(ANS – Castelnuovo Don Bosco) – With a deep sense of gratitude and joy, the 210th anniversary of the birth of St. John Bosco, Father and Teacher of Youth, was celebrated at Colle Don Bosco (Becchi).

Making the day even more significant was the presence of Fr. Fabio Attard, Don Bosco’s 11th Successor, who presided over the Eucharist at Colle Don Bosco for the first time on the occasion of the birth of the Saint of Youth.

In a moving homily, Fr. Attard reflected on the origins and experience of Don Bosco, highlighting his relevance and inspirational value for today’s world.

Don Bosco’s charism, born in a small corner of Piedmont, has been able to cross all geographical boundaries, spreading charismatically to every part of the world, embracing cultures, peoples, languages – always with a spirit of welcome, without distinction and without exclusion.

A poor human experience, not miserable, but rich in values

The reflection opened on a fundamental fact: Don Bosco was born in a human context that was poor, but not miserable. Poor in material means and resources, but extraordinarily rich in values, authentic relationships, and a full humanity.

Many material things were lacking, but there was no lack of healthy and holy people. This is already reason to praise God for giving abundantly not in things, but in people. A thanksgiving that also extends to Mary, a constant presence at the side of the teacher and Father Don Bosco.

Life at the Becchi generated something that has transcended all boundaries: Don Bosco’s charism has spread not by structural expansion, but by spiritual attraction and the power of the Gospel. It embraced different realities, cultures, and peoples, without exclusion.

In Don Bosco, one contemplates a humanity that is poor but full, healthy, and holy, rich in elevated human values, because nourished by the Gospel. We do not speak of abstract ideals, but of concrete faces, of people who lived their daily faith with radicality.

Don Bosco was not imprisoned by poverty: on the contrary, it was in poverty that he discovered the beauty of hope and the strength of faith.

The dream that becomes the strength of hope

Don Bosco’s dream was not lost in time, but became a living force for hope. A hope that is not an idea, but a Person: Christ.

Welcoming Don Bosco’s dream today means welcoming the hope that does not disappoint, because it is anchored in Christ. It is this hope that continues to move so many Salesians and members of the Salesian Family, who choose to remain close to the people, even in the places most marked by war and suffering.

The true driving force of the Salesian dream, the celebrant recalled, is not an ideology, but a living Person, capable of generating the future: Jesus Christ.

The audacity of faith

Guiding Don Bosco’s path was always the audacity of faith: a faith lived as a fundamental choice and integral proposal, starting from the Becchi family and then in all Salesian houses around the world.

It was not a fundamentalist faith, nor a spiritualist refuge, but an incarnated, generative faith, capable of the future. It was a faith that speaks for itself, with the power of witness. A fruitful faith, which generates life, vocations, and hope.

The past contains the seed of the future

Fr. Attard recalled that the past is not just a memory, but a seed of the future. A living and authentic faith becomes an experience of generativity, opens horizons, and becomes an example of fruitfulness for the Church.

He then shared a personal experience: the concelebration of the Eucharist on 15 August at Castel Gandolfo, during which Pope Leo, in his homily on the Assumption, offered a profound reflection on the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth.

Pope Leo said: ‘The surprising fruitfulness of the barren Elizabeth confirmed Mary in her trust: it anticipated the fruitfulness of her “yes,” which is prolonged in the fruitfulness of the Church and of all humanity, when the renewing Word of God is accepted.’

Two women, marked by humanly impossible promises – one advanced in years and considered sterile, the other young and a virgin – became a sign of a faith capable of generating, because they welcomed the Word, believed it, and allowed themselves to be generated by the Gospel before generating life.

Their encounter inaugurated a new way of reading history, no longer with the logic of power or efficiency, but with the logic of trust, acceptance, and spiritual generativity.

The Gospel tells us that they stayed together for three months, supporting each other not only in practical matters, but in the inner journey of vocation, helping each other to read life with God’s eyes.

In conclusion, the Rector Major issued a strong invitation: let us be surprised by God’s fruitfulness. Mary’s “yes” and Don Bosco’s “yes” still continue to write history today.

A history that the Salesian Family is called to continue for the young people of today, so that they may grow up healthy and holy, accompanied by a humanity rich in values and nourished by the Gospel.