The thorny subject of divorce is clouded and flooded with endless pros and cons. For various intents and purposes proponements in favour or against divorce bring all sorts of claims to justify their grounded or ungrounded stance. But, when all is said, the whole debate is unhappily soaked with a terrible existential emptiness. When God is set aside from the divorce issue, the entire discussion is doomed to fail and turns into shambles.

A recent voice crying in the wilderness (see Mk 1,3) is inviting this confused nation to go back to its knees and pray to God for wisdom. In his TV programme Erġa’ lura, Catholic evangelist Edward Spiteri made a valid point by affirming that the underlying cause behind the divorce issue is that as Maltese Catholics we are letting ourselves be divorced from God. We are ignoring his voice to indulge ourselves in all kinds of evil. As the prophet Isaiah prophesised almost 3,000 years ago: “I also will choose affliction for them, and bring their fears upon them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight” (Isa 66,4).

The heart of this country is gradually being hardened because God is being nicely sidelined to the point of being completely neglected.

“Hardness of heart” (Matt 19, 8) can only be fixed by repentance. Our human life is a wonderful God-given gift. Let us live it to the full by repenting, that is by reuniting ourselves with God once again. As St Isaac the Syrian put it: “This life has been given you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things”.

Then, the divorce debate will naturally follow …