Missing
the wood for the trees is a proverbial danger.
Getting untrammeled in routine is an easy way
to lose the sense of direction on ones life and
the significance of one’s activities. Then
we find ourselves in a quagmire we thought only
others got into.
It happens even more easily in modern industrial
societies, despite or perhaps rather because of
their greater material wealth. Family, working
and social relations get tangled and some even
question the meaningfulness of their existence.
Greater social and economic freedoms have thrust
heavier burdens of choice and responsibility upon
the shoulders of the individual, but they have
not supplied adequate support in the form of guiding
frameworks or maps for the journey of life. Rather
the contrary. The networks of family, local community
and close friends, which provided counsel and
practical help in the past, have been disrupted
and everyone is left to rely mostly on personal
resources.
To maintain security of orientation in life it
has now become important to distance oneself once
in a while from daily routine. To delve into one’s
soul and remind oneself of what really counts
in life. The best way to succeed in this exercise
is to put oneself in the context of a community
which, although belonging to the twentieth century
in terms of economic and welfare development,
has not lost the traditional values of family
and social solidarity rooted in a millennial past.
Such is the island-nation of Malta.
In the Maltese Islands, the rhythm of life is
still scanned by Christian ritual and its patterns
by Christian belief. The Maltese undoubtedly claim
that the source of their festive approach to life
and of the courage and co-operation with which
they face its problems and difficulties is their
Christian faith.
Christianity has almost 2000 years of history
in Malta. No one less than the Apostle Paul himself
brought it to the island in 60 AD. St. Luke describes
the circumstances in chapters 27 and 28 of the
Acts of the Apostles. Paul was being taken to
Rome to be tried as a political rebel, but the
ship was wrecked on the island. The Evangelist
underlines the unusual hospitality with which
the Maltese greeted the crew and the prisoners
during the winter, which they were forced to spend
on the island. The Maltese did not follow the
usual practice of plundering or exploiting the
victims of a shipwreck.
Perhaps this natural sense of brotherhood and
solidarity explains why they were so ready and
open to accept the gospel of Christian charity
preached by St. Paul. According to local tradition,
the Governor of the island, Publius, became its
first Bishop.
In the forging of the Maltese character, it is
difficult not to believe that environmental conditions
played no part. Malta and Gozo are rather arid
rocks, making survival a constant struggle. The
need to resist pirates and foreign occupants exacting
loot and taxes aggravated the difficulty. But
these challenges only served to strengthen the
islanders’ solidarity and trust in God.
Indeed, Malta and Gozo seem to have been sacred
islands even in prehistoric times. Many huge megalithic
temples, some well over 5000 years old, appear
to have been places of pilgrimage. Foreigners
as well as the local people came to commune with
a Goddess, probably representing the Great Earth
Mother, symbol of fertility, and to consult her
oracle and even seek cures for their illnesses.
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