Many of you use Netflix or some other video company to watch movies. Awhile back, I ordered a movie on St. Teresa of Avila that Spanish TV made on her. It turned out to be fantastic. It really brought her to life. So I decided to order more movies on the Saints.
I knew very little of St. John Bosco so I ordered the movie. It is 3 1/2 hours long and worth every minute. What an incredible human being. The movie is Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love. I can only strongly encourage everyone to watch it and get to know this incredible man and the other saints who worked with him.
The issues Bosco fought against then in Italy are the same issues we are dealing with now: capital punishment, juvenile detention, the role of the prison system: is it supposed to be restorative or should it merely protect society, sweatshops, freedom, revolution, the role of the Church in secular society. Bosco is the founder of the Salesians in honor of St. Frances de Sales.
Two lessons stand out to me: First, Bosco shows that when we try and make changes within society, it is NOT about social work. If we merely try and fix the material circumstances, hearts will rarely change. What Bosco immediately knew is that broken people are in need of LOVE. His criminal kids changed their lives because they felt valued and loved by Bosco. They wanted to become what he saw in them.
The other lesson is that Bosco was not the only saint in this movie. Actually, he is surrounded by saints, from the priest who first takes him in and inspires him to become a priest, to his mother(who needs to be canonized), to many of the boys who change their lives. There is one little boy, yes, little, who just stands out as truly holy. I asked my husband, “why haven’t we heard of this child?” At the end of the movie, we learn that he is a Saint. His name is St. Dominic Savio. He was only 15 when he died. My husband and I decided we want to name our next child (if we can ever have one) after him.
Saints are our heros. They suffer unjustly, they fight to make change, they persevere in prayer and Faith, they suffer from physical illnesses. And Bosco, Savio, and the other yet unnamed Saints are well worth getting to know.
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