Characteristic elements of his devotion

Can we speak of an "originality" in our devotion to the Help of Christians which, in our desire to enter into the Marian movement of the present day, should lead us to emphasize and develop certain characteristic aspects that emerge as distinctive of this devotion?

Let us ask the question from a very practical point of view: the reply will serve to highlight those aspects of our renewal to which we should give preference.

Don Bosco is one of the greatest devotees of Mary in history. His devotion was a characteristic one, expressed in his own way but inserted fully into the reality of the most incisive Marian movements in the Church of his day. Let us note well that Don Bosco inserted himself into devotion to the Help of Christians: he did not devise it. He associated himself with an ancient specific tradition, but he was able to give it so singular a style that from then onwards the Help of Christians has also been familiarly called "Don Bosco’s Madonna"!

Let us dwell briefly on some of the elements which were strongly emphasized by our Founder, and which help to give this devotion a characteristic physiognomy and style.

In the first place, the living awareness of the personal presence of Mary in the history of salvation brings to Don Bosco’s devotion, as we have already seen, the continual desire to establish a living relationship with her (linking Mary with Christ of course, in a inseparable binomial of salvation: the two columns of his dreams!).

It follows that this Marian devotion always refers directly to the "person" of the Madonna herself with all her greatness and her titles; it is therefore never expressed in any form of rivalry with other devotions, but rather in a form of intensive convergence and operative projection, through which every Marian title and feast is loved and celebrated through emphasis on the help she brings to the salvation of man.

This awareness of the personal presence of Mary Help of Christians was felt positively by Don Bosco in his own life as a basic objective fact, a fundamental element of his whole vocation both as regards the objectives and style of his apostolic mission and the delineation of his own evangelic spirit.

Another characteristic element is found in the doctrinal postulates of devotion to the Help of Christians. Don Bosco took them from the most esteemed authors, but he marked them out and widened them with particular theological virility and pastoral concreteness. They elucidate the real nature of the devotion and cult of Mary "Help of Christians" and must be cultivated and deepened by her devotees. They refer specifically to Mary’s victorious intervention in favor of the faith of Christian people, and in helping the Catholic Church led by the Pope and the Bishops.

"The need - writes our Founder - universally felt today to invoke Mary is not a particular but a general one; it no longer just a case of making more fervent those who are lukewarm, the conversion of sinners, the protection of the innocent. These things are always useful everywhere and for everyone. But it is the Catholic church itself that is under attack. She is attacked in her functions, in her sacred institutions, in her hear, in her doctrine, and in her discipline; she is attacked precisely as the Catholic Church, as the center of all the faithful."22

This characteristic aspect of "ecclesial help", the source for Don Bosco of the title of Help of Christians, does not seem to have been connected to Marian titles by other devotees or charismatics.

We have of course already a quite significant collection of literature of our own on these doctrinal notions,23 but after the developments of Vatican II it has become necessary to add other and topical reflections in line with the renewed concept of the mystery of the Church.

Let us begin by noting that Don Bosco had already added the title of "Help of Christians" to that of "Mother of the Church" which we rejoiced to see proclaimed by Paul VI at the end of Vatican II.24 We must emphasize that it is precisely the living sense of the Church that is the doctrine most characteristic element of the doctrine of the Help of Christians.

It will be of great help to the re-launching of this devotion in the present-day world if we make use of the interest which the impressive relationship "Mary-Church" is developing at the present time.

Mary in fact is already what the Church is striving towards: she is its prophecy and its stimulus. She helps the Church to realize its role of "second Eve" in a motherhood of virginity and grace. In this way "the mystery of the Church is seen through the image of Mary Looking at her, one can see the Church alive: her eyes explain its mysteries."25

Even a non-Catholic writer affirms: "It can be said that one does not get a correct vision of the Church unless there is room for Mary in faith and piety. The Church’s renewal is strictly linked with the relaunching of a sound Marian devotion. Loss of the sense of the maternal vocation of the Virgin Mary leads to a loss of the sense of the Church as ‘mother’."26

Mary’s maternal role is a the heart of her relationship with the Church: both exist and are holy in motherhood, and both give life in virginity. Hence there is a close link between "motherhood" and "evangelization", between "Mary-Church" and "apostolic action".

All this is significant for our spirituality today and has practical and compelling consequences. Hence devotion to the Help of Christians, animated by a living ecclesial sense, seems to be in Don Bosco the harbinger of a prophetic doctrinal choice that links "Marian piety" with "Church sense" in a unique form of mutual inseparability and of common growth.

Such a doctrine of the Help of Christians implies, as a necessary consequence, an untiring and courageous attitude of practical commitment that was in Don Bosco one of the characteristic aspects of his Marian devotion: Our Lady of Consolation, or of La Salette, or the Immaculate Conception, would not have indicated an appropriate practical need characterizing him and his numerous followers (and in particular the Salesian family) with the same force and the same apostolic physiognomy as did the Help of Christians.

The "Church sense" is expressed daily in an active awareness of "belonging" with a profound spirituality of action.

This involves not only a continuous and generous apostolic activity in general but also a genuine ecclesial commitment, i.e. a dedication which is explicitly directed by a consciousness of existing and acting as a sharing, responsible member of the Body of Christ which is the Church. The Church however not considered in some vague sense, but in so far as "constituted and organized as a society in the present world, she subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him."27

A commitment therefore specifically defined by the concrete historical situation of Catholic life. This realistic choice, which could even lead to martyrdom, comes necessarily close to positions of conflict which could assume in certain situations even the aspect of a political choice. This is the sort of thing that happened in the 60’s in Italy with the apparitions at Spoleto and the fall of Rome. Don Bosco led the way as he made devotion to the Help of Christians a real dedication to the Catholic Church, always avoiding the tendency to transform it into a banner for either side: revolution or anti-revolution.

To be able to maintain this attitude he made use of a characteristically practical criterion of "maternal activity" This attitude is not prompted by abstract ideologies but by urgent and vital needs. It does all the good it can even f it cannot reach the best solution possible, and it pays more attention to the delicate framework of life than to the working out of great plans.

It is significant to note that there is no place for a similar vital activity (and therefore no parallel with Mary) in the most z famous social ideologies, e.g. in Marxism, even though they have various close similarities with ecclesial structures. The pedagogical realism of Don Bosco expressed through his Marian devotion an authentic "mysticism of action" in the profound sense of St. Francis of Sales,28 permanently linked with a powerful (though sometimes hidden) "asceticism in action"

Because of this I ventured to observe to the members of the Chapter that devotion to the Help of Christians "is intimately tied in with the concrete events of life; it comes through into the living flow of history in all its labyrinths and suffering, but it remains clearly eschatological (Don Bosco would say "religious"). It is not transformed into a "crusade for Christianity"; it participates in all the social and cultural vicissitudes and new hopes of all people as they move towards a new degree of liberation, but it never becomes "political" (in the strict and specific sense of the word). It is realistic but transcendent, in perfect harmony with the specific mission of the Church."29

The Help of Christians and the Salesian Charism

It is certainly a fact, and we are very grateful for it, that there is an intimate link between devotion to the Help of Christians and our Salesian vocation. It is not difficult to demonstrate this in Don Bosco: from the beginning as in the dream at the Becchi at the age of nine, to the end as in the dream at Barcelona in 1886; from the catechism classes begun with Bartholomew Garelli, to the way in which he obtained the approval of the Constitutions of the Society of St. Francis of Sales; from the intimate conviction of Don Bosco expressed on so many occasions, to the external sign of the wonderful works he accomplished. But the origins are only the first fruits of the total reality.

Our Founder assures us that the Salesian vocation cannot be explained either in its birth or in its continuing development without the continual and maternal guidance of Mary. Often he himself claimed that the Madonna was its "foundress" and its "support", and he assures us that "our Congregation is destined to do great things and to spread all over the world, if the Salesians remain faithful to the Rule given to them by Mary."30

He even allowed the following exclamation to escape him: "Mary loves us too much!"31

Don Rua, the great "continuer" of the vocation of Don Bosco who "teaches Salesians to remain Salesians" - as Paul VI has said to us32 — continually stressed the close relationship that exists between the Salesian vocation and devotion to the Help of Christians.33

It seems particularly evocative to emphasize the interesting observation he made at the coronation of the Madonna at Valdocco on 17th May 1903. After describing the ceremony with joyful effusion, he adds: "I have no doubt that an increase among Salesians of devotion to Mary Help of Christians will also lead to an increase of esteem and affection for Don Bosco, as well as a greater dedication to the preservation of his spirit and imitation of his virtues."34

There is here a very clear intuition of the close and vital relationship that exists between devotion to the Help of Christians, and our spirituality.

Don Albera too, with his delicate sensitivity for the more spiritual aspects of our vocation, insists on the continual presence of Mary. He writes: "While speaking to his spiritual sons Bosco) never tired of repeating that the work which he had undertaken was inspired by Mary, that Mary was its strong support and that in consequence it need fear nothing from the opposition of its enemies’."35

Particularly significant, to conclude this argument, is an allusion to St. Francis of Sales, in so far as he is the "master of Salesianity" in the history of spiritual life. Describing the almost imprudent magnanimity of our founder, particularly in the construction of the basilica at Valdocco, Don Albera sees in this extraordinary courage an element of "Salesianity". He affirms: "He shows himself a disciple of our St. Francis de Sales who once wrote, ‘I am fully aware of the great blessing of being a son of such a glorious Mother, even though I am quite worthy of it. Confiding in her protection, we can take on quite extraordinary enterprises. If we love her with deep affection she will obtain for us all we desire’."36

Without doubt it would be of great benefit to study in depth the significance and function of devotion to the Help of Christians in our Salesian spirituality, but suffice it to outline briefly a few suggestions in the hope that they may provide inspiration for our Marian renewal.

We know that a spirituality is worthy of the name only if it forms an organic whole, where each element has its precise place and function. To displace, to fail to consider, or to suppress this or that element would be to begin the ruination of the whole.

Now devotion to the Help of Christians is, as we have seen, an integral part of the "Salesian phenomenon" in the Church because it forms a vital part of its totality. It would be senseless and even destructive to try to separate our spirituality from devotion to Mary Help of Christians, just as it is impossible to separate Don Bosco from the Madonna; that would be an absurdity. Devotion to the Help of Christians is therefore an essential part of our charism. It permeates its whole structure and gives life to the various component parts.

Without a healthy Marian life our spirituality would suffer in its vigor and fruitfulness, while on the other hand a timely effort towards a profound Marian renewal will give freshness to the whole of the Salesian vocation.

Let it suffice to note how our devotion to the Help of Christians is closely and vitally connected with the Salesian "mission" and with the "spirit" of our own particular charism.

First, its intimate link with the Salesian mission: Mary is the shepherd girl of the dreams, who plans the exact nature of our mission and indicates those for whom we are to work, handing over to us the field of "youth apostolate". It is her characteristic as the Helper of Christians which opens the mission of the Salesians to the wide horizons of modern social and religious problems, along with a definite choice to serve the whole Church and its pastors. It is her maternal goodness which also inspires our pastoral criteria and teaches us a way in which we must approach those for whom we work.

Secondly, her profound relationship with the Salesian spirit which finds in Mary, seen as the Help of Christians, its inspiration and its model. It is a spirit centered on "pastoral love", inspired by the maternal love of the Madonna and rooted in the maternal love of the Church. All this implies a careful listening for the promptings of God, a total adhesion to Christ and a complete openness to his ways. It is a spirit of hope (sure of "help" from above) in an interior attitude of basic optimism towards the natural and supernatural resources of man. It is a spirit of apostolic fruitfulness vivified by zeal for the Church spirit of courageous inventiveness and an adaptability appropriate to the vicissitudes of created things. It is a spirit of goodness and of familiar behavior, full of the richness and simplicity of attitude which flows from sincerity of heart. It is a spirit of magnanimity (as in the Magnificat) which humbles desires to do all the good that it can, even when this seems imprudent, allowing itself to be guided by courage, faith and common sense and avoiding all extremes.

We can conclude these few ideas by saying that just as in the life of Don Bosco the devotion to the Help of Christians, which was worked out in the full maturity of his vocation, was at the same the point of arrival of a long period of growth and the departure point for his whole vast apostolic program, so in the way it constitutes in Salesian spirituality the concrete synthesis of its various parts and is the life-giving sources for its dynamism and fruitfulness. Hence what this devotion was at the foundation of our spirituality it must also be at every moment of its renewal.