We are living a lie in both Malta and Gozo. Our population, society, is slumbering. We are becoming increasingly insensitive, selfish and, often, adopt poor values. People are avidly in search of satisfaction, power and money. But these do not satisfy the heart of human beings.
Wilhelm Reich wisely states: “Empty souls do not ever drink great thoughts to change the world for the better… They accuse the tyrant but not the people who make tyrants powerful.” Friedrich Nietzsche declares: “Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.”
In Malta and Gozo there is an urgent need for the truth. Truth needs constantly to be upheld. Doing so is very difficult as it assumes for us a definite form because of the limitations presented by human nature.
In his narrative epic poem Divina Commedia, the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri wrote in Inferno that “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain their great neutrality”.
I don’t know how many of us are ready to die for the truth, justice and to defend the sinking of the ship called Malta and Gozo. We have lost our direction and our precious ‘Maltese’ identity.
We urgently need to embrace truth and courage and to enlighten and reorganise ourselves both on a private and a public level in this country. We need to recreate authentic and sincere relations with one another.
The discernment of what is right and what is wrong is now becoming a priority. Our words, attitudes and decisions must be aimed at supporting, assisting and encouraging one another and never to destroy, humiliate and sadden.
St Paul urges us all to encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. “See that no one pays back wrong for wrong but, at all times, make it your aim to do good to one another and to all people” (1 Thess 5:14).
If you have nothing positive to say, it is better to remain silent. Indeed, sensibility is that detail of our heart that makes a person special.
Everyone has heard about the young Sicilian judge, Rosario Lavatino, now Blessed, who was murdered by the Mafia. He was shot in the mouth to symbolically stress he should have remained silent. However, his execution conveyed a strong and eloquent message of sacrifice towards the truth.
In Malta, we also had the superb testimony of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The blood of these martyrs of truth is a seed for truth itself.
The great Voltaire used to say: “So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannise will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise to put shackles upon sleeping men.”
The Lord has commissioned us to be the light and salt of the earth; let us be the light of those who want to live in darkness.
We urgently need to embrace truth and courage- Fr Charles Cini
In this country, we have created a culture of favouritism. I try to find the proper words of the Gospel to give a right interpretation to what is happening on our islands: “But if you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of sin” (James 2:9).
In my view, the freedom of humanity must dominate in every sphere of one’s life. I believe that the most dangerous person is the one who listens, thinks and observes but, then, remains silent and does nothing.
We grumble but we are afraid to speak up in the face of the destruction of our country. Our conscience will chide us when we realise we have done wrong and, slowly, we lose our serenity and become slaves of our horrible wrongdoings.
Sometimes, we try to obliterate even our past, our history and forget our forefathers, who have bequeathed us what we cherish in Malta and Gozo today.
When a country destroys its memory of the past it will also lose its true identity. We have to admit that we have all but lost our identity.
We are certainly experiencing a crisis of values. One is never satisfied, always in search of power, filling one’s heart with empty and devious illusions.
The world has destabilised the harmony of life. Flirting with futile illusions one risks becoming obsessed, pursuing a life that is abnormal. To stress my point, allow me to quote Don Bosco: “Life is a wonderful gift of God but very short. One must be quick to render good for evil before death reaches us.”
My friend, the late Giulio Andreotti, used to tell me: “I follow the philosophy of St Bernard: ‘Look at everything, endure a lot but correct one thing at a time’.”
Finally, Anne Frank, murdered by the Nazis in 1945, wrote: “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
I add: do not destroy our heritage.
“Who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:13).
Fr Charles Cini is a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco.