On Sunday January 10, 2010, I was interviewed for The Sunday Times. During my career, which my grey and white hair purports to be a long one, I interviewed and was interviewed many times. However, every interview is a story on its own. Every time you have a few butterflies both before the interview is done and until it is published. These butterflies do no harm. The harmful butterflies are those that one can get after the interview is published! They could be the result of two different reasons: the journalists did not do his work well thus misrepresenting what you said or you actually said things which now you regret saying. Fortunately, there were no such butterflies after the interview was published.
I liked the way things came out. It was a pleasure working with Hermann Grech of The Sunday Times. He was tough but fair. His editing of a 45-minute interview was very good and succeeded to reflect well what I said. On my part I add that I have no regrets in anything I said. I do not think that some of the things I said went down well with the Catholic right. If that is the case I have no problem either; I would worry if none of the things I said would be considered as objectionable by the Catholic right.
I liked very much liked the heading of the interview. "In the Name of my Father." It was punchy and original. The heading I would have used would have been a different one but it would not have been half as good. I always "hate" it when someone ups me professionally! It's one of my many defects.
Are you a conservative?
Towards the end of the interview Hermann pointedly and directly asked me this question.
My answer, I hope, was clear.
"I don't think a Catholic can be conservative. As a Catholic, you accept God's loving invitation and you start a relationship with Him. God is always new and this relationship with Him implies that you always discover new things. God is a feast. Catholicism is about the celebration of this feast. Catholicism is about being creative, not being conservative. It is about confronting the future aided by the beauty of the love of Christ for us. It is about enthusiastically exploring the future not conserving the past."
The thesaurus on my computer gave me this definition of conservative: reluctant to accept change; in favour of preserving the status quo and traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change. A Catholic, in my opinion, can be anything but that. Dun Karm, our national poet, had described God as "zghazugh ta' dejjem." The attitude one generally associates with youth is anything but conservative. Such an attitude is rather forward looking; it is hardly ever backward looking.
God the Father and His Son, Our Lord Jesus, are evergreen and ever new. No era, nation, people or culture can claim that they discovered or grasped them wholly or totally. Our grasp is always partial. The Spirit is present in our life to help us grasp them more and more. The more we grasp them, the more we know them and the more we know them the more we love them. It is equally true that the more we love them, the more we know them and grasp them. Knowing God is like immersing one self in love and beauty. In this perspective, to-morrow is more beautiful than yesterday because to-morrow it is possible to love and know God more than we know and love Him to-day.
As part of my answer to Herman, I made a reference to the phrase "God is a feast". I lifted that phrase from a book by Fr Pius Sammit OCD outlining the spirituality of St John of the Cross. I strongly recommend this book. The phrase evidences the celebrative aspect of our Christian life in the Father through Christ. Celebration is the leitmotiv of Christian living.
Fear is a four lettered word
In another part of the interview, I had referred to our relationship with God as an adventure of love and joy. I was happy to read the Pope's homily last Sunday on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. He also referred to "the joyful and exciting adventure of being disciples." Pope Benedict had written a book-describing priests as "ministers of his joy."
Joy not melancholy is the cornerstone on which we build our faith.
Christianity is about building new synthesis to face new realities. It is not about conserving the past. Christianity is not about building defensive walls. It is about exploring open spaces. Siege mentalities are the product of the losers. Thanks to our redemption, we are winners not losers. The Lord Jesus is the Lord of history. He is the winner par excellance. Winners are engulfed in joy and hope for the future not immersed in fear and trembling. This is a constant of our history.
It is our task to develop this vision into a pastoral strategy. The word fear has no place in this strategy. Fear is a four-lettered word for Christians. There should be a precept of the Church banning its use.
Failing to build such a pastoral strategy would be a grave sin indeed.
On a different note
I had strongly criticised the story published in the newspaper Realta and which was an object of great controversy after the University authorities stopped the distribution of the paper on Campus.
On the other hand, I cannot not criticise the decision taken by the Police to prosecute the student-editor of the paper. The decision was ill-though. Are we still in time to stop this nonsense? The issue should have reached our Courts. It has already wasted enough time of the nation.