(ANS – Rome) – The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so dear to Don Bosco and so much part of our Salesian tradition, takes on special significance in this year of Faith, and in our preparation for the Bicentenary of the Birth of the father and teacher of the young.

Don Bosco had great devotion to the Sacred Heart. “In the heart of Jesus,” he used to say, “we acquire the real warmth of the love of God, not only for ourselves, but also to be shared with others.” For Don Bosco, the practical expression of this devotion was his insistence on frequent confession and communion and attendance at daily Mass, as the pillars that support our work of education and give life to the preventive system.

Towards the end of his life, he acceded to Pope Leo XIII’s request to complete the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome. Work on the Church had been started by Pope Pius IX in 1870 but was later taken up and finished in a few years (1880 – 1887), thanks to the tenacity of Don Bosco. It was an undertaking that cost him considerable sacrifice.

His first successor, Blessed Michael Rua, dedicated the Salesian Congregation to the Sacred Heart on 31 December 1899 and sent what he called an “instruction” on this devotion to all the communities. He emphasized its importance especially in the houses of formation, and asked that novitiates be dedicated to the Sacred Heart. A few days before he died, Don Rua asked Fr Francis Cerruti to compose a prayer to the Sacred Heart for vocations. He was given the now well-known prayer: “O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we pray that you may send many good and worthy vocations to the Salesian Society and keep them faithful in it. Hear us, O Lord!” Don Rua approved this prayer, recited it and asked that a copy be placed under his pillow.

“[Devotion to the Sacred Heart] is first and foremost a powerful invitation to give thanks to the Father, who called us by name, one by one, to be in the Church ‘signs and bearers of the love of God’. It is the Father who awakens in us that pastoral charity from the heart of Jesus which is marked by the gift of predilection for the young.”  So says Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, Spiritual Animator of the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA). He also says, “On the occasion of this solemnity we should meditate and pray on that wonderful article 11 of our Constitutions: “The Salesian spirit finds its model and source in the very heart of Christ, apostle of the Father. Reading the Gospel we become more aware of certain aspects of the figure of the lord: gratitude to the Father for the gift of a divine vocation offered to all men; predilection for the little ones and the poor; zeal in preaching, healing and saving because of the urgency of the coming of the Kingdom; the preoccupation of the Good Shepherd who wins hearts by gentleness and self-giving; the desire to gather his disciples into the unity of brotherly communion.”

The Heart of Jesus is not just a moral example to be emulated. In our living encounter with Jesus, we receive the gift of making our hearts like his. Especially nowadays in a world where so many young people live without a future, and so many families are worn out as a result of the serious moral, cultural, economic and social crisis they face, the news of God’s transforming love is a message of hope that overcomes the temptation to despair.

Published 06/06/2013