Be honest with yourself

Picture this. You earn a moderate income and live with your spouse and children in the smallest house on the street. Persons (let us say they are Maltese) turn up in your hallway without even knocking at your door.

They won't tell you their names or where they come from - but they definitely won't go back. They say they don't really want to stay at your house because they prefer the one further up the street - it's bigger and nicer.

You ask your neighbours in the bigger house if they would help you with these persons - or at least with some of them. Their prompt answer is: "Stop complaining and get on with it".

These people have been "dropping in" for some time now. The more you get to know them the more you begin to realise that some of them left their home because they were not able to make a decent living where they came from.

They eat the food paid for by you, they inevitably fall ill and "ask" for care and medication paid for by you, their children need (and deserve) their education and are sent to school paid for by you.

They have by now taken up quite a bit of the limited space in your modest home and they keep coming. You were glad to help in the beginning but now the strain on your family is beginning to show. The children are irritable and fed up, you and your spouse seem to argue often and it invariably is because of your "guests".

Got the picture? Now be honest. Are you ready to put up uninvited and unannounced "visitors" (remember, they are Maltese) in your own home - not knowing for how long?

Are you ready to clothe them, feed them, educate them and medicate them? Are you ready to accept them even though they have made it very clear that they would prefer to stay at your neighbour's house? Are you willing to keep them at home even though you know they are causing anxiety within your own family?

If your answers to the above four questions are an honest and unequivocal yes, then you have my unwavering admiration. There are not many people like you - St Maximillian Kolbe, St Francis of Assisi and Mother Theresa come to mind, so you are in the best of company.

I, personally, would not be capable of being so "accommodating", especially in the long-term - and it is not a question of nationality, religion or skin colour - they are Maltese after all.

I would dare say that most people are as "heartless" as I am (if they were truly honest). And yet some of these people are shocked at the "unchristian" reaction that has manifested itself lately (not the racist flyers and racial hatred a miniscule minority spew out). I find this holier-than-thou, patronising and pontificating tone adopted by these people, especially certain newspaper contributors and so-called "opinion leaders", quite nauseating.

Donating money or giving up one's free time to charity and good causes is the easy bit compared to actually leaving the comforts of your home (as do missionaries, doctors, nurses and lay people) and indeed giving it up (even part of it) to strangers.

So why are these people shocked that this Catholic country supposedly treats its uninvited guests so "badly"?

Get real! Be honest! The preoccupation voiced by the majority of Joe Public is understandable and justified. It may not be exactly what Jesus Christ advocated - but His has always been the hardest act to follow - hence most of us are mere mortals and the minute few become saints (or heroes, if you are partial to the JC part).

We have a very real problem. We are willing to help anyone "less fortunate than us" as we have in fact done on many an occasion - but we also have our financial and socio-geographical limits. Our neighbours have such limits too and they too do not relish having to play host to anyone who just drops in (hence the cold shoulder we get whenever we bring this subject up at the neighbourhood watch meeting).

Our neighbours, however, do not go about calling each other racist or xenophobic...