Roamer's column

"And they drew nigh to the town whither they were going; and he made as though he would go farther; But they constrained him; saying: Stay with us because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in with them. And it came to pass, whilst he was at table with them, he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him..."

Luke tells the moving story of the two disciples who fell in with a stranger on their way to Emmaus and begged him to rest awhile with them. In Caravaggio's painting The Supper at Emmaus the artist captured dramatically the moment when "their eyes were opened". They are sitting at table. Jesus raises his right hand in blessing over the bread he has just broken and over a none too appetising-looking chicken.

In that act of breaking and blessing the disciples recognise the Christ. The reaction of their bodies - one gripping the chair's arm rest tightly as, in amazement, he involuntarily makes to push the chair back, the other spreading both his arms out wide - speaks volumes. He whom they had asked to stay with them because the day was far spent, was the man whose death they had been grieving on the road to Emmaus. The innkeeper looks on uncomprehendingly.

"Stay with us...." The plea of the disciples came to mind over and over again these past ten days, vividly when then Archbishop-elect Mgr Paul Cremona joined young people at St Julian's and Paceville. Remain close to us is what they said and I could not help thinking what joy this must have given the man who is now the spiritual head of Malta. I wondered whether it crossed his mind to ask them to stay with him, too.

The plea of the youngsters has been reflected in that made by thousands of men and women who have been following the footsteps of 'Patri Pawl'. At one level, these crowds made for an inspiring sight, a public unspoken confession of a thirst for a renaissance of the Church in Malta, their own rebirth. This will be met by cynical opposition from those who have taken over, unwittingly and unconsciously perhaps (or not) from Mr Mintoff, whose determination to see the Church cocooned in the sacristy failed, but not before he had wounded her gravely.

Some of today's secular voices, well-meaning in some cases, not so in others, are attempting to do the same thing, chipping away at values, deriding this or that belief, distinguishing, even divorcing Jesus from the Church - a tactic the socialist leader also employed with some success among his followers. A new indifferentism poses a challenge to the physical and spiritual proximity that the laity is requesting. This request may turn out to be a revolutionary one.

Proximity of presence and spirit between archbishop and people requires both to get close to one another; he to listen and share "the joy and the hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ..."; we to listen and share the Good News that the archbishop must proclaim so that together we "prepare the way for the Lord". The Good News is abundant even if we have a tendency to disregard it, to discard it, sometimes, in exchange for other more seductive versions. It is this dichotomy that Archbishop Cremona now confronts.

Mgr Cremona kicks off with volumes of goodwill on his side. He will no doubt capitalise on this as he undertakes the massive commitment that flows from his Johannine proclamation to prepare the way of the Lord. That he has the sense of purpose, the charity, the energy, the enthusiasm to take up this task he made amply evident even before last Friday's splendid ceremony of consecration. Providentially, it appears to be the case that young people and their elders have joined one another to cry "We thirst".

The new Archbishop may well point us in the direction of the living water the Samaritan woman failed to recognise until it was revealed to her by the person to whom she was speaking that he was the living water - and much else besides. In short, he will place before us as an alternative to thirst, the reception of the Eucharist, the essentiality of the Mass and the need to attend this not as an obligation, not only on Sundays, but as the source for quenching our thirst.

The aspirations he has unleashed will remind him of what Vatican II had to say about the young, how in the modern world "the circumstances of their life, their habits of thought, their relations with their families, have been completely transformed".

He will recall that the Council recognised that "the growth of their social importance demands from them a corresponding apostolic activity; and indeed their natural character inclines them in this direction. Carried along by their natural ardour and exuberant energy, when awareness of their own personality ripens in them they shoulder responsibilities that are theirs and are eager to take their place in social and cultural life. If this enthusiasm is penetrated with the spirit of Christ, animated by a sense of obedience and love towards the pastors of the Church, a very rich harvest can be expected from it".

This sort of high expectation is what Archbishop Cremona will wish to foster. It is clear that he will not tie himself down to a curial existence. And it must be obvious to him that his own efforts will not be enough. The word has spread that he has handpicked a group of priests with whom he wishes to lodge. Lodging as such is not what lies behind this decision, more the community and friendship and sharing that goes with it. The individuals he chooses will no doubt be of like pastoral purpose. He knows more than anyone that there is a country to evangelise and the objectives of a wide-ranging Synod he inherited from Mgr Mercieca to achieve.

This means he will, first, galvanise his priests (not only parish priests) by holding regular seminars with them, organising 'refresher' courses to retrain them in the conduct of pastoral work; to redefine the ministry of reconciliation so that it becomes an experience of redemption, not a sacrament to be avoided; to open up a whole new approach to the ministry of the Word so that this does communicate the Good News and not remain, as is so often the case, an instrument of dullness or, worse, irrelevance; to attract new vocations in the knowledge that these do not necessarily respond to any call he makes, but to a higher one. Still, that higher call may follow from the example of service he and his priests set before the laity.

Has anybody told him what a task he has taken on? He knows; he knows. He is also aware that we know and that we wish him and the Bishop of Gozo, with whom he has established an excellent rapport, well. Singing lustily from the same hymn sheet will not be a problem. Both appear to have understood the meaning and the depth of their task. They share a common enthusiasm for service.

This much was made evident before last Friday's Mass of Consecration when thousands turned up in Valletta to share the occasion with Mgr Cremona; during the Mass when he indicated strongly that he had chosen as his role model, if one may put it that way, Pope John XXIII, whose words at his consecration, Archbishop Cremona made his own; and later when he did not only bless the crowd outside St John's (how magnificent this building is; and how beautifully its treasures are being highlighted), he took Bishop Grech with him to mingle with them. It was a moving experience for them and for us.

That he will be following in the footsteps of Pope John, whose own smile nobody younger than 50 will remember, he made clear in his address at the end of Mass.

"We profess we believe there's God's image in every person... that this image is present in each man and woman; in those that are estranged from God and perhaps appear as if they are getting in the way of the Church, those whose beliefs are different to ours; those whose skin colour and nationality is not (ours) and yet find themselves living among us because they had to escape from their home country; babies that are in their mothers' wombs, the elderly who are sick and perhaps abandoned... We need to see God in everyone, whoever he may be." How this will be translated into a programme of evangelisation remains to be seen but its Christian authenticity cannot be faulted.

Remain close to us", young people had told him ten days ago. He will no doubt heed their call, not least because they are the parents of the future, the future Church; and this without forgetting the parents of the present. He has arrived at a critical moment; perhaps not a moment too soon. It will be his sense of conviction that will see him, and those of us who wish to follow him, through. It will be this conviction that he will transmit to those who wish him to remain close to them, to help us rediscover our bearings.

The challenges are self-evident. The response will have to include an understanding that it is in the family, the first Church, and in schools that the faith is threatened, initially. It is in the environment of the classroom and the family that the comeback has to start. This is why he asked, last Thursday, for families to pray for him - in their home, where he knows prayer is often at a premium.

And in the classrooms of the State - what leeway has the Church in the religious instruction of the young and the adolescent? It should be clear that here, following from the family environment, there is much work to be done. There are those who say that youngsters must find their own way, should not be influenced by belief; but this is as ludicrous as saying that youngsters should be left on their own in physical training to get fit as best they can.

Belief and the values that flow from it should not be imposed but they certainly should be offered as an essential part of a round education. In this context it is heartening to learn that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the presidency of the European union, has publicly called for a reference to Christian values to be made in the Union's Constitution that will replace the ill-fated document of 2005.

Over the past two weeks voices have been raised, in some cases to a point of hysteria, in favour of divorce. The Archbishop's answer to this will no doubt be the constant reaffirmation of the dignity of marriage and the family, both of which are under attack. He has a well of accumulated, ecclesial knowledge and the wisdom of centuries from which to draw and which he will communicate, first to the young people who wished him to stay close to them and who will one day get married, and to married members of the laity who may need to have their threatened convictions shored up.

It is increasingly clear that the first thing that goes out of the window in a marriage that starts to experience difficulties, whatever these are, is a lack of respect by one, or by both, for the dignity of the other; the second is the slow erasure from memory of a vow once made.

The "plague of divorce" as the Council called by John XXIII chose to call it in the Decree on the Church in the Modern World, is just that. Contrary to what its proponents would have us believe, divorce does not preclude co-habitation but spectacularly encourages it. 40% of births in the United Kingdom took place out of wedlock, according to a recent survey and 4.5 million children were being brought up outside marriage.

There are those who hold, a few, a very few, that none of this places social cohesion in peril. Only the other day the Archbishop of Canterbury, a known liberal, was protesting that granting rights to unmarried couples was "making wedlock seem pointless". Archbishop Cremona is bound to agree with the observation made by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I imagine Mgr Cremona will make marriage and marriage preparation the centre of his pastoral concern. If he is to succeed, he can do no better than to meet up more and more with young people to convince them of the value of permanence in marriage, the gift of fidelity, the intimacy of the married state and, to quote the Book of Common Prayer, to make them understand that marriage is "not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly".

Evangelisation has to start well before marriage. It is clear, however, that along with prayer it is vital to the union. Which is why, I suspect, on the occasion of the vigil at Mdina, Mgr Cremona encouraged married couples "who do not usually pray together to pray for me tonight. And as you are praying, why pray just for me, pray to the Lord every day. As you pray for the Holy Spirit to descend unto me, also pray for (Him) to come unto you so that together we will build the Church" (my emphasis).

Archbishop Cremona's radiant smile hides from the public the crown of thorns he, as so many others before him, has inherited.

Quote....

In the Papal chapel there is a lovely crucifix made for Paul VI when he was Archbishop of Milan. It has no crown of thorns and when the Pope remarked on this to the artist, he replied, "No, the Lord has laid that on the head of the Archbishop of Milan". It is a compelling thought. - (Light in the World by Basil Hume, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster).