Un Pezzo di Paradiso
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
7th Sun of Easter – ASCENSION
Don Bosco was constructing the annex to the Oratory building for his boys were reaching the thousand in number. He had not yet paid a single cent to the contractor.
But that night while asleep a loud rumbling noise was heard by all, shaking everyone to run out for safety. At first they thought there had been an earthquake.
But when DB, the salesians and the boys got out of the old building they realized the annex building under construction had just collapsed. Maybe it was the heavy rain. Maybe the cement had not yet dry enough to carry the additional weight of the added floor.
No one was certain why but DB upon seeing everything just muttered Job’s words “The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
That is DB full of faith in the midst of heavy trials. He used to say “Un pezzo di paradiso adiusto tutto”. Fix your eyes on heaven. If faced with something or even someone bad, if that thing won’t take you away from getting closer to heaven then ignore.
DB’s eyes were always gazing heavenwards. This is what we are reminded of this feast of the Lord’s Ascension. Heaven is our final destination. Everything must be seen in that point of view as DB did.
One of my classmates from SJMS shared that failures is part of life – like the falling of the annex building in our opening story. We might be disappointed with a failure similar to this, but do not forget God is not disappointed at all. Why because God does not expect us to succeed all the time. There will be many days when we would accomplish nothing. But nonetheless God is happy with us, if like DB we become stronger in our faith in Him in our failure. God wants us all the time to be strong and not successful.
So do not be engrossed with success as the entire world is. Just keep your eyes fixed on heaven all the time.
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