We write our own history day by day. Every one of us is responsible for writing his own story, minute by minute, and his own history to better pass it on to our children. Sometimes, we are not aware that we are losing our control over our pulse and our vigour.
We are forgetting what our forefathers did for our country, to protect the gift of beauty and freedom given to us by God. The great sacrifices they made and the battles they fought. It is enough to remember the Great Siege and World War II, the many enemies who tried to possess Malta and Gozo, the many people who gave their lives. But, today, the battle is waged by the Maltese themselves; one against the other.
We are becoming slaves of erroneous ideologies, we are losing our identity, our faith, while some are becoming rich at the expense of others. Power, money, property and being fake is the motto of the day and the rule of behaving. If our great thinkers, poets and writers were living today, like our great Dun Karm, they would denounce this behaviour.
The problem is that, today, the more one has, the more one wants. We have sold our soul to iniquity. We have exchanged our faith for pleasure and money.
They are the same people who organise our feasts, our processions and play with our statues.
Plato used to say: “No one is more hated than he who says the truth.” But man is not satisfied, his heart is not at peace, he lives disorientated, losing his direction and, especially, the gift of faith, which God donated directly to us through St Paul (cf. Acts of the Apostles).
Sometimes, when I go to the cemetery and pause in silence and prayer, I imagine hearing our forefathers shouting in one voice: “Quo Vadis Malta and Gozo? And what about the dirty and filthy politics? Have you forgotten the sacrifices we made, often living in poverty and working hard to earn our bread and educate our children and giving them the dignity of being Maltese and Gozitans. Shame on you. Please stop, reflect and decide not to ruin the dignity of being Maltese and Gozitans.”
I am sure that, if we are sincere with ourselves, deep in our heart we are unhappy and ashamed. The more we have, the more we want. But, in our heart, we are miserable and humiliated in front of other countries.
Why have the people in power lost their voice?- Fr Charles Cini
Remember that, today, we may be here but, tomorrow, we may not be anymore. At a certain stage, there will be no more mysteries, everything will become open and we may finish our life alone, with our misdeeds and failures.
Every day is a new day. It is a pity that he who does not walk with God dies alone and loses everything, including power and money.
St Francis of Assisi used to say: “It is not enough to go to church to be a good Christian but to put into practice day by day what you believe.”
This message also goes to the many ‘bullies’ who are destroying the beauty and identity of our country.
Why have the people in power lost their voice? Sometimes, they are even directly involved in deleting and destroying the history and the identity of our islands.
Some people, more than others, can do whatever they please and those responsible remain silent. In ethics, this is called ‘abuse’.
The life of every human being is made by his intimate will.
In his Inferno, Dante wrote: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain their great neutrality.”
And Norman Cousins says: “The tragedy of life is not death but what dies inside of us while we live.”
Fr Charles Cini, member, Salesians of Don Bosco