Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 31, 2024
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Reflection
Imagine the young priest, a man in his 30s—not yet “Saint” or even “Don” but still just Padre G in iovanni Bosco, one priest among thousands—praying over this passage and preparing to preach. How could he not contemplate his own thwarted work among the abandoned boys and young men of Turin, Italy?
He was himself minimally educated before he began his seminary studies. Fatherless, he had an older brother who had responded to his talk of priestly vocation with belittling and abuse. Now here he was, toiling to bring the Gospel to the working poor of a city not a day’s walk from his hamlet and to advocate on their behalf with the employers who routinely mistreated them.
Don Bosco began his ministry in a tool shed and drew crowds with his juggling, his jokes, and his magic tricks, asking nothing more than for his boys to pray with him for a few minutes and listen to readings like this one.
Turin was his “native place.” And in the 1850s, it was as bleak a backdrop of the Industrial Revolution as anything Charles Dickens was writing about in faraway England. It would not care for its poor. And how did its leading citizens respond to Padre Bosco’s work? They “took offense.”
Brother priests accused him of stealing “their” parishioners. Politicians denounced his throngs as bacterial breeding grounds of unrest and revolution. The police questioned him; his enemies tried repeatedly to kill him; several neighborhoods turned him out. What lack of faith!
But that’s where our perspective must shift in order to understand the links between Mark’s Gospel and the determined life of the “Apostle to Youth.” Because where Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith in Nazareth, we may be amazed at the abundant faith of a man whose religious community today ministers to people in 30-some languages on six continents.
We all face adversity in our discipleship—among family and friends whose faith has fallen away, among skeptics in our neighborhoods and workplaces, in popular culture, and on social media. The life of this great saint, and that of the man from Nazareth whom he followed, shows how firm faith—expressed through what Don Bosco called “reason, religion, and loving kindness”—wins out over the lack of faith every time and to marvelous effect.
Prayer
As we near the end of Catholic Schools Week, we pray to You, O Lord, on this great feast of St. John Bosco, patron saint of the young. Help all of us to imitate the loving kindness of St. John Bosco whose love for the young was freely and generously given to all. Bless and direct our efforts to care for the children entrusted to our care in whatever vocation you have given to us. Make us generous with the gifts, talents, and blessings that you have given to us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day

When he was just nine years old, St. John Bosco had a vivid dream that revealed to him the vocation that would shape his life: serving children.
John Bosco was born in 1815 in Northern Italy, and his father died when he was only 2. As a boy, John dreamed that he stood in a crowd of children who were fighting and cussing and he was failing to quiet them. A mysterious lady appeared and told him, “You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. Take your shepherd’s staff and lead them to pasture.” As she spoke, the children turned into wild beasts and then into lambs.
John was disturbed by the dream, as he felt that what it commanded was an impossible task. Still, he could not let the vision go, and as he matured, it led him to minister to the poor and neglected boys who lived in Turin, Italy. He would perform magic tricks and juggling and acrobatics in order to gain their attention, and then he would teach them about the faith and invite them to attend Mass with him.
He soon had a constant crowd of several hundred boys following him around. When other priests or nuns tried to help, they tired or became frustrated. He had little money and many thought him to be out of his mind.
He opened several centers where young people could come to play and pray but was set back by finances and many people’s unwillingness to let a crowd of unruly children run through any property they owned. Don Bosco was undeterred and even began to let some of the children live in his home with his mother.
Money started to come in for his cause, and he opened a church for these children as well as a home and school. He encouraged boys to learn trades to become shoemakers and tailors, and persuaded many who had a vocation to the priesthood. Soon Don Bosco was serving, training, housing, and educating hundreds of boys, all with a gentleness and patience that these lost boys found nowhere else.
He became known as a popular preacher because of his eloquence and there were reports of miracles attributed to his intercession. At the height of an anti-clerical movement—when even the Jesuits had been expelled and several convents suppressed—he founded an order of priests to assist in this work with children. He named it the Salesians, after his favorite saint, St. Francis de Sales, and founded another order of women to work with girls, called the Daughters of Our Lady, Help of Christians. The Salesian family also includes a community of brothers. The work of these orders continues today.
St. John Bosco died on January 31, 1888, and is honored as a patron saint of children and magicians. His story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. John Bosco, who loved neglected and unruly children with patience and gentleness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. John Bosco is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.