Brother Gary, a member of the Fraternity of Charles de Foucauld was on a stay in Malta awaiting the renewal of his visa so that he would be able to carry on with his missionary work in Saudi Arabia. Not an easy job at all. Officially, he is an English language teacher. However, Brother Gary, living in an Islamic country, in silence and away from scrutiny, practises his Christian values scrupulously.
As a Christian brother he is present whenever and wherever Christians are caught and executed. His silent presence is always of great comfort to those victims brutally murdered. He makes sure they see him in the midst of the watching Muslim spectators with both of his index fingers crossed over in the form of a cross, to convey the message to the unfortunate victims that they are never alone.
The stories Brother Gary related literally nailed me and other priests to the seats we were sitting on in the refectory of the Archbishop’s Seminary. I was amazed at the great courage shown by this brother. At the same time I felt so worried about the many Christians dying in defence of their faith, while on this so-called Christian island of ours, we are after too many rubrics that hinder us from practising what we believe in.
Brother Gary told us that one of his numerous clandestine ‘jobs’ is currently travelling from one place to the next removing the corpses of offsprings nailed on to their own mothers’ front doors. This often happens because they fearlessly call out the name of Jesus. In staunch Muslim countries, Christians are severely warned that if they dare even mention the name of the Jesus, they will be executed.
“But they are simply not afraid,” said Brother Gary. “They openly confess that they belong to Jesus. Faith makes them feel loved.”
Brother Gary then frankly told us what was worrying him.
“When I used to travel,” he said, “I was often advised to turn to and confide in a Maltese priest for any spiritual needs. Maltese priests could be found everywhere. It is not so today. I came to your country and your own people do not recognise you. They do not know anything about you. When you say you are priests, they tell you that still they do not know you. As if your identity as priests is unknown to youths... I am not worried going back to an Islamic state where I might be killed. My concern is that you are losing souls. The souls of the future generations are in your hands.”
This was surely the most effective homily I ever listened to. At the same time, certain statements seemed to touch me on the raw. They were all the more difficult and weighty than all of the exams I had to sit for at University. This is after all the ministry of my priesthood – to manifest Jesus to all and sundry.
At this point, in the presence of Brother Gary, I could not help contemplate the gross bad examples that we, the Church in Malta, might perhaps be setting.
We definitely cannot stay put and keep playing about, avoiding the most essential things to lead a truly Christian life. There is no room in our day to day living, as priests, for breeding a lifestyle with a social status, soulless activism, privileged politicians who offers the minimal service. Our soul is Jesus Christ himself who challenges our way of living, the sort of pastoral work we carry out, and the type of liturgies we celebrate.
We are depriving youths from having a life based on true faith, and our families from experiencing the domestic Church
What a shame. We are losing our country’s Catholic soul. It is all our fault as we distanced ourselves from what is really ecclesiastical. Brother Gary was absolutely right when he said that our own people do not recognise us. It is because we chose to give priority to the means and not the message, the rubrics and not the liturgy, to the ceremonies and not the celebrations.
We chose to incite the Communion of Saints instead of rejoicing at the covenant of the brethren. We have erected dumb monuments to celebrate forgotten anniversaries instead of celebrating the living experiences of the Risen Christ. We crushed our altars, adorned our churches with perhaps stupid or trivial decorations and we got lost in vain embellishments and glitters that quickly fade away.
Notwithstanding all adjustments – with the excuse of updating ourselves according to our times – our people still do not know us. Those who we think are the core Church goers, might not even know the basics of the Gospel message.
How are we going to tackle such situations? Shall we bury our heads in the sand and keep losing souls? What will be the legacy of the Church in Malta of our times? What will it be remembered for? The Church in the Arab world shall be remembered for martyrdom… and ours… for lukewarmness that leads to destruction.
The Church in the Arab world is yielding convinced Christians, whereas, in our beloved country we are depriving youths from having a life based on true faith, and our families from experiencing the domestic Church.
We seem not to be giving the faithful sound moral values and our elderly cannot be comforted by the fact that the younger generation can live the values they themselves lived.
It is about time we diverted our route – a route with lack of pastoral vision. We cannot carry on dishonouring Christ’s Church with our vulgar behaviour. We cannot keep silent when faced with indifference; and emptiness of wounded hearts; and when we hear the groans of the poor and suffering.
The Church needs to become once again prophetic as it used to be in several sectors of society. We should once again provide strong pillars in education, social assistance, in the human sector, in the spiritual and pastoral fields.
Clergy and laymen should once again stand up and be counted to work in favour of the man in the street for his own formation and the building of the Church.
The spilled blood of the martyrs in Islamic states ought to irrigate the narrow-minded, indifferent Christians in our country. Never mind the feasts, ceremonies, pastoral activities without radical Christian principles. We might need to start anew and learn the essence of what makes us human beings and Christians, to enable us to shape a society of strong values that put God and man at the heart of everything.
I sincerely would like to keep following Brother Gary. He is truly a man worthy of the title of a convinced Christian. I want to learn more from his experiences and pass them on to my fellow priests on our island.
Fr George Schembri is an assistant parish priest in Żurrieq.