The Rector Major invites the young people of the Salesian Youth Movement to make something beautiful of their lives. The message, taking up the theme of the Strenna “Come and see,” is an exhortation to the young to be in the name of Christ, protagonists in society and in the Church.
During the Mass at which he presided in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco, on the Feast of Don Bosco, Fr Pascual Chávez gave his message to the Salesian Youth Movement around the world, in the name of the saint of youth: “I can do nothing better than speak with the heart of our Father Don Bosco.”
Fr Chávez, as though it were Don Bosco speaking personally, allows the saint to describe his experience of faith and of his vocation. He invites the young to find in their own lives those things which had helped him to grow: Mamma Margaret (the family), adults to look up to, a climate of human and Christian values. “when I had to make important decisions, I came across people enlightened by the Holy Spirit who helped me to understand that life is a vocation and implies self-giving, and they guided me in listening to the Lord’s call and in accepting the mission He was entrusting to me.” Valdocco: “a workshop where a vocational culture was fashioned.”
The young are invited to look for witnesses and guides in their family and their surroundings who “are “our John the Baptists.” Those who once again can show us the Lord of Life!” Jesus asks, as he did with the disciples of John: ”Who are you looking for?” The young should then ask the apostles’ question: «Master, where do you live?» and accept the Lord’s invitation “Come and see.”
“When you ask, my dear young people «what should we do to give to our lives real meaning?» look at that Man who has loved us so much as to give himself totally for us. He is the model for every plan of life, and the faithful and full response to every vocation, because he is a Man totally focused on a central idea”. In contract with “the butterfly person,” who is content with an ephemeral life, there is the “rock of a man” “firmly anchored and rooted in a solid foundation which unifies and harmonises his life with the will of the Father, which guides everything he does and everything he says, which fills all his activity and his prayer.”
To the young invited not to live their life as though it were “a simple biological process,” the Rector Major declares: “You are called to be protagonists in society and in the Church: «you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world» as Jesus would say”.
The message then becomes a challenge: “Yes, my dear young people! “Today” God needs you to “re-make” the world.” The Salesian Family is the ideal setting in which to take their place, finding among the various models of life, religious, consecrated and lay, their own. “I pray for you my dear young people, so that today many of you will allow yourselves to be captivated, fascinated by God to the point of giving yourselves totally to Him.”
He offers encouragement to the Salesians so that they “may live with joy and fidelity the great experience of spiritual fatherhood.”
The full text of the Rector Major’s message to the young people of the SYM is available on sdb.org.
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