We hear a lot of talk of Malta being a Catholic and even a Christian country but is it really the case? Has Malta, like many others, just bought into a version of ‘cheap’ Christianity that bears little or no resemblance to the living faith that Christ and the apostles called us to live?

I make no secret of being a person of faith while also being anti religion and anti-clerical although I have no issue with anyone expressing the faith through a religious rite. What I object to is insisting on one way being deemed the true or only way.

If we believe the scripture, the early Church, following Christ Himself, saw legalism as being fulfilled in the great command, which is to love God, yourself and all around you unconditionally, inclusively and self-sacrificially. Anything else is cheap in comparison.

When we love in this way, it becomes our personal, constant responsibility to monitor our own actions and the motives behind them. It makes the decision of to love or not to love, right and wrong before God, a simple and cheap matter of do or do not do.

We are called to follow Him not a rite or ritual, be that daily Mass or a one-off experience of being ‘born again’. It is a matter of ensuring that “thy will be done” and His alone, not that of doctrine or tradition.

There can be no such thing as ‘cheap’ Christianity. By all means, have your rites but, please, do not mistake them for the faith they are meant to reflect let alone allow them to replace that faith.

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