Hajja Salesjana - Oct-Dec 2021

31 H AJJA S ALESJANA is noteworthy that of the eleven altars in the Basilica today, St. Joseph’s is the only one that has remained unchanged since Don Bosco solemnly blessed it on St. Joseph’s feast day (at the time, April 26), in 1874. Fatherly tenderness Today, the altars of St. Joseph and St. John Bosco face each other across the nave of the Basilica. I like to imagine them, each one a foster father in his own right, speaking to each other, face to face, “with a father’s heart”. Just as “Jesus saw the tender love of God” in St. Joseph (PC. 2), so did hundreds of other boys see it in Don Bosco. This fatherly tenderness is evident in the details which Don Bosco insisted be included into Lorenzone’s painting. St. Joseph appears serene and dignified, standing on a cloud, carrying baby Jesus on his left arm. There is an obvious affection between father and son. The Blessed Mother completes the portrait of the holy family, her hands clasped in maternal approval as she delights in the trusting bond between her divine Son and her spouse. The angel holding the lily in full bloom also speaks of tenderness. While the lily honours St. Joseph’s chaste virility, the angel expresses the tenderness for which St. Joseph and Don Bosco are renowned. At Don Bosco’s prompting, this angel bears the face of a young girl who died tragically a few years before the painting was done. She was the daughter of Marchioness Fassati, a benefactor of the Oratory. Don Bosco instructed Lorenzone to immortalize the child by using her likeness as the face of the angel, a tender gesture to console a grieving mother. Graces through St. Joseph’s intercession Another important detail in the painting are the white and red roses which are carried by Jesus. Notice how he passes them, one by one to St. Joseph, who, although he is in heaven, is attentive and present to life on earth: it is Joseph who drops these roses upon “everyday life”, represented by the Church of Mary, Help of Christians and the Valdocco Oratory, as they appeared at the time. On the day of the painting was installed, Don Bosco offered this interpretation: “White and red roses are the graces that God grants to us: even red roses, those accompanied by pain, suffering and sacrifices, come from God and are the best.” Joseph’s unique role in salvation history Pope Francis emphasizes that “Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father” (PC. 7) and that his greatness “is that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus. In this