Joseph Abdilla
In April 2005, just before his election as Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made the bold statement: "We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate standard consists solely of one's own ego and desires." Our existential world is being besieged by spin, "alternative facts" and fake news with more information but "less and less meaning" according to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard who died in March 2007.
In this shaky world of shifting "simulation", we need more stable signposts pointing to perennial truths. One such pointer was beamed back to us during a downpour in St Peter's square during a canonisation ceremony of 3rd June 2007, a decade ago today. That morning promised to be clear as thousands of visitors and pilgrims - among them hundreds of Maltese - started populating St Peter's large piazza. Then the unexpected happened and the square was transformed into a yawning canopy of dripping umbrellas.
During that solemn Mass, Pope Benedict XVI was declaring saints four blesseds; heading the list was the Maltese priest George Preca or Dun Ġorġ (1880-1962). By the end of the eucharistic celebration the persistent rain stopped - it was almost heavenly synchronised! Some jokingly described it as "troppo grazia"; others saw it as the last prank that Dun Ġorġ foisted on all present, particularly on those who felt somewhat puffed up with this newly acclaimed feat.
Nonetheless, whatever Dun Ġorġ might have thought up in heaven, canonisation did confirm his holiness and the validity of his perennial message. Indeed he was always against "chiasso", or outward show and ostentation, precisely because it is ephemeral, narcissistic and alienating, while he was after eternal truths so essentially beneficial for a humane life down here on earth.
In fact at the beginning of the 20th century, Pope Pius X (1903-14) was urging the Catholic Church, particularly in Europe, to battle against ignorance of the faith by catechising the faithful and help them learn and understand the content and benefits of its truths. Furthermore, in 1905 he issued a whole encyclical about this urgency of teaching the people, from children up to adults alike.
In Malta, the young and zealous George Preca, newly ordained in December 1906, was precisely launching that opportune initiative. Immersed as he was in God, Dun Ġorġ believed strongly in the nobility of all human beings liberated by Jesus Christ enabling them for a divine Trinitarian relationship. He tirelessly invited everyone to become friends of the Good News of Christ. In his freedom of spirit, Dun Ġorġ rose above the established forms of his day in order to bring the knowledge of this truth to all for only truth sets humankind really free. He was inspired to attack ignorance, the root of all evils, by offering good instruction as the source of all human wellbeing. Opposition and slander didn't disrupt his steadfast seeking of God's will and the people's eternal welfare. On 3rd June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI was to describe him as "a friend of Jesus and a witness to the holiness that derives from him.... a priest totally dedicated to evangelization."
During the first turbulent decades of the twentieth century, Dun Ġorġ succeeded in bringing down to the Maltese masses in a language all could understand what some philosophers and theologians were then writing about, such as "the eternal in man" and "the rehabilitation of virtue". Against the "monsters" of arrogance, greed and the idolatry of the ego, Dun Ġorġ preached and wrote in Maltese about the nobility of the human heart when nurtured in gentleness, humility and sobriety - all virtues tempered by the worship of God, and not self, leading to true happiness. Centuries previously Augustine of Hippo, after years of searching and experimenting various philosophies, had rightfully asserted that only those who "possess God possess happiness."
Out of his immense reverence for God, Dun Ġorġ treated with reverential respect everybody regardless of age or status. Indeed, he was more deferential towards poor children and the lowest in society, those who Jean Vanier was to call "the least significant". For this very reason, George Preca emphasized that public affairs lead truly to people's lasting contentment only when they proceed from a right conscience in a relationship with God. Otherwise people remain self-seeking and manipulative both of others and of created nature.
Justin Welby, an experienced financial controller now the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury since 2013, has dealt precisely with this timely issue in his book published for Lent 2017. Significantly he named it Dethroning Mammon. Making Money serve Grace. Welby reflects on the disastrous consequences on individuals and society when the idols of self and money replace God. On the contrary, "When Mammon is dethroned, and Christ takes its place, we do not have cruelty, but love and grace. We do not have shortage, but abundance and human flourishing. We do not have deception, but we have truth. To say these things is to advocate money being mastered and Mammon dethroned in both the hearts of the individual and in the systems of society" (Bloomsbury, p. 135).
Dethroning idols is an unrelenting struggle. St George Preca with his perennial message persists in enlightening us how we may continue to bring about this much desired and needed transformation of our hearts and as a result of inhumane social systems. For the "battlefield" where all idols fight for supremacy is the human heart.