Pope in Santa Marta: let the priests be happy like Don Bosco

Debora Donnini – Vatican City

May the priests be happy and look with the eyes of a man and with the eyes of God, as did St. John Bosco. Pope Francis emphasizes it during Mbad at Casa Santa Marta to urge priests to do the same as Don Bosco, who looked at reality with the heart of a father and a teacher. A look that showed him the way: he saw these poor young people in the street and he was moved and he thought about ways to mature. He walked and cried with them.

Look with the eyes of man and God

Francisco remembers that on the day of his ordination, the humble peasant mother, "who had not studied at the faculty of theology," said: "Today, you will begin to suffer". I wanted to emphasize a reality, but also to attract attention, because if the child had realized that there was no suffering, it meant that something was wrong. . "It is a prophecy of a mother", a simple woman with a heart full of spirit. Therefore, for a priest, suffering is a sign that everything is fine, but not for "doing the fakir", but for what Don Bosco did, he had the courage to look at reality with his eyes. ;a man. the man and with the eyes of God, "said Pope Francis," he saw in this Masonic and anticlerical era "of a" closed aristocracy, where the poor were really the poor, the moat, saw these young people in the streets and He said, "It can not be."

"He looked with the eyes of a man, a man who is also brother and father, and said, "No, it can not be like that!" These young people can meet up with Don Cafbado, at the gallows … no, it can not be like that "and he was moved as a man and, as a man, he began to think of ways to grow young people, to ripen. Human roads. And then, he had the courage to look with the eyes of God and go before God and say, "But, let me see this … it's an injustice … which is done before that … You created these people for a fullness and they live a real tragedy … ". And so, looking at reality with the love of a father – father and teacher, says the liturgy of today – and looking at God with the eyes of a beggar asking for the light, he begins to work ".

Indeed, Don Giuseppe Cafbado consoled the prisoners in the eight hundred in Turin and often followed those sentenced to death at the scaffold. He was a great friend of San Juan Bosco.

A priest available

Therefore, the priest – says the pope – must have "these two polarities": "look at the reality with the eyes of the man" and with "the eyes of God". And that means spending a lot of time in front of the tabernacle.

"Do it …", he told him, "Good evening, see you tomorrow". No, no: he has approached them with the liveliness that characterizes them. He made them play, in groups, as brothers … he went, he walked with them, he felt with them, he saw them, he cried with them and he took them away like that. The priest who humanly looks at people, who is always available. "

Priests are not civil servants

The pope then emphasizes that priests should not be officials or employees who receive, for example, "from 3 pm to 5:30 pm"."We have so many officials, well – he continues – that they are doing their job, as it should be.But the priest is not an official, he can not be "Therefore, the Pope exhorts us to look with the eyes of a man and – he promises -" this feeling will come to you, this wisdom to understand that you are your children, your brothers. the courage to go fight there: the priest is the one who fights with God. "

The pope knows that "there is always the risk of looking too human and nothing divine, or too divine and nothing human", but "if we do not risk, in life, we will not do anything, "he warns. In fact, a father takes a risk for his son, a brother risks himself for a brother when there is love. Certainly this causes suffering, begin persecutions, gossiping: "this priest is there, in the street" with these poorly educated boys who with the ball "break the glbad window".

Don Bosco, teacher of joy

The Pope thanks God for having "given" us to Saint John Bosco who, as a child, began to work, knew that he was gaining his daily bread and understood what was piety, "what was the true truth" . This man – evidence concluding the Pontiff – had from God a great heart of father and teacher:

"And what is the sign that a priest is doing well, looking at reality with the eyes of a man and with the eyes of God? Joy. Joy. When a priest does not find the joy inside, stop immediately and ask why.And the joy of Don Bosco is known: he is the master of joy.Because he made sure that others have fun and And it has suffered the same thing.Have to ask the Lord, through the intercession of Don Bosco, today, the grace that our priests are happy: happy because they have the true meaning of looking at pastoral things, the people of God with the eyes of man and the eyes of God "