(ANS – Rome) – In the second article of the series written by Don Bosco on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, published in the March 1886 issue of the Salesian Bulletin, the Saint of Youth reflects on the theme “The Heart of Jesus and Charity.” This passionate reflection leads to the conclusion that the entire Salesian apostolic mission is deeply rooted in the intimacy of the Divine Heart of the Saviour.
The article begins by referencing a conference held on May 8, 1884, in Rome (two days before Don Bosco wrote his famous Letter from Rome) at the House of the Noble Oblates of Tor de’ Specchi. During this event, Don Bosco presented the activities carried out by the Salesian Family. Following his presentation, Cardinal Parocchi, Vicar of His Holiness, spoke with great esteem, highlighting that the hallmark of the Salesian Congregation was its charity, exercised in response to the needs of the present times.
According to Cardinal Parocchi, while charity has always been central to Christian life, it assumes an even greater importance in modern times, perhaps as the only effective means of attracting a society steeped in materialism, skeptical of faith, and indifferent to spiritual realities. Concrete and visible charity, as seen in the education of poor youth and the welcoming of marginalized individuals, has the power to move the hearts of the modern age more than any theological discourse. Even those who no longer understand the roots or ultimate purpose of charity recognize and admire its works. From this starting point, hearts can be opened to faith and to God.
The Temple of the Sacred Heart: A Union of Spirituality and Action
This vision provides the profound meaning behind the decision by Pius IX y Leo XIII to build a temple in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome. The Heart of Jesus is, in fact, the living embodiment of divine charity. In the Gospels, Christ is portrayed as full of compassion for every human misery, both physical and spiritual.
Don Bosco recalls incidents such as the healing of the paralytic in Jerusalem, who was helped without even having to ask, and the healing of the woman bent over in the synagogue, who was cured before she could make her plea. These stories illustrate divine compassion that anticipates even the request for healing.
Charity for Souls and Vocations
The article goes beyond physical miracles to emphasize Christ’s profound care for the human soul: His tears over Jerusalem, His compassion for the people wandering like sheep without a shepherd, and His concern for the shortage of workers for the Gospel. The Heart of Jesus yearns fervently for the formation and support of new ministers of the Church, demonstrating that charity extends to the promotion of ecclesiastical vocations.
A Call to Build the Temple
The article concludes with an earnest appeal: since charity is the surest way to bring people back to faith, everyone is called to contribute, through works and prayers, to the construction of the Temple and Hospice of the Sacred Heart. This building, located in the heart of Rome, will serve as a tangible symbol of Christ’s love, an act of reparation for youth poverty, and a testimony to the triumph of charity and Christian faith.
Spreading Devotion to the Sacred Heart
Finally, Don Bosco quotes St. John the Evangelist: “Whoever lives in charity lives in God, and God in them.” This leads to a pressing call to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus everywhere, so that through charitable actions, even those far from faith may return to God.
The full text of Don Bosco’s original article from the 1886 Salesian Bulletin is available in its original Italian at the bottom of the page.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
The Heart of Jesus and Charity
The conference held in Rome on May 8, 1884 in the excellent House of the deserving Noble Oblates of Tor de’ Specchi will remain immortal in the history of the Pious Salesian Society. After the beloved Don Bosco had finished his report on the works accomplished by the Salesians and their Cooperators and their Cooperators in the previous two years, His Eminence Cardinal Parocchi, Vicar General of His Holiness, who had been kind enough to preside over the conference, spoke. Having introduced the most affectionate and benevolent words for the mission of the Salesians and their founder, the pious and learned Cardinal then went on to determine what was the particular imprint, the note and as it were the physiognomy, with which God wanted the Salesian Congregation to be distinguished, recognizing this imprint, this essential note in the charity exercised according to the needs of the century.
It is certain, apart from the praises due only to the exquisite benevolence of the illustrious Prince of Holy Church, it cannot be denied that charity is the principal object of our poor forces, and this for the reason that if charity has always been the greatest and most powerful means to draw men to good, in our days it can well be said to be the only one that can lead to this goal. Effectively immersed as our century is in temporal things, cold to the beauties of faith and the grandeurs of religion, which it does not know, skeptical or little less of the joys of a future life, at which it sneers, what is there, if not charity, that can make an impression on the soul of the present generation? To take young people from vagrancy, to welcome them into hospices in order to preserve them from poverty and disorder, to educate them in school so that they will not one day be the scourge of society and populate the prisons, this is what our century wants, what strikes.
It is true, as the learned Cardinal rightly observed, that our century does not know either the beginning or the end of charity, but only the means; but it is also certain that only through charity perceived in its own way does it make its way to faith, to God. Now if charity is the essential purpose of the Salesian Society and its Cooperators, if it is also the only sure means to Christianize our century, who does not see how sublime, let us say inspired, the concept of the immortal Pius IX and of his most worthy successor Leo XIII must have been, that in our day a temple should arise in that Rome, the cradle of Christianity, of which charity is the firstborn daughter, and that this temple should be dedicated to the Heart of Jesus, who is the personification of charity? It is certain, if we take a little look at the life of Jesus, as the four Evangelists present it to us in their golden simplicity, we see that there was no misery, both physical and spiritual, that his most tender heart did not help. The poor paralytic of Jerusalem has been lying nailed to his bed for 38 years, and he does not dare to hope or ask for healing, so impossible does the only necessary means to this end seem to him. But the Heart of Jesus prevents him, and does not wait to be prayed for, since, as the beloved apostle of the Heart of Jesus tells us, seeing him, moving to compassion, healing him perfectly and sending him thus healed to his home with his bed on his shoulder, was a single point. Oppressed by a terrible illness, bent over in all her person, the poor woman of Capernaum goes amid much anguish to the synagogue, to listen to the divine word and make public prayer, far from thinking that she would find her perfect healing there. The good Jesus sees her, and his most loving Heart cannot remain impassive in the face of such a misfortune; he calls her to him, places his blessed hand on her head, and even before being asked, or rather perhaps even before the sick woman thought of praying to him, he restores her original health with those consoling words: “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” It is therefore not surprising that, supremely taken by the goodness and tenderness of the Heart of Jesus, the sick came there even from the most remote places and in such great crowds that they too filled the streets and places through which Jesus passed and formed around it a sort of vast hospital. What shall we say then of the compassion of Jesus for the evils and miseries of the soul? Who does not remember the tears He shed over Jerusalem, buried in error and wrapped in vice, and His words of sweet reproach, addressed to the unhappy city, when (a clear sign that He spoke not out of aversion or disdain, but out of sincere warm affection) it nevertheless welcomed Him with the highest honors and enthusiastically acclaimed Him as the blessed king? Who can have forgotten the compassion of Jesus for the spiritual ills of the Jewish people, lying like a flock without a shepherd for lack of a true guide, and His pain for the scarcity of workers compared to the abundance of the harvest, and the invitation, indeed command, of prayer, because God is the master.
RELATED ARTICLES: