BORN OF THE WORD OF GOD

SAINT JOHN BOSCO, PRIEST  

2 Sam 12:1-7,10-17; Ps 51:12-17; Mk 4:35-41

The Perishing of Fruits of Sinful Seed

God is the unoriginated Origin of all things. In the Catechism of the Church, we read that God is the supreme Spirit, who alone exists of himself and is infinite in all perfections. As the ground of existence, nothing comes into existence without God giving it existence, and nothing perdues without a grounding in the divine will. In the previous reflections, we have distinguished between the divine will as unqualified and the permitted will of God as qualified. The latter is a provision made peripherally by the divine will to accommodate the free will of rational creatures. Within this provision, God makes accommodation for the occurrence of sin, which he does not will, but permits, to showcase the freewill of his rational creatures, constitutive of their goodness and beauty. The provision also addresses the issue of sin and resolves the tensions and conflicts that arise from the presence of sin in creation. The permitted will of God is a divine and excellent accommodation that orchestrates the sprouting, growing, and perishing of weeds or tares in the divine farm, in such a way that only the wheat of the seed of the divine word is harvested for eternal life in the long run. Hence, sin and sinful structures would arise for sure, but they will all perish with time, for sin and its structures lack the necessary or sufficient reason to last forever. In the long run, only what comes from the divine will last forever, while all things permitted will perish.

Saint John, the mystical theologian, hints at the above understanding in the prologue of his Gospel. When he writes of the coming of the Word of God to us as the bearer of the divine will: “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Jn 1:11-13. This means that only what we do in accordance with the divine will is redeemable. The works of our hands that are in disagreement with the divine will never be a foundation for the heavenly kingdom. Hence, in Jn 6:29, Jesus clarifies that the basic work God requires from us is to believe in the one he sends, in Jesus Christ. Any work we do with faith in the word of God is in total conformity with the divine will. Applying this to David’s adulterous offspring, we understand why God did not allow the son to live. Inasmuch as God willed to build his promise to David through the union of David and Bathsheba, the fruit of their adulterous union cannot support such divine favour as explained above. As a formally married couple, the grace of God sanctified their union, making it a suitable foundation for God’s salvific works. We see similar grace in the Church’s sanctification of marriage at its root, for couples who are living  together.

This is not to say that souls conceived in such union will not be saved. The conception of babies through the union of a male and a female is, according to the divine will, the circumstances that make the union adulterous are time-bound. The difference between the ill-fated son and Solomon is a matter of time and circumstances. Hence, sin is not the existence of a thing, but the lack of a proper ordering in human minds and hearts. Subsequently, the weeds or tares are not the creation of the evil one, but corrupted seeds of God. God decreed the death of the child, not because it cannot be redeemed, but as part of the punishment for the injustice perpetrated in the union that caused its conception. God’s ways are true and just; the demand of justice for the evil done against Uriah in disobedience to the Word goes beyond the loss of the baby, as Nathan revealed to David. We must distinguish between the temporal death and the eternal loss of a soul. All souls, even the aborted babies of unholy unions, are redeemable through confession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Son of Man has the power to redeem us from hell and calm the turbulent waves of evil passion and sin when we call on him in faith. The apostles called on him in the Gospel. “Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ and he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm! And the wind dropped, and all was calm again.” When we believe in the Word, we cease to be born of human desire and will, but of the will of God. Those born of the will of God constitute the Offspring of the Woman, and those born otherwise constitute offspring of the serpent. The latter perishes, and the former has eternal life in the Word.

We celebrate Saint John Bosco, who understood and internalised these two principles of birth for human beings. He employed his understanding in working for the salvation of youths. By his gentle and amicable preaching of the Gospel to them, he was able to bring many to be reborn of water and the Spirit. He was born in Piedmont of a peasant family and brought up by his widowed mother. He became a priest and devoted his time and heart to the young. He settled in Turin, where an enormous number of youths converged during the Industrial Revolution, as in many cities. He attended to the social problems they faced due to the population. He had evening classes, boarding houses, workshops for training and education of these youths. He faced difficulties: anti-clericalism, civil authorities, senior Church members, etc., but overcame all to establish a congregation for the continuation of these charitable works. He named them Salesians in honour and admiration of Saint France de Sales. May his prayers help us to gently bring corrupted souls to the grace and cleansing font of the Church.

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.