The final aspect on which I wish to touch is one that is basic to Salesian vitality in the new times. Indeed, on it hinged Don Bosco’s own holiness – that spiritual characteristic of being able to achieve a vital union of being and action, consecration and mission, love of God and neighbour, prayer and work – that is, the grace of unity. (C 12) This is a characteristic of the apostolic holiness of the active life to which the Salesian for all seasons must witness.
When Don Bosco speaks of his vocation and that of his co-workers, he means it to be realised in a saving mission for the young and the working classes. He was called by God to be active in the Church and was put in charge of a group of people characterised by activity – work, work, work!
Thus it is vital for us to seek a sanctity that is enhanced and perfected by apostolic action. The active life is part and parcel of our vocation; this is recognised and proclaimed by Vatican II in the famous number 8 of Perfectae caritatis. The active life belongs to the very nature of our religious life. Our vocation imbues us with a holiness in activity.
Not all religious vocations are the same; there are quite a number of institutes of the contemplative life. We too must be contemplatives – in action. (C 12) We have much to learn from pure contemplatives, then, for our different vocations are complementary in the unity of the Body of Christ.
Of course there really is a distinction, but it does not necessarily mean separation. Such a distinction, however, does provide more than sufficient grounds for different vocations. It is a historical fact that certain vocations concentrate publicly on those specific areas of the Church’s sacramental reality that have more to do with either being or activity, and it is in both of these that the Salesian vocation is to be found. For a Salesian, belonging to the Church means ecclesial action, wherein witness is realised in a specific service.
The distinction does not aim to make any essential division between one aspect and the other, but rather to unite in different forms the various elements that give a characteristic tone to the variegated unity in the Church. Assuredly being part of the Church is, per se, more important than ecclesial action. Between witnessing and service there is certainly a distinction; however, one way of giving witness (and it cannot be called vague or useless!) consists in rendering a service.
It should be abundantly clear that the Salesian called to carry out such a service must never lose sight of the fact that he must carry it out as a witness; to do otherwise would falsify his vocation, since the whole Church exists and works as a universal sacrament of salvation. To witness in his service, the Salesian must possess and daily cultivate the grace of unity – which is pastoral charity deep in the heart, enthusiastic and mystic. Don Bosco expressed this intimate and ardent unity in his Da mihi animas, caetera tolle, which defines the essence of his spirit.
All these requirements will oblige the Salesian of the new era to search into the way of the Gospel traced out by his founder, to play his proper part in human history, to study pastoral practice and the subtle meaning of action. Thus his heart will be steeped in the spirit of Don Bosco’s Valdocco Oratory; he will perfect an authentic theology of the active life and discover in it both the riches of holiness and the visible dimension of the sacraments as he pursues his mission to the young.
Egidio Viganò
Rector Major (1977-1995)