(ANS – Rome) – In the article of September 1886, for the column dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Salesian Bulletin focuses on another special feature of the Divine Heart of the Saviour, namely its being the antidote to one of the most virulent evils of society: social envy and social imbalances which make societies less and less united and more and more divided within themselves.
The author opens with a powerful and dramatic image: a gloomy rumble, like an imminent earthquake, heralds the ruin of the social edifice. It is the symptom of an evil that has been shaking the foundations of civilisation for years: the growing hatred between the poor and the rich, the resentment of the penniless masses against the privileged – some driven by envy for the wealth of others, the others increasingly deaf to the cries of those in need.
This conflict, Fr. John Bonetti, author of the article, notes, has already bloodied Europe and threatens to bring down the entire social order, despite human attempts to contain it with laws, spreading education, and civil progress.
But all these solutions alone prove ineffective. Laws strengthen the powerful, education increases the intolerance of the poor, progress, far from bringing balance and spreading goods, is used to increase the distance between classes.
“The conclusion is that the poor and their hunger grows, and the opulence and avarice of the rich, not the number, grows at the same time The history not only of pagan Rome, but of all ages and all places is there to attest to us this painful truth,’ Fr Bonetti sadly states.
Faced with this growing division and the sterility of human remedies, the author identifies only one sure remedy: the Heart of Jesus. Only this heart, symbol of love, sacrifice, and divine justice, can offer an effective and definitive solution to the social conflict.
Indeed, Christ ennobled poverty by his example: he was born poor, lived poor, died poor, surrounded by poor disciples. He taught – first with his life, and then with words – that poverty is not an evil but a virtue, and placed it first in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. This alone, says the author, is capable of healing the deepest wounds of humanity. It is not an injunction against wealth in itself, which is a gift from God, but an exhortation to detach oneself inwardly from material goods and place the proper value on them.
Jesus calls not only the materially poor to be blessed, but also those who voluntarily choose poverty out of love for God, and those who, while possessing wealth, make righteous, generous, detached use of it – aware that their possessions are at the service of their neighbour and for the edification of human society.
This is the perspective from which the author sees the true recomposition of human unity: a reconciled society, in which the rich understand the duty of charity and the poor recognize in their condition not a curse, but an opportune way to travel lighter in life and take their steps on the path to holiness.
The conclusion is a call for the construction and consecration of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome, on the Esquiline Hill. The author sees in it an event that is not only religious, but social and prophetic: the church, symbol of Christ’s merciful love, will be like the altar of the new covenant, no longer founded on fear, but on gentleness and forgiveness, and from it will flow blessings for Italy and the world.
The final appeal, also on this occasion, to the Cooperators and all those who zealously embrace the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is to act concretely in favour of the consgtruction of the new church dedicated to the Sacred Heart that Don Bosco is building on the Esquiline Hill in Rome: every offering, every prayer, every contribution to the construction of this church will be a stone laid for the spiritual and social renewal of humanity. In a time threatened by class hatred and moral dissolution, the Heart of Jesus is indicated as the only true remedy, capable of rebuilding society on the basis of evangelical charity.
The full text of the article written for the 1886 Salesian Bulletin is available in the original Italian version of the time, at the bottom of the page.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
The Heart of Jesus and the remedy for one of the most terrible social evils
A deep rumble, like an earthquake, has been heard rumbling for many years. This rumble is becoming more intense and fearful every day, and now threatens to explode and hurl the entire social edifice into wreckage. It is the passions of the penniless that boil, it is the immoderate aspirations of the disinherited of fortune that swell, it is in a word the war of the poor who rages against the rich who enjoy, or, as they say of socialism against capital, a war that has already twice in less than twenty years filled a powerful nation close to us with mourning and blood, contaminates a young and flourishing kingdom with the most ferocious barbarity a few days ago, and is about to make all the states of the continent, both old and new, a heap of desolation and ruins. Human laws are used in vain, since they actually end up making the wealthy stronger in their possessions and the efforts of those who do not possess more impotent, thus increasing enmity, hatred, and jealousy between one class and another. Education, which is spreading and would like to generalize, is tried in vain, since it, although it is a good in itself, can only make the poor more eager to enjoy and the rich more tenacious in not allowing their means to be taken away. Civil progress itself is attempted in vain; civilization is powerless not only to save others, but to save itself. The conclusion is that poverty and their hunger are increasing, and at the same time, not the number, but the opulence and avarice of the rich who enjoy grow. The history not only of pagan Rome, but of all ages and all places is there to attest to this painful truth.
But then will there be no remedy for this terrible disease? Must society irremediably fall apart and perish? Long live the Heart of Jesus, which alone offers us the infallible, healthy remedy; long live the Heart of that Jesus who, by example and teaching, took away from poverty the quality of evil and elevated it to a virtue; long live the Heart of Jesus who, by placing poverty first among the beatitudes, or heavenly blessings, opened up to men of good will a new era of brotherhood, love, and peace.
Born Jesus of a poor mother and in a very poor place, so poor himself that he often lacked the most necessary things for life and did not even have a place to lay his head, followed by very poor men who barely make it through life and often have nothing to eat, Jesus Christ is in himself alone the brightest example, as well as the most eloquent praise of the virtue of poverty. But words follow example, because in the life of Jesus Christ works are always first, but they are followed by teachings and precepts. And these teachings and precepts, which are scattered throughout the life of Jesus, He wanted to erect as the principle and basis of that new moral code, which He promulgated on the Mount of Beatitudes. It is Jesus who said, as St. Matthew reports, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, or, as St. Luke reports, “blessed, you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”.
Blessed is the mouth that first uttered this word! Blessed is the day, blessed is the place where it was first heard! That word alone healed the largest and oldest wound that original sin had produced in the body of humanity; that blessing recomposed the unity of the human species, restored in man the damage that the supervening corruption had wrought upon him, brought new days of peace and love back to earth.
In fact, Jesus, without at all judging the riches and material goods of this world, which are also his gifts, as bad in themselves, wanted to teach us how the poor are the first on that true road that leads to being blessed. And with this name of poor he meant primarily those who, not out of necessity, but by spontaneous will, make themselves such for the love of that God who said: “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and follow me”. To those who prefer spiritual riches to material riches, such as truth, virtue, peace, charity, chastity, fortitude, meekness and the like, the Heart of Jesus promised them a kingdom in exchange for the greatness and earthly goods which they renounce, that is to say, a set of infinite eternal goods in celestial glory. Secondly, He meant those who, having earthly goods, do not place their hearts in them, but are ready to leave them when this is necessary for their eternal salvation, and in the meantime strive to make a right and holy use of them. Blessed then, it cannot be too often repeated, is the ever ancient and ever new wisdom of the Heart of Jesus; His word well understood would by itself suffice for moral healing, as well as for the universal peace of humanity. Do we want to put an end to those hatreds which make social life so miserable and weak? Do we want to put an end to that enmity, that terrible division between rich and poor, which constitutes the greatest danger of our age? Do we want, in short, to save Europe, indeed the entire world, from the frightening calamities that threaten it? Let us make that word of Jesus, “blessed are the poor,” penetrate into the hearts of all; let this word animate and enliven our public and private life; let the rich man understand that he must use his riches to love and benefit the poor, and the poor in turn understand his duty to thank the Lord for having placed him in a position to more easily obtain the riches of the spirit, and then the treasure of glory.
And from here appears the social importance, especially in our times, of a church to the Heart of that Jesus from which came out for the first time the word that has to regenerate and re-bless human society; every prayer, every alms, every action even the smallest, that we will do for the completion of that church, will be a particular merit that we will acquire at the return of peace, at the renewal of the spirit of harmony, at the propagation of the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of charity, at the restoration of the social edifice that has been shattered.
When the children of Israel, having escaped from the slavery of Egypt and crossed the Jordan, entered the promised land, they camped in the plain of Sychar between the two mountains Hebal and Gerizim, where they immediately carried out the orders given by Moses. On the summit of Hebal they erected an altar to the Lord with stones untouched by iron, and from the altar soon rose the smoke of the burnt offerings and of the peaceful victims. In the middle of the valley stood the altar of the covenant, surrounded by the priests, then the Levites, then the elders and the judges, finally all the people, of whom six tribes occupied the slopes of Hebal, the other six those of Gerizim. Then behold the Levites arise, and facing to the left of Hebal they send out the cry of curse on the transgressors of the law, and to that cry the six tribes gathered on Hebal respond sadly: “So be it”. They then turn towards Gerizim and taking a soft tone of voice utter the words of blessing on the people faithful to the law of God, and this people, represented by the six tribes placed on the slopes of Gerizim, responds jubilantly: “So be it”.
Meritorious Cooperators, a similar scene, but much more consoling, opens before us; a new temple rises on the Esquiline Hill of the Eternal City, but this temple no longer symbolizes the majesty and terror of Mount Hebal. It is sacred to the Heart of that Jesus who, leaving behind the thunder and lightning, loves to reveal himself to us all sweetness, gentleness and love. In this temple the voice of the priest will echo, but it will no longer be a voice of curse, but of blessing, mercy and forgiveness.
Oh! let us hasten its long-awaited consecration; the Cross of the church of the Sacred Heart, towering over the highest peaks of Rome, will still be the consoling symbol of new blessings, which will depart from there for Italy, for the entire world; it will be the infallible remedy for the most terrible of the ills that desolate today’s society.
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