In her contribution entitled “So go ahead and arrest me then”, Daphne Caruana Galizia writes about unbridled freedom of expression (TMIS, 8 March).

Freedom is what it is because of the barriers safeguarding it in its many aspects, but freedom of expression none the less. It all comes in the same package. Breaking through these safety limits and going beyond is to seek a fools’ paradise; it is to venture out and become entrapped, a miserable slave of some cruel source; it is to walk unknowingly into a mine field carpeted with fragrant roses, where even the very angels do not tread. The result of course is pain in one or more of its many variations, chaos, or even final disaster. Then comes the eternal beyond.

It is God, from whom we all come, who gives humanity this marvellous gift of freedom, lovingly governed by the Ten Commandments; these are humanity’s safety barriers, freedom’s guardians. Two thousand years ago Christ walked this earth and continued to expand on these with his teaching, his works and way of life. It was all about love, explained and lived, the love that liberates; there is no other, no such thing as freedom but Christ’s. To seek elsewhere is to end up deceitfully and miserably enslaved.

The properties of Christ’s love that gives us our freedom and safeguards it are: happiness, fortitude and peace, the fruits of mercy, forgiveness, forbearance, humility, compassion, honesty, temperance, decency, care, altruism... the list seems endless. These and only these are humanity’s liberating forces.

Of course it is very tempting to embrace a different sort of freedom, a deception; it comes all so easy and overpowering. One can choose the type of freedom that has another long list of properties: hate, cruelty, pride, anger, avarice, jealousy, gluttony, sloth, deceit, violence, aggression, disrespect, egoism, injustice, insolence... all this of course is what breaking through the safety barriers entails. Again, the consequence of this is indicated above.

All our actions are not free, they are governed by the above virtues or vices, and these dictate whether we are free or not. It is all a matter of choice. We have been given the freedom to choose whether we want to be free or not at all. Please God, Daphne Caruana Galizia will one day soon truly live in the “Age of Enlightenment” that has been ongoing since the coming of Christ, and will not wait till journey’s end to realise the utter folly of her intelligent reasoning.

I do not consider myself a religious zealot by far, only a common sinner struggling with life, and certainly nor do all those she so labelled, claiming that they annoy her on a regular basis. One wonders, would she deny these the freedom of expression she claims for herself?

If only she could at least be as tolerant as Voltaire, “I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it to the death”. Then we all would share that little bit of common space where we all could bathe in the bliss of peace. May one and all embrace the freedom to love God above all else and our neighbour as dearly as we love ourselves. Then and only then will we know what is good for us and not as Daphne claims. When we all come to be judged at the end of time may none be found wanting in love.

Leli Gatt

Senglea