When
he saw that a conjurer was drawing people away from the Church by his conjuring
tricks, little John Bosco - who from his boyhood saw, felt and understood by
means of a sublime light from heaven, the mission that God was giving him: this
meant that he was not to close himself up or to envelop himself tightly in a
life that one could call one of "himself alone", but rather that he
should fight the world with modern weapons, i.e. those of this age, using the
printed word to fight the printed word, schools to combat schools, good
propaganda to counter evil propaganda - Don Bosco, as I was saying, although
still a boy, tackled the conjurer. He
did not go into the church to pray that the conjurer would stop (although he certainly
did pray), but confronted him with great self-confidence.
He decided to do tricks himself, and with
such daring... The conjurer suggested leaping up on to the highest part of a
tree, and the boy John Bosco accepted the challenge. The first to climb up was
the conjurer: he went right to the top, causing the tree to sway. It looked as if it was about to break, but
the conjurer was fearless, decisive and undaunted... The audience applauded and
thought that there was no way anyone could go any higher. But John Bosco, full of courage, climbed
right to the point that the conjurer had reached, and then held on tightly to
the tree, flinging his legs and feet upwards, towards the sky, thus going
higher than the top of the tree itself.
There
you are. Ever higher, always towards
God, even with our feet, always; even with our shoes, ever higher... That is Don Bosco...! That is how he fed us: always towards God,
always towards heaven, even in games and amusements...
From
a Don Orione's anecdotes
