A year ago, on 15 November (feast of St Albert the Great), Archbishop Pawl Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech issued a powerful and challenging joint pastoral letter on the occasion of the Avvent 2011 (Advent 2011). The advent in the Roman Catholic Church tradition is the season that starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. This letter was entitled ‘Il-Kuragg li Niggeddu’ (The Courage for Renewal). The Church’s theme for this year (2012/2013) has been dedicated to ‘Faith’. The first step in our walk to faith is to embrace Jesus in faith through accepting being born from above or having the Born-Again experience.
In this letter the Bishops harped on the need of the Maltese Church to be Born-Again and that courage is needed to do so. After centuries of tradition and rituals started by man, the Maltese Church has acquired the fame of being a beautiful museum void of the relationship that Jesus demanded from us. Maltese Catholics have been born into a Church of ritualistic celebrations without ever having had a genuine Born-Again experience. Being born into Catholic Malta does not automatically make you a Christian, just as sitting in a garage does not make you a motor vehicle.
There is a much more deeper meaning to our Christian faith than looking at the ‘outer shell’. Yes, it truly requires courage and commitment, as the Bishops said, to be a true Christian rather than just having the title of ‘Catholic’. In John 3:3, 6-7, Jesus pronounced the formula for being truly saved and explains clearly that our faith is a far cry from performing religious works (going to Church, giving offerings and observing the religious laws) and thinking that just by this than a person can achieve self-righteousness and heaven. To be saved from hell, requires a higher call and commitment. Do we know what to do and are we prepared to do it? Jesus told us what to do. The Lord Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Perhaps Catholics in Malta find it difficult to accept the challenge and pluck up courage to be Born-Again because to be Born-Again challenges the very heart and essence of the Catholic religion. Nicodemus was a Pharisee (John 3:1), a very strict orthodox religious man. He celebrated the Passover, paid tithes, said prayers, brought sacrifices and tried to keep the Law. To him the Lord Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.” Being good, keeping the golden rule, joining a church, being baptized or living according to a religious creed will not make you born again. There will be many in hell that did all of these things. Will you? “Ye must be born again.”
You will find people in all strata of Maltese society who are morally good and observe all the ethics of behaviour and the law of the land. You may try to keep to the Golden Rule, pay your bills, be a good neighbour, stay out of jail, and live a good, moral life, but that won’t make you born again.
Did God’s Son spoke these words on the new birth to Nicodemus, a man who was doing his best to gain Heaven? Without a doubt, he was neither a thief, nor a drunkard or a gambler. He was a true husband, a good neighbour, a man of clean morals, and religious. If he needed to be born again, so do you. How can someone expect to make it to Heaven without being born again, if Nicodemus couldn’t?
Malta is blessed with many Church voluntary organisations that provide services to help drug users, addicts, gamblers, victims of usury and others who, thankfully change for the better. But even if you change your behaviour and bad habits, that would not be the new birth. The trouble is not on the outside, but on the inside. You don’t need exterior decoration, but interior regeneration. Satan wants humankind to rest in a false peace. We are warned in Jesus’ name, not to be satisfied unless you have been born again.
Before it is eternally too late, for your sake, for your family’s sake, for Jesus’ sake, do not trifle with this thing. We need to bow at the feet of the risen Lord and ask Him to be our Saviour now. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12). A simple prayer that makes the whole difference is done as follows:
Just bow your head and say: Lord, I am a guilty, lost helpless sinner. “I believe you suffered on the cross for my sins and died in my place to pay the penalty for my sins, and that you rose again. Will you please forgive me of my sins and give me eternal life? And come into my life and make me the type of person you want me to be?”
A year has passed since the pastoral letter was issued. In the light of the above exposition of what being Born-Again requires, I humbly ask, “Has the Maltese Catholic Church found that real courage to challenge itself in such a way that it promotes such an experience in the spirit of its faithful so that they are truly Born-Again or is it still just hanging on to its centuries-old traditions for fear that it will lose them?”
Many are still hanging on to their centuries-old traditions (pagan rituals, idols and self-righteousness), believing they are pleasing God. The Born-Again experience is not a suggestion but a must for salvation. More than ever now, with all these warnings that we are living in the end times, its importance can never be emphasised enough not only for Maltese Catholics but for Christians worldwide.
Anthony Zarb Dimech
Birkirkara