God's dreams for man

(first published on Sunday, 31 January 2010 in the Faith section of Cebu Daily News)

Barely 10, the boy Lance dreams of building a house with 150,000 rooms. “For all the beggars, so that they no longer have to live on the streets,” Lance explained to his mother, my friend and co-worker Nida, when she asked him who his envisioned mansion would house.

Lance’s dream springs not from wild fantasy, but from a hopefully not rare, compassionate, God-shaped young heart.

Once, in the family car, when his mother was almost dissuaded by his father (on grounds of discouraging harmful dependency on the part of the less fortunate) from feeding a hungry street kid, Lance protested, exclaiming “What if that child had been me?”

Compassion in young dreamers like Lance has been the seed of positive social transformations all throughout history. Case in point: Giovanni (John) Melchiorre Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco, the saint whose memorial on the Catholic calendar falls on January 31 and who is especially celebrated today by the 20,000-strong Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB).

Founded by the saint himself, the SDB identify themselves as “an international organization of men dedicated full time to the service of young people, especially those who are poorer and disadvantaged.”

The Salesians work in 128 countries, focusing all their concern on youth resource development through education and evangelization in the belief that “total dedication to the young is [their] best gift to humanity.” Salesian service to the young is inspired by reason, religion, and loving-kindness.

Don Bosco, gazing at the fruitful ministry of the Salesians, must be smiling with a sense of vindication today. He himself had initial doubts about, and encountered ridicule when he spoke of a dream in which God directed him to spend his life shepherding young people.

In that dream, Terry Matz writes on Catholic Online, the young Bosco saw himself in a field with a crowd of children. “The children started cursing and misbehaving. John jumped into the crowd to try to stop them – by fighting and shouting. Suddenly a man with a face filled with light appeared dressed in a white flowing mantle.

“The man called John over and made him leader of the boys. John was stunned at being put in charge of this unruly gang. The man said, ‘You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows but with gentleness and kindness.’

“As adults, most of us would be reluctant to take on such a mission – and nine-year-old John was even less pleased. ‘I'm just a boy,’ he argued. ‘How can you order me to do something that looks impossible?’ The man answered, ‘What seems so impossible you must achieve by being obedient and acquiring knowledge.’

“Then the boys turned into the wild animals they had been acting like. The man told John that this is the field of John's life work. Once John changed and grew in humility, faithfulness, and strength, he would see a change in the children – a change that the man now demonstrated. The wild animals suddenly turned into gentle lambs.”

What if Don Bosco had given in to doubt instead of being faithful to God’s instructions? At the very least—and this is to illustrate how far-reaching Italian Don Bosco’s faithfulness to God is—there would not be a Don Bosco Youth Center in Pasil, Cebu City.

Among other services, the center makes available to nearly 500 families and 1,500 individuals nutrition, scholarship, medical and dental assistance, free clinic, and loan assistance programs. It provides for the community’s spiritual needs through a daily oratory. It offers out-of-school youth wood and furniture, automotive, mechanical, and dress making technology courses.

Don Bosco’s response to God’s dream for him and many others finds a scriptural parallel in the call of the young, Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, who recalls, in the First Reading of today’s Mass:

“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord,’ I said, ‘I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.’

“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.

“Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ‘See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-9)

Jeremiah modeled for Israel in his time faithfulness to God. John Bosco's service to God’s poor and disadvantaged during the Industrial Revolution continues today.

I pray that like Jeremiah and John, Lance may be faithful to God’s dreams for him.

And I pray that you may have the courage and joy to live God’s dreams for you.