It was a glorious spring afternoon last Sunday. Palm Sunday, as we Christians find it. I went with family for a post-prandial walk in the countryside. We found ourselves heading towards Dingli and the magnificent cliffs, teeming with happy boisterous picnickers enjoying the sea breeze and the sunshine.

I was lucky this orchid had (until now) survived the callous greed of our property developers or the Neanderthal craze to pluck beauty

We opted to move on to Laferla’s Cross with its view of the island and parked the car a few hundred metres away in a quiet place. Walking to the dilapidated chapel Tal-Lunzjata tal-Gholja, I started scouting for some of the beautiful spring flowers that still adorn our countryside.

I was quite pleased to come across a splendid specimen of the Ophrys fusca, which belongs to the orchid family, and which we Maltese call id-Dubbiena. I like orchids because their paradigm tells of tiny beginnings, the right humus, a long patient wait and a rewarding fragile beauty.

The beautiful Ophrys fusca which I photographed with my iPhone started life as one of the smallest seeds we know. It was lucky to land in a friendly humus containing a special fungus which will inhabit its roots for the rest of its existence. It had to wait a number of years for the leaves to develop and the first flower to appear.

I was lucky it had (until now) survived the callous greed of our property developers or the Neanderthal craze to pluck beauty (be it flora or fauna) only to throw it away a few instants later like a broken sullen toy. I felt happy to meet a delicate flower, like an old friend that reminds me that Easter is with us.

The silent orchid gracing the Mediterranean garigue near Laferla’s cross reminded me of the paradigm of my faith, our faith in the Crucified and Risen Lord. The beginnings were and are always tiny and humble: an empty tomb that has not known decay, a contrite heart that once went far astray.

There is patience and perseverance, the struggle to find the right terrain, to provide the right formation and education, the struggle against the enemies of right living peppered with so many falls to one’s vices and cravings. But there is also so much beauty in the pilgrimage of our Christian faith and ethos.

The devotion to life from its very tiny beginnings until its sobering end; the love of family and parenthood; solidarity with the poor; the thirst for justice; the celebration of beauty and the beauty of the Liturgy.

All this is renewed at Easter. Mel Gibson, in his film The Passion of the Christ, has Jesus utter these words from Scriptures as he starts the Way of the Cross: “I will make new all things”.

Easter is the Christian kairos (time of grace) for new beginnings. I often return to a triple-word agenda set by the Apostle Paul in the first century when writing to his disciple Titus: sobrie, iuste, et pie vivamus in hoc saeculo (let us live soberly, justly, devotedly in this world).

Sobriety looks to my lifestyle, to how much I spend, to whether I manage to control my cravings for lust, for greed, for self-assertion. Justice looks as to whether I treat other people with respect, with dignity, with love.

Devotion teaches me there is a God who is my ultimate judge, my Heavenly Father who watches over me and the rest of the human family with mercy and tenderness. I find that the three-word agenda from our Apostle Paul is a good recipe for lasting peace and true happiness. I know that I am weak, but in Him, my Crucified and Risen Lord, I am made strong.

Like the life of my friend the silent orchid, my life of faith need not be afraid of tiny beginnings and humble patient perseverance amid the toils and struggles of every day. There is also great promise: beauty and peace now and bliss and joy forever.

A blessed Easter to all.

Mgr Charles Scicluna is Auxiliary Bishop of Malta.

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