S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 2 3 Marek Wiesenganger 3 Textual Analysis of “A Dream” For a better understanding of this story, it is important to distinguish several successive scenes, from which is the whole story composed, that is: 1. Introduction; 2. Apparition, mission, and prophecy; 3. Confusion and problem of identity; 4. Apparition, prophecy, and mission; 5. Confusion. 3.1 Introduction – Known, Old World The story begins with a description of the scene which is known for John Bosco and ends with a description of his reaction which he considered right. Everything in the description is the same as a boy Johnny Bosco knows: house, yard, boys, even the response of small Johnny to the behavior of the boys. Johnny acts like he accustomed and like he was educated. He wants to finish immoral behavior – fight and profanity – by the way which he was known: power and silencing. Johnny’s response expresses his justice: immoral behavior must be punished, it is necessary to discontinue commit evil. This situation is a basic context for following scenes which express absolutely different understanding of introductory scene of the story. 3.2 The Apparition, Mission, and Prophecy The second scene begins with an apparition of a noble man. It is created by three relate moments, which are disturbing the acquaintance of material, personnel and cultural environment. Firstly, it goes about an unexplained and mysterious presence of a man, whose identity Johnny isn’t able to identify. The only thing what he can identify is two attributes: dignified white coat and shiny face. Although both attributes refer to the typical characteristics of divine revelation the Jewish-Christian tradition, small Johnny is not able to identify who the man is. The second moment which distorts the world known to Johnny is the moment of a new and incomprehensible mission: “You will have to win these friends of yours not by blows but by gentleness (It. mansuetudine) and love. Start right away to teach them the ugliness (It. brutezza) of sin and the value (It. preziositá) of virtue.” (Bosco 2011, 4). The third moment which disturbs known world view is a prophetic sign. This sign is acting of the boys who “stopped their fighting, shouting, and swearing; they gathered round the man who was speaking” (Bosco 2011, 4). The boy doesn’t understand either of these moments. He can’t address who the man with shiny face and white coat is. He misconceives how he has to fulfil his new mission, which is in the in contrast with the way he was used to acting. He doesn’t understand the change of the boys’ behavior. His inner tension is increasing. His confusion was turned to his own personality in the first step. Subsequently, he directed to the figure of the noble man. 3.3 The Confusion and the Problem of Identity We can realize that the story Johnny Bosco considers one of the main interpretative keys of his life is in its essence a radically new spiritual experience and specific spiritual differentiation. The boy Johnny is asking for the identity of the man, who gives him special and new life mission, three times. Three times he verifies the origin of the new life objective. He is aware of the fact the receiving mission is not only a marginal activity but it requires an all-out response of the whole person. Feelings he repeatedly expresses are the typical accompanying sign of God’s vocation: the feelings of own inability, unworthiness, a feeling that the task absolutely overcomes him and is not possible to realize it. In such a moment, the only question is basic: who is the one who gives this task. In this context is special that the boys John didn’t understand the link of the man to the prayerful tradition to which he was led by his mother. Despite many signs, he was given by the man, he didn’t understand who he is. The tension caused by new educational mission together with new spiritual experience wasn’t solved. On the contrary, spiritual revelation continues with a new apparition of a new figure. It goes about a woman, who “was wearing a mantle that sparkled all over as though covered with bright stars” (Bosco 2011, 4).
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