TWO RADIANTLY BEAUTIFUL GIRLS INSTRUCTED ST JOHN BOSCO ON THE WAYS OF INNOCENCE

All of my life it has troubled me that the concept of "the loss of innocence" is understood to mean when a person acquires knowledge of human reproduction or has had sexual experience.

I was in for a quite a healing and an awakening when I read St John Bosco's dream on the absolute necessity of penance to preserve innocence of soul. Most people are awoken from ignorance when they hear John Bosco's dream about Hell, but his dream on the nature of innocence made me realize I've had a false concept of innocence: I had thought it was confined to sexual matters, but this is dangerously limited, because the state of innocence applies to someone who has not committed a mortal sin. Innocence is the opposite of guiltiness, and someone who is innocent is not just free of sexual sin, but free of the guilt of all serious sin. For example a very holy priest in the mold of St John Vianney may hear the sexual sins of his parishioners in confession, but he may remain guiltless of sin and be innocent. To be fair, I only read John Bosco's dream to find out more about the role of penance, now that we are in Lent.

John Bosco was not a young priest when he had this dream.  He was 69, had been a priest for several decades, and he was famous in his native Italy for his mystical dreams and for his revolutionary efforts to educate boys, young men and young criminals. Even though John Bosco had spent his life among children and young adults, Our Lord chose the latter part of John Bosco's life to give him the most valuable instruction on the safeguarding of the souls in his care through this dream that lasted one whole night. In his dream, John Bosco found himself in a lush meadow, a glowingly green field, and his feet rested on a lower ledge behind the meadow, so that the meadow rose up before him. The glen was dotted with many, many varieties of flowers and trees. The branches of the trees were intertwined and knitted together in patterns like wreaths. Truly it was like a scene from Narnia after Aslan returns from the dead.

This mesmerizing meadow had a border on which were messages in letters of gold. John Bosco went to read these cryptic inscriptions.  One read, "To innocent lives He will never refuse His bounty" and another read, "Jealously the Lord watched over the lives of the guiltless, they will hold their lands forever."

John Bosco's attention was diverted from the messages in gold by the sight of two beautiful girls walking in the meadow. They were dressed in brilliant white robes that touched their feet and their waists were girded in a red sash trimmed with gold. On the red sashes were bouquets of lilies, roses and violets. Around their necks they sported corsages of lilies, roses and violets.  Their wrists had bracelets of white daisies. These flowers were recognizable to John Bosco, but they were of a beauty that far surpassed any flower he had seen on earth. Each girl had a crown which settled on lustrous, thick hair that fell about their shoulders. They had a commanding presence, like sovereign queens, which was in contrast to their child-like youth and simplicity. They did not notice John Bosco, he merely spectated them and overheard their discourse. One said, "What is innocence?" The other answered, "The happy state of sanctifying grace preserved by means of the constant and exact observance of the divine law and preserved purity of innocence is the fountain and source of all knowledge and virtue."

The two comely maidens highlighted that "a great mistake" is made by those who think penance is only for unrepentant sinners because, "without penance, innocence cannot be preserved."  In essence, were the innocent to do penance, they would never become destructive sinners.

And as the grass beneath their feet shone bright, they spoke glowingly of innocence to their audience of one - the Italian priest with chocolate brown eyes, "Innocence is a golden mirror which reflects the image of God. But a breath of damp air is enough to dim it, and one must keep it covered with a veil." That veil is penance - penance acts as the cloak between the innocent soul and mortal sin, be the sin calumny, blasphemy, swearing false oaths or worship of idols in the place of God to chose from a long list of serious sins.

They held forth on how an innocent soul is beautiful, "Who can describe the beauty of an innocent soul? Such a soul is splendidly robed like one of us, adorned with the white stole of Baptism..." A soul completely innocent is, "a living tabernacle of the Holy Ghost, with the Blood of Jesus in his veins, coloring his cheeks and his lips, with the most Holy Trinity in his unspotted heart, he sheds around torrents of light...a shower of flowers rains down from on high and fills the air...God, in the unapproachable splendor of His glory, points out with His right hand the throne He has prepared for him, while in His left hand He holds the shining crown which is to adorn him forever."

When they had convinced their audience, the sole member of which was John Bosco, the priest in black cassock with a head of fine brown hair of the greatness of innocence, they spoke of the only way the innocent soul may be strengthened: reception of the Eucharist, "The way of the innocent has its trials, but it has its strength in Holy Communion." Penance is protection, the Eucharist is strength.

They commented upon the ignorance of the the treasure that is innocence, "Oh, if the young knew what precious treasure innocence is, how jealously they would guard the stole of Holy Baptism from the beginning of their life." The maidens acknowledged that we are fragile creatures, "Innocence is a most precious liquor, but it is enclosed in a vessel of frail clay."

May innocence be lost and regained? In short, no, as one of the pretty maidens said, "Just one mortal sin is sufficient, and once it is lost, it is lost forever." This shocked me because I had thought sacramental confession would restore a soul to innocence, but rather it restores a soul to a state of grace. The maidens edified John Bosco as to the hope for a soul in mortal sin, "He can rise again! God's mercy is infinite. A good confession will give back the grace of God and the title of son of God. But no more innocence, the consequences of the first sin will remain in him. He knows evil."

A soul who has committed mortal sin may never say they were not guilty. This may dishearten and discourage us, because so few of us may say we have been blameless of mortal sin (I know I cannot claim to be in a state of innocence).  Yet, we cannot abandon the dream's message because it does not apply squarely to us, because the revelations that the maidens gave John Bosco are profoundly important for everyone who is a mother or father of young children and for everyone who may know a family with young children. If the message of the dream were heeded, we could look forward to a future generation of children who spurn narcissism and embrace humility and became walking Saints.  How might children be trained in penance?

The two girls in shining white did not prescribe to John Bosco, who was a guardian of many, many boys and young men that his wards give up eating sweets as penance, instead they prescribed a mode of doing penance always, in mortification of the mind and the senses: "Mortification of the intellect by humbling oneself", "Mortifications in telling the truth always, in revealing one's defects and the dangers in which one may find oneself", "Mortification of hearing, never listening to bad, imprudent or impious conversations", and "Mortification of the eyes". They ended their treatise on how to do penance by Our Lord's words on self-denial, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." And they stressed that children in particular need be brought up this way.

There may not be hope for many of us, but there is hope for the little ones. We ought hold out hope for them that they may be preserved in innocence. And a parent may form their child so that the little one gives their will to doing penance - not just as a culturally Catholic thing to do - but as an imitation of Christ, as the beautiful maidens reminded John Bosco, "Jesus, the Holy, the Immaculate One, passed His life in privations and sufferings."  Not only would children be like unto Christ, but with their innocence intact, their souls would house the golden mirror that reflects the image of God.

When they had finished their discourse, the two maidens started to sing a heavenly hymn, and choirs of angels descended around them so they could lend their voices to singing, "To Him who is able to preserve you without sin and to present you spotless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy in the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, be glory and magnificence." The minute their hymn was finished, the beautiful maidens and hosts of angels were absorbed into the heavens, and John Bosco's dream ended.

The dream sequence I re-told in this post is found in John Bosco's memoirs, in this instance, Volume XVII.