Today, January 31, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint John Bosco, priest, we are first invited to reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Colossians (3;1-17), entitled "Your life is hidden with Christ in God". Our treasure, which follows, is from a letter by Saint John Bosco, priest.
Saint John Bosco's theory of education could well be used in today's schools. It was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one's work, study and play.
Saint John was born on August 16, 1815. Encouraged during his youth in Turin to become a priest so he could work with young boys, John was ordained in 1841. His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.
Saint John Bosco educated the whole person—body and soul united. He believed that Christ's love and our faith in that love should pervade everything we do—work, study, play. For John Bosco, being a Christian was a full-time effort, not a once-a-week, Mass-on-Sunday experience. It is searching and finding God and Jesus in everything we do, letting their love lead us. Yet, because John realized the importance of job-training and the self-worth and pride that comes with talent and ability, he trained his students in the trade crafts, too.
Saint John died January 31, 1888, and was Canonized in 1934 by Pope Pius XI, who knew him as a young priest.
Saint Paul's letter is addressed to a congregation at Colossae in the Lycus Valley in Asia Minor, east of Ephesus. At the time of writing, Paul had not visited there, the letter says. The community had apparently been established by Epaphras of Colossae. Problems, however, had arisen, brought on by teachers who emphasized Christ's relation to the universe (cosmos). Their teachings stressed angels; "principalities and powers", which related to astral powers and cultic practices and rules about food and drink and ascetical disciplines. These teachings, Paul insists, detract from the person and work of Christ for salvation as set forth magnificently in a hymnic passage and reiterated throughout the letter. Such teachings are but "shadows"; Christ is "reality".
