4th Sunday
St. John Bosco Feast Day
St. Joseph Parish, Hagerstown
January 31, 2026
It is a joy to be with you on the feast of St. John Bosco, a holy priest and religious who lived and ministered in Italy in the 19th century. He is the founder of the Salesians, a world-wide religious order, known for the formation & education of young people, especially the disadvantaged.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are the meek… blessed are the merciful.” St. John Bosco lived the Beatitudes, not as ideals, but as a way of life. He understood the Lord’s words deeply and took them to heart, especially through his love for poor and abandoned young people. Don Bosco recognized that the youth he served—often poor, vulnerable, and searching for meaning—he understood that they were not problems to be fixed but lives where God was already at work. With patience, kindness, and joy, he accompanied them, showing that holiness is possible in ordinary life. In this way, he made tangible the closeness of God revealed in the Beatitudes.
When in today’s Gospel Jesus goes up the mountain to teach, he is revealing God’s vision of the Kingdom of Heaven—a vision that turns the world’s logic upside down. The world celebrates power, success, and self-sufficiency. Jesus blesses the poor, the mourning, the meek, & those hungering for righteousness. These Beatitudes are not commands, but declarations: God draws near to those the world overlooks. Saint Paul echoes this truth when he reminds us that God chooses what is weak in the world to reveal His power. Our dignity does not come from status or achievement, but from belonging to Christ.
Since we belong to Christ, he invites us to love, to love perfectly, to love as he loves. To be poor in spirit is to depend on God. To mourn is to allow our hearts to be moved by suffering. To be meek is to choose humility over domination. Jesus does not glorify pain, but promises that faithfulness, humility, and mercy are never wasted. God sees. God remembers. God acts.
As we honor Saint John Bosco today, we are invited to ask: Who feels blessed in our communities – fortunate to be loved by God, fortunate to love as we have been loved? Let us also ask: Do the young, the poor, the immigrants, and the forgotten feel welcomed and accompanied?
Through the example and prayers of St. Don Bosco, may we live the Beatitudes with joy, becoming signs of hope as the Kingdom of God take root among us.