This article is being reposted in honor of St. John Bosco's feast day- which is on January 31st.St. John Bosco, a 19th century priest who took in and cared for orphan boys, one day walked up to three of his boys while they were playing soccer. He stopped to engage them in small talk. But then he asked them a question: “What would you do if you were informed right now that you had three weeks to live? What would be the first thing you would do and how would you spend that time?”
The first boy said, “I would go immediately to the chapel and spend the remaining three weeks praying and repenting.” The second boy said he would do the same. The third boy, however, said he would continue playing soccer. Interestingly enough, the third boy did die at a young age and ended up being canonized a Saint. His name was St. Dominic Savio.
The point of the story is that the road to heaven runs right through the soccer field. This is what St. Dominic’s point in saying he would continue playing soccer. No doubt, the young Saint valued the presence of God in the sanctuary, no doubt he frequented the Sacraments and used, to his advantage, many of the devotions the Church had to offer. Still, he saw God in the soccer field. For St. Dominic Savio, his whole life, including recreational activities, was a spiritual offering to God.
Seeing everywhere the presence of God is the key to sanctity. He is in the office, on the football field, in restaurants, in the streets, in prisons and at social events. And when we daily acknowledge this truth and act accordingly, our daily circumstances and the environment in which they occur, will pave the way to heaven for us. As such, if it should ever happen that we be notified that death is imminent, we, as St. Dominic, could very well go on living life as normal.
