Don Bosco Philippines South Province

Homily on the Feast of St Francis de Sales; 24 Jan 2024, PH Chapel, Talamban

Today, we gather to celebrate the feast of St Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and Patron of the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco. I’m glad that this year this feast falls on the day when I am assigned to preside and give the homily. So allow me to share with you some of the fruits of my research and reflection on this great saint.

As a zealous pastor St Francis worked untiringly for the salvation of souls. He dedicated himself particularly in the ministry of catechizing the faithful and re-educating adults to the Catholic faith especially in areas of France and Switzerland where many people have fallen away from the Catholic Church. And because of what he did, thousands of Protestant Calvinists were enlightened in their faith and led back to the Catholic Church within a very short span of time. For this, he merited the title “apostle of the Chablais.” And later on he was declared Doctor of the Church.

St Francis was born on August 21, in the year 1567 in Chateau de Sales in Thorens, France. His father had very good plans for him. What he desired most for his son was a promising career and an amazing love life. He wanted his son to be a magistrate and at the same time a senator. And he chose for his son a future bride, a wealthy and beautiful young lady, daughter of the counsellor to his Highness and a senior Judge of Chablais. In fact his father had arranged a date for the two of them in an amazingly beautiful place close to Mont Blanc, and he looked forward with excitement to their wedding day. But Francis on his part hesitated to give his heart to the woman of his date. One of his biographers wrote this about him “The desire to belong to the Church had continually been growing in him. From his childhood he had felt carried towards the Church. He had this in mind when he asked to be tonsured at eleven years old. In Paris he had promised his chastity to God; in Padua, his intention grew firmer.” This same biographer added that “Francis did not refuse this ‘splendid match’ because he despised marriage, but ‘out of certain interior ardor’ urging him to ‘belong entirely to God without having to share his heart with anybody.’”

So Francis really tried to discern his true vocation in life. He prayed for wisdom, and surprisingly God showed him a sign and paved for him the way. With the consent of his hesitant father he was eventually ordained to the priesthood in 1593. He was appointed first as provost. Then he was sent by his bishop as a missionary in the Chablais region in order to win back the Calvinists. Later on he was consecrated bishop of Geneva in 1602.

Reflecting on the life of St Francis we can say that he was able to sacrifice so many C’s in his life, such as a promising CAREER, a life of COMFORT, and a charming lady who could have been his wife. The good news is, in place of all these, he was able to gain many other more important C’s, namely, CHRIST and his CHURCH especially in Geneva, and the CALVINISTS. According to another biographer, at the beginning of his difficult mission as a young priest in Thonon (1594) there were only around twenty Catholics out of three to four thousand inhabitants. After two years St Francis started reaping the first fruits of his hard labor. Then, eventually in the years that followed, thousands of other Calvinists came forward and converted to the Catholic Church. And within four years, the whole province have gone to the Catholic Church. This just shows how amazingly fruitful Francis’ mission was – all by God’s grace.

Nevertheless even if all the conversions happened by God’s grace, I believe the fruitfulness of his mission in Chablais could be attributed also to his many “P” points: (1) he PREACHED as best as he can; (2) he wrote PAMPHLETS of catechism and he POSTED his sermons for people to read; (3) with patience he made PERSONAL CONTACT and engaged in PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS with people everywhere from the poorest citizens to the highest pastors of Calvinism; (4) he exercised his PASTORAL MINISTRY with zeal esp. to penitents and to all his parishioners no matter how far and remote their villages were without complaining about lack of funds and personnel; (5) his personal commitment to PRAYER, PENITENCE and his PERSEVERANCE in holiness.

And underneath all these countless P’s we are amazed to discover the ultimate driving force, that is, the POWER of his LOVE for God and for his people. Allow me to share with you what St Francis said at the beginning of his mission as the bishop’s provost. Strongly refusing the use of force as suggested by many of the clergy against the Calvinists, he said: “Love will shake the walls of Geneva. By love we must invade it; by love we must conquer it… The smell of powder and steel, the taste of them, suggest the furnace of Hell, and I do not propose their use to you. I have no interest in organizing those camps, the soldiers in which are without piety or faith. Our camp must be God’s camp, where the trumpets sound in harmonious melody: ‘Holy. Holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.’ …Ardent prayer must break down the walls of Geneva and brotherly love charge them… Everything gives way to love. Love is as strong as death (Song of Solomon 8:6). And to him who loves nothing is hard.”

I believe this would sufficiently explain why Don Bosco chose St Francis de Sales to be the patron of his challenging work for poor and abandoned youth.

To conclude, if there is something that our father, St John Bosco, and our patron, St Francis de Sales, have in common, I believe it is their unbounded love for the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, especially for Christians in the mission territories and in the peripheries of society. Let us pray that St. John Bosco as well as St Francis de Sales may guide us in these coming years to be more zealous in our ministry, more committed in building our communities, and more faithful in living our Salesian vocation. May we also allow Jesus to be born in the hearts of many more young people entrusted to our care, especially in this part of the Salesian World. GiGsss!

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