) the community must be based on charity, and our vows will be at its service, brotherly love, our apostolic mission, and the practice of the evangelical counsels are the bonds which form us into one and constantly reinforce our communion. (C 50) It is charity that spurs our Salesian community to undertake its joint pastoral work. By the charity to which they lead, the evangelical counsels join their followers to the Church and her mystery in a special way, says the conciliar Constitution on the Church. Speaking of the universal call to holiness (Chapter 5), that Constitution reminds us that the first and most necessary gift is that charity by which we love God above all things and our neighbour because of God.
It is not through any ideological system but through charity lived publicly according to a practical ideal expressed in their vows that religious (as distinct from the Church’s hierarchy and laity) give splendid and striking testimony that the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes.
Pastoral charity is too vast and important a topic to be treated in these brief lines. Here I have been content to emphasise it as one of the most radical and indispensable conditions for a Salesian of the new age. It is not enough for confreres to be well versed in humanities and the sciences. We shall never build for the future if we are not motivated by the charity of the Holy Spirit, that charity by which love of our neighbour is the fruit of love of God. Indeed, the unifying quintessence of charity lies in the fact that our love for our neighbour must depend on our love for God.
B. The second distinctive mark is ascetical discipline. We think of the parable of the salt in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus speaks of his disciples as the salt of the earth. The three evangelists comment on the Lord’s words; they describe the disciple and his essential make-up. A careful scrutiny of the text makes it clear that the salt is the spirit of sacrificial renunciation indispensable for any disciple.
Oscar Cullman, a Protestant exegete and observer at Vatican II, has made a close study of these texts and has written on the enlightening metaphor of the salt:
Salt gives life, purifies; but it has this quality only because it is also caustic and causes pain. In this sense the disciple’s suffering is great, but for this very reason it confers on him the strength to fulfil his lofty mission as disciple. Now we know that the function of a disciple depends completely on the spirit of sacrifice and total renunciation he must possess. To be a disciple without renunciation and suffering is a contradiction – like the salt that has lost its essential elements. The essential quality of a disciple is inseparable from the function he must carry out for mankind, and vice versa. To be a disciple means to be always a disciple for mankind. And since being a disciple demands the spirit of sacrifice, the world needs the disciple who is willing to suffer, renounce himself, and make sacrifices.
Let us not deceive ourselves: if the salt loses its flavour, what use is it? I doubt that those responsible for forming the Salesians of the new age will be found among the leaders shouting fashionable slogans and playing down Gethsemane and Calvary; waxing eloquent in favour of the poor from the comfort of their armchairs; continually thinking up new forms of prayer but rarely speaking with God; relentlessly proclaiming the outdatedness of sexual taboos while calmly accepting amusements and friendships that put their purity of heart at risk; parading as paladins of social justice by playing politics instead of spreading and living the Gospel; downgrading authority in favour of brotherliness, yet neglecting the spirit of sonship we owe to the Father; and accepting neither the obedience of the cross nor self-sacrifice for the good of their confreres.
Let us never forget that our Salesian future must walk the way of holiness; it will require confreres who daily practice pastoral charity and genuine ascetical discipline. This will help us avoid chasing the will-o’-the-wisp, especially when we honestly discuss and examine the future together. History teaches us that it is the holy people who truly open up for the Church the frontiers of new eras.