OUR SANCTIFICATION REQUIRES ENDURANCE

SAINT JOHN BOSCO, PRIEST

Heb 10:32-39; Ps 37:3-6,23-24,39-40; Mk 4:26-34

Endurance necessary for Our Sanctification

The work of sanctification needs every grace we can get from God, for it is the purification and transformation of the sinful self into oneness with God. The transformation is chiefly in our wills, for that is the throne of sin. When we label ourselves sinful, it is mainly the will that is so characterised. Therefore, the purification and transformation start with our will. The will is the seat of our consecration to God. Just as we have internal and external sanctuaries where we offer sacrifices to God, God likewise employs internal and external means to bring about the purification and transformation of our wills to conform with his divine will. When it comes to the construction of the heavenly sanctuary within, whereby God comes to live in our wills, we must approach with faith and total trust in God, for he only knows the plan and does the work according to his will. The author refers to these internal and external means of purification in these words: “Remember all the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days; sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.” By associating ourselves with those who suffer, we suffer internally, and by enduring these persecutions ourselves, we suffer externally. Both are directed by God, to whom we now belong by our baptismal consecration.

We can endure these internal and external purifications and transformations, which constitute our sanctification, only through our sacrifices in union with Jesus Christ within and without. The former through our personal prayers, meditations, and contemplations, and the latter through our Eucharistic celebrations and communions as the Body of Jesus Christ in the Church. For this reason, the author encourages us not to give up our coming together in the Church to celebrate the mysteries of our faith. Hence, in our prayers, the Lord nourishes and strengthens us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and in our communion and prayers, he nourishes and strengthens us by those he has endowed with the needed graces and gifts for that purpose. By these two ministries, individual and collective, he keeps us from drawing back or growing despondent because of the painful work of purification and transformation. “You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved.” Hope is the central theological virtue needed for this work of sanctification.

The whole work of sanctification belongs to God, as the responsory to the Psalm echoes: “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.” In the Gospel, the Lord uses the analogy of a seed sown in the ground to drive this lesson home to us. “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.” We throw ourselves into the ground (in God) by our consecration, and he works out the internal and external means of sanctification till we are ready for his kingdom. Saint John Bosco understood this work of providence in us well in his work with the youths. He reposed full confidence in God’s transformative graces as he gently guided them to the holiness of life. He was born in Piedmont to a peasant family and raised by his widowed mother. He became a priest and devoted his whole interest and life to the youths displaced from family life by the Industrial Revolution ongoing then. The social problems caused by the demography of so many youths to cities were the focus of his apostolate. He built hostels for them and catered for their physical and spiritual needs. Over 800 boys were under his care as of 1868. He founded the Salesian Congregation to continue his work with the youths.

Let us pray: O God, who raised up the Priest Saint John Bosco as a father and teacher of the young, grant, we pray, that, aflame with the same fire of love, we may seek out souls and serve you alone. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.