JUBILEE OF CONFRERES

(Summary of Fr. Provincial’s Talk during the Jubilee of Confreres)
Today we thank God, our Blessed Mother Mary and St. John Bosco for our 15 Jubilarians who have made significant contributions in our province. We celebrate today the milestone that they have achieved in life. And on touching a milestone, it is time to thank God and celebrate. It is time to look back, count the blessings and acknowledge how the one who called you was faithful throughout “Behold I will be with you, even to the end of days”. Such celebrations enable us to move on ahead with greater zest and vigour.
The Province and the Salesian family rejoice with our jubilarians and on behalf of all the confreres of the province and the Salesian family, I wish to offer them our hearty congratulations and pray that God fills their hearts with gratitude, joy and contentment and hope for the future. Together with them, we thank God for all the people who have brought them up to this day, their parents and family members, their friends and well wishes, vocation promoters, companions, teachers and superiors.
Looking back, we agree with St. Paul who said, though we are many, we form one body of Christ. Different parts of the body perform distinct activities bringing health, growth and wholeness to the entire body. In the same way, though each one of them performed different roles, portfolios and assignments in the province, they all have contributed very significantly for one purpose, that is, the growth of Salesian charism in the church in the northeast. Some of them, God has called to be frontline missionaries, others to be evangelizers through quality and higher education, some as builders, not only of structures but dreams and aspirations of the young, others still are renowned formators, translators and writers of the Word of God and while still others, accompanied the poor, the neglected, the street children and the fatherless and homeless to be someone in life, to be loved and appreciated. In all these, the youth received their maximum attention and focus.
Each one of them is unique in their own way which reflects the greatness of God. Our charism and mission is so huge, dynamic and challenging and each one brings his own uniqueness and specialisation and thereby making his contribution to the church and the society so admirably huge and good.
Jubilee is the celebration of the centrality of God in our life. God’s fidelity coupled with our own response and fidelity to the beautiful call, has made huge difference in making this world, especially of the young, a better place.
It is a celebration of the beauty of life spent at the service of others. When we decide to serve others, we need to be prepared for challenges and difficulties, rightly or wrongly. Sometimes there will be appreciations while at other times, they may not be forthcoming, there will be joys but there will also be misunderstandings and failures. But in all these, we are the best judges and our inner fidelity, truthfulness and serenity keep us moving and it is good that we do everything for the greater glory of God.
It is good to celebrate today the charism and the motto that kept you motivated. Like Don Bosco, we learned to say, give me nothing else but souls. The same charism has called us to give primacy to God, hear the invitation Salesians, be saints, be holy and never disappoint the dreams and aspirations of the young.
President David O McKay’s words seem relevant to be quoted today. He says that “The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God’s inspiration. Real life is a response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite of individualism, power and money, pleasure, pride, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one’s self of the real joy of living”.
Many a time our jubilarians would have heard these beautiful prophetic words of the master “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favourable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn”.
The words of Pope Francis to religious at the outset of the year of Consecrated life are meaningful and relevant to you. “I am counting on you ‘to wake up the world’ and to be prophets who witness to how Jesus lived on this earth … a religious must never abandon prophecy.”
And how are we religious to be prophetic? Pope Francis says “… with the eloquence of your lives, lives which radiate the joy and beauty of living the Gospel and following Christ to the full. … by learning from Jesus the meaning and practice of love. You will be able to love because you have His own heart.”
“The consecrated life will not flourish as a result of brilliant vocation camps and programs, but only because the young people whom we meet find us attractive, and see us as men who are truly happy … that our total self-giving in the service to the Church, to families and young people, to the elderly and the poor, brings us life-long personal fulfilment.”
Even as you celebrate your jubilee, remember, God is not finished with you yet, and He continues to count on you and need you to be the light of nations. Again, Pope Francis offers advice to us. He would like those in the Consecrated Life to be “experts in communion.” that is to move from I to we. This is the desire of a Provident God – cor unum, one heart.
Dear Jubilarians, let me return to where we began about loving God, loving one another and remembering why we came. May you continue to love God much; may you also know the love our Provident God has for you. May you persist in loving one another and all others; may you also lean on His love and appreciate all your brothers and sisters. To end, as you conclude today’s celebration of jubilee and return to you daily humdrum life, let Pope Francis have the last word: “Go, wake up the world!”.

Fr. Januarius S Sangma, SDB
Provincial