Those three months at Malta

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, represented Benedict XVI at the ceremonies marking the conclusion of the Pauline Year in Malta (27-30 June), where the Apostle to the Gentiles, shipwrecked after a violent storm, remained for three months. We propose a long excerpt from the meditation given by the special envoy of the Pope during the solemn closing celebration in the piazza in front of the Co-Cathedral at Valletta, capital of Malta, on the evening of 29 June. The apostle – said Cardinal Antonelli, addressing the people of Malta – stopped in the island for only three months; but those months were decisive and forever marked the history of Malta. Nineteen and a half centuries have elapsed since then; you have shared many different experiences; you have gone through many storms, many trials and tribulations. But you have remained faithful to Paul and to Christ. Our times too are beset by storms, especially by the storms of relativism, individualism, and consumerism. Not even the Church of Malta is secure from them, because the transmission of the faith and of moral values does not happen automatically by habit; it must never be taken for granted.Benedict XVI points out in his Encyclical Spe salvi: “Incremental progress is only possible in the material sphere. […] Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man’s freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. […] Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning”. (no. 24)Christians of Malta, you are rightly proud of your history and the faith of your fathers. You must, however, by your own free choice, practice it in your lives today and bear witness of it to your children. You must keep your eyes fixed on the Lord through personal and community prayer, the liturgy, and by listening to and meditating on the Word of God. You must today testify to your conversion to Christ and accept him in your life, recognizing together with St. Paul that “Jesus is the Lord”, not only with your mind but by practical conduct.The central core and characteristic of Christianity is not a doctrine, but the relation with the concrete, unique and incomparable person of Jesus, not only master and model, but the Saviour who is victorious over sin and death, and who lives in our midst and within the events of the world, to give value, beauty and salvation to individuals and peoples. He, as he solemnly promised to us, remains with us to the end of the world and manifests his presence through the Church, called by St. Paul the “body of Christ”, his visible expression, and especially through the saints and miracles in all ages, so that believing in him highly reasonable. Being Christians means trusting in him, belonging to him like St. Paul, working for him, listening to him in his Word, receiving him in the Eucharist, entering into communion with him in prayer, assisting the inspirations of his Holy Spirit, asking for his forgiveness, and drawing from him the wellsprings of hope, ability to love, courage in sacrifice, moral responsibility, and joy in spite of all the difficulties. Being Christians also means loving the Church, body of Christ, and being well incorporated in it, like Paul who by converting himself to Christ also became converted with passionate love to his Church: “Now I am happy in the sufferings I support for you and give fulfilment to whatever of the afflictions of Christ are lacking in my flesh in favour of his body, which is the Church”.You are Christians, heirs of St. Paul and of a glorious tradition… The more you are in communion with Christ and with his Church, the more you will feel sent on mission like St. Paul. Pope John Paul II, who made no less than two pastoral visits to you, told you authoritatively that Europe needs the witness of Malta, of your human values, of your “rare humanitas”, and of your Christian faith.