After an initial moment of recollection and prayer, the confreres performed the rite of entry through the Holy Door, crossing it in an atmosphere of silence, singing and deep spiritual participation. The gesture expressed the desire for interior renewal, conversion and entrustment, typical of the Jubilee journey, lived in fraternal communion and in the spirit of the Salesian charism.
The Eucharistic Celebration was presided over by the Rector Major, Fr Fabio Attard, in the Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani, the Marian heart of the Basilica and a place dear to the tradition of the Church and the Salesian Family. The presence of the icon of the Virgin provided the ideal context for a profound reflection on the mystery of Mary and her role in the journey of faith of believers.
In his homily, the Rector Major offered an intense and rich meditation based on the figure of Mary in the Gospel of Luke. Referring to the verse that describes Mary as the one who ‘rose and went with haste,’ he emphasised the Virgin's readiness and inner availability, a sign of concrete and active faith. Focusing on a passage from the Magnificat, he highlighted how God's greatness and holiness are not distant realities, but deeply intertwined with humility.
Humility, he explained, does not consist in making oneself insignificant or denying one's dignity, but in recognising that human history, in its smallness, is called to become the dwelling place of God's greatness. Mary, looked upon by the Lord in her humility, becomes the place where God chooses to dwell. Quoting St Augustine, the Rector Major recalled how Mary, by welcoming the Word in her heart before her womb, became the first tabernacle of humanity.
From this perspective, humility becomes freedom: freedom from what enslaves us, from what prevents us from having a clear and contemplative view of reality. Only when we present ourselves without pretension, without the need to appear ‘greater,’ can God's greatness become contagious, filling life with love, mercy, empathy, and tenderness. In this dynamic, he emphasised, a shared and participatory holiness is born, not individualistic, but deeply communal and social.
The pilgrimage ended in an atmosphere of silent gratitude and entrustment to Mary, Salus Populi Romani. Towards the end of the celebration, taking up the introductory words of Fr Claudio and recalling an expression dear to Pope Francis, the Rector Major urged those present to renew their filial attitude towards the Virgin Mary: ‘Let us look to her, our Mother, and let us allow her to look at us, because she is our Mother and she loves us so much; let us allow her to look at us so that we may learn to be more humble, and also more courageous in following the Word of God; so that we may welcome the tender embrace of her Son Jesus, an embrace that gives us life, hope and peace.’
With this invitation, the confreres entrusted their personal and community journey to Mary, renewing their desire to live Don Bosco's charism with a humble, free and available heart, at the service of young people and the Church.
