The feast of the Immaculate Conception has always been very dear to the Salesian world, since on the day it is celebrated, precisely under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin, the Salesian Oratory was born. This year, to mark this significant anniversary, the Rector Major chose to celebrate Mass with the community of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, flanked by the Salesians of the Salesian Headquarters, in a Eucharistic concelebration that saw a large number of faithful participating.
During his homily, the 10th Successor of Don Bosco took the Gospel page of the day to trace in the dialogue between the Archangel Gabriel and Our Lady four fundamental passages illustrating four attitudes of Mary from which every faithful Christian can learn something.
- The passage 'Rejoice Mary' manifests joy, which is the attitude that makes the heart happy, since God wants his children to always be in joy, far from sadness and melancholy. Mary is in joy because she entrusts herself.
- The passage 'I know no man' is the Virgin's natural objection to what she has never experienced. In this sense, the Cardinal recognised Mary's full humanity, because it is everyone's experience, when faced with God's plan, to raise objections that are healthy questions, on a natural level they are plausible and legitimate.
- However, the passage 'Nothing is impossible to God' develops the path: while objection is possible, the field of the impossible does not belong to man, it is God's property and action. "He works, he acts, he creates," explained the Rector Major.
- Finally, the passage 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord' opens to the coming of the Saviour and the realisation of God's plan of salvation for humanity. Mary's yes is the condition for which God can become incarnate, can dwell among men. "And the Lord also asks us for our yes," added the 10th Successor of Don Bosco, exhorting everyone to correspond to God with the same simple and convinced confidence as Mary.
In keeping with Salesian tradition, the solemn celebration concluded with a more intimate and filial moment, in which the Rector Major and the Salesians present gathered under the painting of Our Lady inside the Basilica to recite a communal Hail Mary, in memory and revival in the mission of that first Hail Mary recited by Don Bosco with Bartolomeo Garelli in the sacristy of the church of San Francesco in Turin from which everything began.
