The Word in the world
Professor Salvino Busuttil

Interestingly, we read in John's Gospel that God so loved the world that it was to it that He sent His Son. If the Word is the animating force within the Church, as the believing community, it is so in the measure that this same Logos, expressing the love of the Trinitarian God, came to us, ordinary men and women engaged as we are in the unfolding of creation that, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin puts it, is continually moving towards its omega point, till the end of times, knowing no time.

Christ came to dialogue with the world, as in his eternity he dialogues with the Father and the Spirit. He invites us, Maltese Christians, to show our testimony of love in that world in which he is perennially present. We are asked to share, then, in that dialogue of love through which our engagement in contemporary society is one where we give solidarity to the world detecting in that same world those signs alerting us to different stages in its march through history.

It is in the nature of dialogue to share, not to preach; far less to impose. Free we are created, freely we live our Christian life in a society which seems at times to become increasingly relativistic in its values, even as, deep down, it seeks the security of the Absolute. As an intrinsic and integral part of society, Christians serve it by discussing its values, tendencies and aspirations, understanding and discerning the spirit of the times, ensuring that, indeed, those times enjoy the fruits and gifts of the Spirit.

Desiring to strengthen solidarity with and through a post-modern Maltese society, as it gets closer to continental European lifestyles, the Pastoral Formation Institute of the Archdiocese of Malta, is initiating, through a group of lay persons from all walks of life, a series of 'dialogues with society'. Far from being an attempt to vicariously impose any Catholic Church rules, the 'dialogues' are meant to be entirely open and frank conversations, recounting personal experiences, and receiving from all those attending the precious testimony of their lived or perceived role in society.

They are not, therefore, 'dialogues' for and with Christians. Rather, they offer a forum for mutual learning of each other's problems which, collectively, are those of our society, be they family (divorce, abortion, same-sex and extramarital relations), social (usury, corruption, environment, land speculation, poverty) or attitudinal ('illegal' migration, racism).

This exercise is not confrontational: dialogue implies equal respect for every opinion and view, stemming from each individual's essential dignity, that of his or her soul (even if he or she does not believe in it). Nor are the 'dialogues' going to offer solutions to problems posed or enunciating and propagating principles, except those that are essential for the ethical foundations of society.

It is hoped that these 'dialogues' will be inspired, in a Christian context, by the Good News of the incarnate Logos, sharing his life, human as he is, with all humans; and that, in consequence, this sharing means that, as humans following him, we reject barriers of race, gender or social class; and that, further, we are contagiously 'infected' through the Word to seek peace, justice and reconciliation with and through all men and women of good will - all of us.