Pope Francis’ ongoing catechesis at his Wednesday general audiences concerns hope. Recently he affirmed that “hope is a primary need in man”. We cannot live without hope. We instinctively yearn for what we desire – the birth of a child, a family marriage, a holiday. By contrast, a person without hope is unmotivated; s/he loses interest in life and takes no initiative.
Pope Francis, however, adds that to hope is not enough. He stresses that there is a substantial difference between true hope and false hope.
Authentic hope for Pope Francis is based on trust in God’s word. False hope, by contrast, involves trust in false gods, or ‘idols’. The idols of the modern world are not images of deities used as objects of worship. They are rather, Pope Francis says, “money, power and physical beauty”. One could well add honour, success, worldly fame and sensual pleasure.
But why do people turn to idols? Pope Francis replies: because our hope and trust in God are challenged by the complexity of life, “there comes a moment when we… experience the fragility of that trust and feel the need for other certainties, more tangible and concrete”.
Scripture reveals, however, that these idols are hollow, unable to satisfy the human heart in the long run.
Pope Francis refers to Psalm 115, which presents idols as lifeless: “the message of the psalm is very clear… he who places his hope in idols becomes like them: empty images with hands that don’t touch, feet that don’t walk, mouths that cannot speak… one becomes incapable of helping, of changing things… of giving of oneself and of loving”.
He who places his hope in idols becomes like them: empty images
On the other hand, Pope Francis, referring to the same psalm, affirms that God’s grandeur enables Christians to trust and hope in the Lord: “trusting in the Lord, one becomes like Him; His blessing transforms us into His children, who share His life. Hope in God makes us enter, as it were, within the range of God’s action...”.
In terms of the above, it is sadly clear how many Maltese, even those who consider themselves Catholics, are, in fact, adorers of the idol of money. Commerce and gain are writ large in our society. Quite a few people earn very large salaries. Real estate development is widespread. Business is privileged. The list is endless. As Archbishop Charles Scicluna rightly noted recently, ours has become a society where economic gain is paramount.
A related issue is Sunday trading. It is presented as a matter of convenience for people, enabling them to shop when they like. In fact it extends consumerist habits and the gain-factor also into the weekly day of rest.
This brings with it a very serious and rarely mentioned negative consequence for society: the people who work in supermarkets and shops are deprived of their family day. Their families miss their company on Sundays. Giving the employee a day off during the week is no solution, as the other members of the family are then absent.
Sunday trading will therefore have a deleterious effect on the family, already under severe strain. The recently lifted restraints on Sunday trading come when, more than ever before, families need to protect their already limited space for shared leisure time.
Sunday trading will also deprive the day of its ‘otherness’. Non-believers and believers alike need a ‘sacred’ day of the week that breaks the routine, and respects the natural rhythm of work and rest. It is a loss to society that many of its members have to forfeit Sunday, forced unnecessarily into the drudgery of weekday toil for money.
For believers, Sunday is the day on which Christians together render public worship to God and celebrate the Lord’s Day at the Eucharist, re-enacting and reliving Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. The Lord’s Day is to be characterised by worship, joy, the performance of works of mercy and relaxation of mind and body. To make space for all this, Christians avoid replicating the work and shopping typical of a weekday.
Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.