BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, OH HOW I LOVE YOU

 

I have a special love for St John Bosco whose feast day we celebrate today. Born in 1815, he became an educator of boys and young men in Italy of the 1800s when Italy was often in a bad place, in political turmoil and roiling social unrest. John Bosco founded schools for young fellows who could not afford Catholic school, and he gave a second chance to young chaps who had resorted to crime in their pasts. 

Don John Bosco always considered himself just an ordinary Italian priest. But he was given the most exceptional dreams. I find his dreams to be better than the best cinema or page-turner. But often times they tell me something about myself that makes me know where I am lacking or what my soul has lost for good. Take his dream of the 14 Tables where he saw the states of various souls, from those in deep sin who have spiritual misery, the nastiest frugality and eat like bums on the street to those at the top table who enjoy sublime spiritual luxury and opulence. 

Here is my account of John Bosco's dream of the 14 Tables, and when you read it you may like to ask yourself at which table you belong. Feel free to leave a comment if you like. I'm sure only very few of us know someone who has a seat at the top table... 

In the torrid heat of an Italian Summer, John Bosco dreamed he was in a most beautiful garden. He saw the boys in his care seated at 14 tables which were situated like an amphitheater, at 3 distinct levels. The highest tables were so high that they could barely be seen. At the very end, a coterie of boys were at a rude table that was laden with rotten bread spotted with mold, husks and trash. They reminded John Bosco of pigs peering into swill. When he asked them why they contented themselves with dangerously stale bread and inedible garbage, they answered, "We have to eat the bread we have provided for ourselves. It's all we have." The poor boys at this table were the souls in mortal sin. And in a separate dream, John Bosco saw that unconfessed mortal sins eat a person's heart. 

John Bosco moved to higher tables where he saw boys that were more content in themselves and who ate healthy bread. Each time he went to a higher table he saw that the boys became more radiant and more handsome. At the highest levels, the tables were set with exquisite linen, coruscating candelabra, shining plates and extraordinarily beautiful flowers. The boys feasted on delicious meals and succulent delicacies. There were many boys at these tables; they were the repentant sinners who were sorry for their sins, and in a state of grace because of confession, they were enjoying spiritual luxury. 

But the boys at the highest table savored awesome delights which were reserved for them alone. They had a heavenly bread that looked gold and red. The boys faces glowed with a dazzling light, and they were ecstatically joyful. They had won a place at this table because they had retained their baptismal innocence. Their lot was the epitome of spiritual luxury. 

John Bosco recognized every single boy and knew at which table he sat. And when he woke from the dream, he graded each boy from highest to the lowest and met with all of them individually to tell them at which table they belonged. When the boys asked John Bosco if they could graduate from a lower table to a higher table, he replied that they could, with the exception of the top table which was exclusively the domain of souls who had never lost their baptismal innocence. Once a boy had left this table by way of serious sin, he could never return. 

As I mentioned earlier, I often come to discern how my soul is wanting when I read a John Bosco dream, and from this I know that I am not fit for the top table because of my mortal sins, nor can I earn a place there. I am, however, among the contrite souls who enjoy a fantastic fare, and from my vantage point I may admire the souls in a state of baptismal purity who feast on gold bread. Theirs is a state of awesome privilege. And to think the souls at the lowest table are so far down that they cannot see the souls at the higher tables and can't see what they are missing or what they may aspire to, which is why dreams such as this give a spectacular encouragement to souls who may wish to trade their noxious bread and trash for the delicious feast and rare delicacies enjoyed by the repentant. 

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John Bosco's dream of the 14 Tables is contained in 40 Dreams of St John Bosco which is available at the Spirit Daily Store.