Yesterday becomes history, but today is a gift of God, that is why we call it the ‘present’. So, man has to live, to smile, to sing but, especially, to be happy. He needs to fill his heart with beauty, serenity, emotions and banish bad thoughts and negative attitudes.
St Thomas Aquinas, a very wise teacher, writes: “Fear is such a powerful emotion, in the heart of human beings, that when we allow it to take over our mind and our heart, it drives out compassion from our personality.”
Today, people are losing hope in themselves, forgetting that hope enkindles our heart when we are falling into a deep darkness. Many times, man today is living in a deep crisis: anxiety. He gave up values, based on truth in himself with positive attitude, courage and, especially, confidence in himself.
Vatican II teaches us that: “Recalling thus the mysteries of Redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the riches of the Lord’s powers in some way, made present for all the time, and the faithful are enabled to hold upon them and become with saving grace better human beings.”
Beauty is the medicine. There is no need to climb the mountain to find God.
Jean Paul Sartre wrote that “there are a number of people in the world who are in hell because they depend too much on others’ opinion. A wise man always makes his decisions and an ignorant man follows public opinion. We, all of us, are born original and no one wants to die a copy.”
At the moment, people in Malta and Gozo are discouraged and disorientated but they are especially influenced by erroneous ideas going in the wrong direction. They divide their Bible in two colours, red or blue, but, unfortunately, based on the amount of power given by the importance of politics, they are choosing the best way they can to get whatever they want for their personal gain and, sadly, forgetting ethics and justice.
It is a pity that our country is full of people without a backbone. We are becoming an accumulation of unhappy people, living in solitude, because we have lost our Christian and Maltese identity.
More people are mentally ill and in search of psychiatric help. They keep away from people who are not of the same ethos, who will never admit that they are wrong and will always try to make you feel that you are at fault.
Scott Stalsile, inviting for a call to change, writes: “I look around and see so much fear; people getting more and more comfortable in their state of separation in their lives. They funnily think: No not me! I get lost in this fearful world. I will not play with bullies. I continue to be brave and kind. I will speak for real unity. And, no matter what, I will never stop loving.”
My beloved father, Don Bosco, used to insist: “Our life is too short; we have to hurry to do some good before death surprises us.” And he continues: “Woe to who does things to be praised by the world because the world is a nasty and bad payer, it only pays with ingratitude.”
We are becoming an accumulation of unhappy people, living in solitude, because we have lost our Christian and Maltese identity- Fr Charles Cini
Leonardo da Vinci was of the opinion that “learning is never tiresome, never late and never ruins our brain”.
Malta and Gozo are in ruins, we are destroying the beauty and harmony that God created. We need to stop now, urgently. Every one of us is responsible to preserve what God created and our forefathers embellished. Our islands are a haven of beauty, culture and creativity, thus, as citizens, we are all responsible to preserve the great gifts given to us by God. Our past history is being horribly vandalised and abused by the citizens themselves.
My dear Maltese and Gozitans, we need to be amazed with and in love with our beauty. Man is deeply alienated in his life: he badly needs silence, meditation and prayer to reflect. God speaks to us in silence, in our heart. But man today is afraid of silence. We are too busy in our life and we avoid hearing and appreciating harmony around us. Mary, on the Golgotha, accompanying Jesus, her son, dying on the cross, was in profound silence and excruciating pain. Let us hear what God wants to tell us in our heart. He ardently wants to communicate His love to us.
I end with the words of Mark Twain: “When whole races and people conspire to gigantic mute lies in the interest of ‘tyrannies’ and ‘shams’, why should we care anything about the trifling lies told by individuals?”
We must never regret a day in our life. Good days give happiness, bad days give experience, the worst days give lessons and the best days give memories.
My dear friends, remember what George Orwell wrote: “A population that elects corrupt imposters and thieves is not a victim but it is an accomplice.”
My dear Maltese and Gozitans, don’t you think that we went too far and we are happily destroying our identity and personality?
Fr Charles Cini is a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco.