Society has to rediscover God and its awe for all creation, Archbishop Charles Scicluna told a congregation gathered for mass on the last day of 2019.

“If we expect to decide who lives and who dies, then we have distanced ourselves from God. If we expect that which belongs to everyone to be just ours, then we have distanced ourselves. If we decide to destroy the environment for our own benefit, then we have distanced ourselves from God,” the Archbishop told the faithful at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

The archbishop encouraged people to look on creation with awe and guard against cynicism, which he described as looking upon things and seeing them “with the perspective of ‘what is in it for me’?”

Faith in God could not be transactional, he explained in his homily, “as though God is there to satisfy our frivolous desires”.

Nor could faith be a contract, with people bartering good deeds in exchange for divine favour.  

New Year’s Day mass

Archbishop Scicluna also celebrated mass on New Year’s Day at the Dar tal-Providenza in Siġġiewi. The care home for the disabled is holding a day-long fundraising drive and the archbishop thanked people and organisations for their generosity in helping their cause.

He prayed for people to show solidarity with each other during the coming year, “even with a phone call or a small visit”.

“It’s about solitude, not money,” he said. “People can feel alone and not loved or welcome.”