Seemingly determined to sweep his detractors aside, Archbishop Charles Scicluna gallops back to the spotlight with a thought-provoking theme – the pursuit of material gain at all costs.
He could not have chosen a better time for it than the festive season. If he keeps stealing the limelight in this manner, he would eclipse, or at least become equal to, political leaders in his ability to throw the spotlight on issues raising particular concerns to the community.
He is now focusing on material gain, in both politics and in the rest of society, to the exclusion of what is truly essential in life, using, to explain his thoughts, the word kerdocracy (rule based on the desire for material gain) and a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a French aristocrat and writer.
Since the quote, taken from the writer’s The Little Prince, lost a bit in its quotation in the press, it runs as follows: “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The Archbishop could, no doubt, write a book about it but he simplified its meaning succinctly when he said that people’s worth today was getting measured not in how open they were to dialogue but in how much money they had in their bank accounts.
He went on: “For people today, success is measured in the size of their yacht, not in just owning a yacht. It’s measured in the size of their car and their house, whether it has a swimming pool… things that sadden the heart when they become the measure of the quality of life.”
How very true.
Mgr Scicluna seems to be hitting here at people in different strata of society, exposing the constant desire for material gain, almost at all costs; unbridled hedonism and instant gratification. Governments and politicians that make wealth material gain the be-all and end-all of life are much to blame, too. Many, today, do not think twice to get bank loans to buy all sorts of things, running into debt to a level that will take years for them to settle and which some will find unable to repay, with consequences to them and to their families. Banks that promote this trend are not doing any favour to the community.
Much of the pursuit of pleasure, of instant gratification, is sought at the expense of a more meaningful quality of life, which is why perhaps the Archbishop used Saint-Exupery’s quote on what is truly essential in life.
Corruption, in many of its forms, and at so many levels of society, erodes values and leads to discontent. The Archbishop was cautious not to overload his theme but he could have gone on to speak about deteriorating moral values. Values change over the years, some negatively, others positively. Drug abuse, the decline of the traditional family and a rights-based culture, without any personal responsibility, just to mention a few negatives, have lowered moral standards.
There have been improvements, too, both in the enactment of social laws protecting, or improving, the state of minorities and in values, such as the rise in contributions for charitable work and the involvement of so many people, including the young, in voluntary organisations in different aspects of life.
Through their words and actions, the country’s leaders can help raise moral standards by providing the right guiding light to their people. The Archbishop is not shirking his responsibility in this respect.