“They Cause Happiness wherever They Go!”

I had the privilege of training profit organizations, non-profit organizations and various groups of religious congregations. In all these organizations people come and go. Trust me –volunteer organizations are difficult to lead; much more difficult is to lead a religious congregation. The reasons are plenty. I don’t intend to get into any controversy over that. But, would like to dwell on the bonding between organization and the members of the organization and the problem of leaving an organisation.

John C. Maxwell makes an important point with regard to the term ‘leaving an organization.’ He says nobody leaves an organization. People who leave, leave the people they live within an organisation and not an organization. He presents four reasons why people leave an organization particularly religious organization: 1. People quit people who devalue them. 2. People quit people who are not trustworthy. 3. People quit people who are incompetent. 4. People quit people who are insecure.

Same thing can be applied to the new entrants to Brotherhood vocation. If Brotherhood vocation is devalued by us, the Salesians, or if we are not trustworthy or if we are incompetent and if we are insecure, there is a danger that we will not have enough brothers vocation and it would be difficult to retain the existing brothers from leaving the brotherhood to become priests. Often the slow growth of the brotherhood vocation is portrayed as a problem of people not interested in joining us. Instead we must have the courage to say it is because of the above said problems with us Salesians.

I was deeply impressed when I read what Fr. Juan E. Vecchi wrote about the influence of Bro Zatti’s intercession on Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the then Father General of the Jesuits when he kept praying for lay vocations to his congregation through the intercession of Blessed Zatti. It is remarked by Fr. Vecchi that he had 18 brothers in that year to enter Jesuit order. Fr. Pedro Arrupe himself said that those who entered as brothers were after the heart of St. Ignatius.

But, against the calculations of some within the Salesian congregation, the brotherhood vocation is flourishing. It is partly because of the leadership roles played by many brothers who kept on till the end in spite of lack of encouragement and support from others. Take the case of many brothers who take lead roles in many segments of our Salesian life and mission. Many are in the helm of affairs not necessarily with the governance of the congregation, but primarily with the government circles, students circles, ITIs, Polytechnic Colleges, Youth Centres and among youth in general.

Today, Salesian brothers have become a new brand of committed people who have started transforming the face of the Salesian world. The seriousness attached to the forthcoming Brothers congress, with the many meetings, planning sessions, deliberations and scrutiny, is a sure sign that there is going to be an astonishing leadership from the brothers in reaching out to the young and an in returning to Don Bosco.

Wherever I was, I saw brothers radiating joy and happiness to all around them. They are truly a band of people after the heart of Don Bosco. Oscar Wilde once wrote, “Some cause happiness wherever they go. Some cause happiness whenever they go.” Truly, a salesian Brother is one who causes happiness wherever he goes particularly amidst the young. This work of radiating joy will be the witness and continue to be the challenge to all the brothers and priests who truly desire to see the Salesian congregation full of brothers in the active ministry of radiating that joy.

The End And Reward Of Toil

The first day of the month of May commemorates the “ International Workers Day.” In many countries it’s a public holiday. It is also celebrated as Labour Day. It has an interesting and revolutionary beginning in the US on May 1, 1886. On this day several labour unions across the US went on to protest, demanding a standard workday of eight hours. On May 4th there was bloodshed in Chicago’s Haymarket Square as a result of a bomb blast masterminded by a revolutionist leading to the death of a dozen people and the injury of over 100 people.

The protest brought about favourable results in obtaining the eight-hour work days in many countries including India. Church officially declared May Day as worker’s day in 1995 in order to uphold the rights of workers and the dignity of labour.

Though this day is marked with a lot of protests, rallies, demonstrations and speeches, there is still another reflection that is more central to the May Day as it also coincides with the summer holidays. That is the truth about hard labour and rest.

On the one hand many students are happy that they completed their exams, we also read from newspapers about the increasing death toll due to over enthusiasm about the forthcoming holidays. There is a hidden message that coincides with the May Day.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometime on the green grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means a waste of time. Moments of inactivity, relaxation, picnicking, watching good movies – all these can put us at ease with ourselves and with others and give us fresh energy to start our life of work.
All of us love to rest. Many of us look forward to spending long hours sleeping while others look forward to spending days relaxing in a resort far away from the place of work. Stress is also very much connected to the present day labour, particularly in white collar jobs. I used to wonder if there was so much stress those days when there was so much of human labour! I don’t even remember the word ‘stress’ being used so often. People having stress used to be a rare phenomenon those days.

What has happened to us in these last few years? Why is there so much of stress on ‘stress’ ?

I guess we got used to a cozy and comfortable life that demands more rest and less work.
What will enhance our work and our rest will be the way we proportionately spend time for both. When a lot of time spent on work and a little time for rest, it will create the right balance in our life and energy.
There is a nice little verse from Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene,’:
“Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war, death after life, does greatly please.”
It is true that it is rest that helps us to form virtuous deeds. It gives us time and forms our mind to fashion our brain to move towards good deeds; but, if rest exceeds the hours spent on work, it becomes a vice. Rest is sweet after strife and not all through your life.
Rudyard Kipling tells us about signs of the appropriate time for rest this way:
When earth’s last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.
This should be guiding principle for us particularly these days of rest and vacation. At the same time, “Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed,” said Cowper in his book retirement. For Don Bosco change of occupation was rest. He never needed rest. When he needed little rest, all that he did was to switch over his activity to another that needed attention.
Too much of rest will become a pain. That is why we believe that only the end and reward of toil is rest. All other kind of rest will only add pain.