A Reflection for the Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence;
it will have great recompense.
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.” (Heb 10:35-36)
Find today’s readings here.
No one who knows me well has ever accused me of lacking self-confidence. My wife describes it, more accurately, as a complete lack of shame. I think I skipped the CCD lessons where they instill that strong sense of Catholic guilt. The result is that I am usually the first on the dance floor to make a fool of myself. Singing in front of strangers doesn’t make me nervous. I even thought that starting a podcast was a good idea.
When my wife and I were just starting to date, she expressed some hesitation because in the event of our breakup, she would likely lose a lot of our mutual friends who I had introduced her to. I calmly and confidently told her that wouldn’t be an issue, because we wouldn’t ever break up. (5 years of marriage later, so far so good.)
In today’s first reading, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is encouraging an early Christian community to not lose their confidence. He asks them to “Remember the days past” when their fervor was stronger, perhaps because their community was persecuted. Believers at that time also were in the midst of transitioning from a belief that the second coming of Christ could happen any moment, to accepting that they might be in this for the long haul. Thus, the author of Hebrews writes, “You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.”
Confidence is as important to us today as it was to the hearers of that letter. Last year, Pope Francis wrote an apostolic exhortation inspired by St. Therese of Lisieux, and particularly a short phrase that summed up her spirituality: “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.”
What can give us a confidence like that?
Confidence begins with trusting what has been revealed to us: that God loves us. But ultimately, confidence is sustained through other people.
To use a more mundane example: when I drive down the street, the degree to which I can do so with confidence depends upon the work and actions of several other people. That the car manufacturers, from the engineers to the line workers, have constructed the car to perform its task effectively and safely. That the appropriate city officials have designated proper speed limits, sign posts and road lines. And finally, I need to trust my fellow drivers will behave in a predictable manner. Now, I don’t have to tell you that occasionally that trust is misplaced, confidence wanes, and more vigilance and timidity is warranted.
Those examples are a bit cold and distant, and involve trusting people that we will most likely never meet. But often a deeper, more lasting confidence comes from our encounters with those closest to us, or from people we meet who have done the extraordinary. Today is the feast of St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order. A saint in his own right, he also had the privilege of teaching a student who became one. St. Dominic Savio’s story was popularized because St. John Bosco was so inspired by his example that he wrote a biography of him. When looking into the lives of the saints, more often than not you’ll discover that they come in pairs or groups.
Today’s readings and feast day reminded me of a saint-like figure I encountered when I was a teenager, when my youth group volunteered with an organization founded by Rachel Muha. In 1999, Rachel received the worst news that a parent can get. Her son, Brian, a student at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, had been kidnapped and murdered at random with his roommate by two men on a drug-induced rampage.
In the midst of the worst period of her life, Rachel resolved that Brian’s death would not be the final word. That hate would not reign in her heart. During the trial for her son’s murder, she wondered about her son’s killers: “They were children at one time. They weren’t born killers. They became killers. What happened to them?” After learning more, she knew that forgiving them would only be the first step.
She then founded the Run the Race Center, where kids growing up in an impoverished neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, just like the area where her son’s killers grew up, could find food, safety, fun and trusted and loving adults. She chose the name “Run the Race,” from a different passage in the Letter to the Hebrews:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”
Rachel found inspiration from the cloud of witnesses in her life, and she in turn is a witness to others. And she has given me confidence in the power of forgiveness and the reality of grace that has lasted throughout my life.
We need endurance and confidence to run the race, to do the will of God. When they are found in short supply, which is bound to happen to any of us, thank God that we have a cloud of witnesses like Rachel to inspire us to keep going.
