S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 3 5 Marek Wiesenganger It is very important to note that John Bosco understands these two modes of education as two forms of love. While both educational systems represent “universal” love as the principle and the way to the objective, it is only preventive education that represents loving kindness as a special form of love. This fundamental difference is shown in the next short story fromMemoirs of the Oratory (Bosco 2011). On the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (December 8, 1841), I was vesting to celebrate holy Mass at the appointed time. Joseph Comotti, the sacristan, seeing a boy in a corner, asked him to come and serve my Mass. “I don’t know how,” he answered, completely embarrassed. “Come on,” repeated the sacristan, “I want you to serve Mass.” “I don’t know how,” the boy repeated, “I’ve never served Mass.” “You big blockhead,” said the sacristan, quite furious “if you don’t know how to serve Mass, what are you doing in the sacristy.” With that, he grabbed a feather duster and hit the poor boy about the head and shoulders. As the boy beat a hasty retreat, I cried loudly, “What are you doing? Why are you beating him like that? What’s he done?” “Why is he hanging round the sacristy if he doesn’t know how to serve Mass?” “But you’ve done wrong.” “What does it matter to you?” “It matters plenty. He’s a friend of mine. Call him back at once. I need to speak with him.” “Tuder, tuder!” [note It. rough, uneducated] he began to shout, as he ran after him. Promising him better treatment, he brought the lad back to me. He came over trembling and tearful because of the blows he had received. “Have you attended Mass yet?” I asked him with as much loving kindness [note It. amorevolezza] as I could. The important key to understanding this story is that both men (the sacristan and John Bosco) are priests and represent the same universal Christian love in two forms: the first one represents “supervising love” and second one represents “assisting love”. For the sacristan the identity of the boy is defined only through his help with “serving the Mass” and he makes sure this task is completed. For Bosco, however, the boy is a friend. Friendship is the first fact of education, the principle of educational interpretation of our life. This is the same as in “the prophecy dream” in which the noble man says to little Johnny: “You will have to win these friends of yours not by blows but by gentleness and love” (Bosco 2011). The ability to help (serving Mass) is not initially important for Bosco. The “assisting love” that Bosco represents, means, that the educator “makes a friend of the student, who in the assistant sees a benefactor who gives him good advice, wants to make him good, to shield him from unpleasantness, from punishment, from dishonor. The Preventive system offers the student previous warning, in a way that the educator can still speak to him in the language of the heart, whether during the time of his education or later. The educator, having won the loving respect of his protégé [note It. guadagnato il cuore del suo protetto], will be able to greatly influence him, warn him, counsel him, and also correct him, even when he is employed, whether it be in the civil service, or in commerce …The practice of this system is all based on the words of St Paul, who says: Love is patient, love is kind … it bears all things … hopes all things endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)” (Bosco 1877). These are the reasons why Bosco asked the boy with as much loving kindness as he could. For the boy a new life starts with that loving kindness. The text of Preventive system and the story in the church show one of the most essential traits of loving kindness. Only this form of love is really effective in the spiritual view of education, only loving kindness is an effective way of influencing someone. It also confirms the fundamental fact that it is not just a pedagogical method, but a real spiritual experience because of its apparition and prophecy for the children. Loving kindness is incarnated in God as someone who is patient, kind, helpful etc. 3 Loving Kindness in The Letter from Rome The last text presented here is one of Bosco’s most famous letters. It is known as The Letter from Rome. This text clearly shows the difference between universal love and loving kindness. The whole text is a dialogue between John Bosco and two pupils of the Oratory in its early days. The boys represent two periods of the Oratory: the beginning and nowadays. This is the description of the first period of the Oratory: “It was a scene full of life, full of movement, full of fun. Some were running, some were jumping, some were skipping …There was singing and laughing on all sides, there were priests and clerics everywhere and the boys were yelling and shouting all round them. You could see that the greatest cordiality, and confidence reigned between youngsters and superiors” (Bosco 1884). The following description of the present situation of the Oratory is not so positive.
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