A PROPHETIC SYMBOLIC GESTURE
Little Michael was only eight years old when he approached a kind young priest, 22 years his senior, who was distributing medals to boys. He stretched out his hand to receive a medal and to his surprise the priest, instead of giving him a medal, performed a symbolic action which, at the time, puzzled the boy. The priest, Don Bosco, offered him his left hand and made a gesture as though cutting it in half with his right hand and said, “Take it, little Michael, take it”, and he added six prophetic words which were to be the secret of Michael’s life. “We two will always go halves”. Don Bosco had that amazing and farseeing insight to recognise in this small boy his closest collaborator, his first Salesian and his first successor as head of the Salesian Congregation and of the whole Salesian Family.
That boy was Michael Rua, born on 9th June 1837. From the time he entered the Oratory, Don Bosco kept him close to himself. At the age of fifteen he received the clerical cassock from Don Bosco and overcoming his shyness he asked Don Bosco: “Do you remember the time we first met? I asked you for a medal and you made that strange gesture, as though you wanted to cut your hand in half and give it to me and said, ‘We two will always go halves’. What did you mean?” Don Bosco replied: “My dear Michael, have you not understood yet? And yet it is so clear. The older you get the more you will understand what I wanted to say to you: in our lives we two will go halves. Sorrows, concerns, responsibilities, joys and all the rest we shall share together.” Michael was quiet, full of silent happiness. Don Bosco, with these simple words, had made him his sole heir.
Don Rua became the first Salesian when he made his first vows on the Feast of The Annunciation 1855. The Congregation was not yet founded, but the foundations were being laid. When the Congregation was founded on 18th December 1859, Michael Rua, then a sub-deacon 22 years old, became its first spiritual director. From then on, Don Bosco loaded him with more and more work and greater responsibilities, including appointing him, at the young age of 26, rector of the junior seminary at Mirabello, the first Salesian work outside Turin, where the number of seminarians quadrupled in two years, most of them his past pupils from Valdocco.
After two years as rector of Mirabello, Don Bosco recalled him to Valdocco, where things were not going well, and confidently placed on his shoulders every responsibility: the schools, the workshops, the formation of the young Salesians, the publication of the Catholic Readings which every month reached thousands of subscribers, the imposing building of the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians, and the greater part of the correspondence addressed to him, which Don Rua had to read and annotate and give to a trustworthy Salesian to reply. In 1875 these two holy men together prepared the first missionary expedition to South America. Don Bosco was preparing his first successor, the second rector major of the new Congregation, the Pius Society of St Francis de Sales. Indeed he went halves with him sharing his sorrows and joys.
When Don Bosco died on 31st January 1888, many cardinals in Rome wanted to dissolve the Congregation and get the Salesians to join another congregation with a similar spirit. There was no one, they thought, who could take the place of the strong, saintly, charismatic Don Bosco. Little did they know that the quiet, frail looking priest who used to accompany Don Bosco was a giant in the spiritual life and in the management of affairs. Bishop Cagliero (the first Salesian bishop and missionary in South America) called a meeting of the General Council and together with some of the older Salesians drafted a letter to the Pope in which all the superiors and older Salesians declared that in total agreement they would be very happy to accept Don Rua as superior. On 11th February, Pope Leo XIII confirmed and declared Don Rua in office for twelve years.
The Pope knew Don Rua personally and knew that the Salesians under his direction would continue their mission. And so they did. The expansion of the congregation was rapid and strong. The number of confreres and works multiplied at a phenomenal rate. Don Bosco during his life with enormous success had founded 64 works; Don Rua increased that number to 341. When Don Bosco died there were 700 Salesians. During Don Rua’s 22 years as Rector Major, that number increased to over 4,000. Don Bosco had sent 12 missionary expeditions with 150 Salesians; Don Rua sent 31 expeditions with 1473 Salesians; going to faraway places, e.g. Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, China, India, Egypt, Mozambique, South Africa.
Don Rua’s life of fidelity and dedication came to an end on 6th April 1910. Don Bosco had kept his promise going halves with him in everything. He was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1972 and we pray that he may soon be canonised. The Salesian Family dedicates this year, the centenary of his death, to Blessed Michael Rua.
