Fortunately, I was born during the Second World War, so I have been spared the memory of that horrendous event. Thankfully, Britain and its allies won the war, and Europeans thoroughly appreciated their newly won freedom and peace, threatened as it had been by the Nazi scourge.
The world of my childhood simmered down, the air felt so spiritually refreshing; people went calmly and peacefully about their daily work. Life after the war was so beautiful, so simple; there was such harmony and bliss. So thankful and so close to God, neighbours helped each other and church attendance soared. At the time I was too young to understand the terrible events of the recent war and the sinister reality that was Adolf Hitler, Joseph Mengele and other despots. My happiness could not be spoiled; I was one fortunate child growing up in an earthly paradise. It was of course only later when I attained the age of reason that I fully realised all of the above.
Around my 12th/15th birthday things began to change. By that time people seemed to have begun forgetting all about the evil days of the war, taking life and liberty for granted and gradually drifted away from God. Moral deterioration started setting in.
Today, just over 50 years later, we find ourselves in the tragic and pitiful state we are in.
We live in a world steeped in the venom of superficiality materialism/consumerism, promiscuity and consequently suffering the stress, pain and conflict that it all creates. We rush after all that glitters but is not gold. We become estranged from God and, fools that we are, we chase after hell on earth as if it were paradise.
In my childhood and youth, the Eucharist, the Word of God and daily rosary kept families lovingly together. In stark contrast, these days blasphemy seems to have become such a widespread ant terrifying vice.
Back then we wore decent, elegant clothes. Today we are the wretched slaves of pagan fashion dictators and we all know what they are interested in. Not only are today’s fashions indecent, they are also in the great majority very ridiculous. Don’t we look in mirrors any longer, don’t we look at ourselves, or have we lost all sense of pride and self-esteem?
Church attendance appears to be steadily on the decline. Without God and the Church’s sacraments instituted by Christ, we live perilously, lost in the dark on the edge of eternity.
In this tragic scenario so many of our families are falling apart. We are now on the eve of a divorce referendum. Christ is against divorce, his message is crystal clear. I will refrain from quoting Him. If you are a Christian and still unfamiliar with the Word of God, open the Sacred Scriptures, the all time best seller, and find out for yourself.
Truly there is a lot of pain and it is all so heartbreaking, but divorce is not the cure for an ailing society. So many misguided people thought it was, but oh! how wrong their decision turned out to be!! Divorce does not only aggravate the general sorry situation, it is society’s malignant tumour, fast spreading and the most tragic fact about it is that so far it has proved to be irreversible.
There are those who argue: “How could it be that all the others are wrong and we are right?” To begin with Christ is on our side, what mortal knows better than Him? Secondly, the devastation and chaos brought about by the legalisation of divorce in all the other countries more than prove them wrong. As William Penn said: “Right is right even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.”
There are practising Catholics who expect the Church to change her stance on divorce. The Church cannot change Christ’s message or go against His will.
The cure for our ailments is to get close to God. The late Bishop Fulton Sheen rightly said that “it takes three to get married”, the third person being Jesus of course. Having Christ in our marriage does not mean simply to have a church wedding, but to keep Christ each day throughout our married life as our teacher and guide. One cannot do this away from the Church he founded and the sacraments he instituted.
We need Christ constantly to teach and help us to combat the devil’s forces and agents in our life, and in our day these are so many. We urgently need to break away from the deceptive spirit of this world and accept Christ’s all-loving embrace, so he will make families rich in Christian values and virtues the source of great joy and peace of mind and heart.’
Bro Leli Gatt SDB