Hajja Salesjana April-June 2021

H AJJA S ALESJANA 4 Light on life’s path... While pursuing my pastoral ministry duties, as I drive from one place to another, sometimes like many other Maltese drivers, I get stuck in congested traffic which snarls ahead of me or else I get signposted to some detour due to ongoing road buildings. At other times however, my eyes are drawn to something I see on the road. Admittedly, sometimes it is one of those jarring, in-your-face billboards which one just can’t miss, while sometimes, my eyes are drawn to something truly exquisite that I glimpse in a split second as I drive past it and then cherish with me as it sets me off in a reflective mood. Unfailingly, as I drive on a particular road on the outskirts of Mosta, this occurs. There, I pass by a roadside chapel dedicated to Our Lady and right in front of this quaint chapel, of which we have many in Malta and Gozo’s dwindling countryside, there is always a candle which is lit by someone out of devotional love to Our Blessed Mother. The candle is especially suggestively beautiful when I drive past it during the night. It flickers bright in the surrounding darkness as a beacon of hope and love and it elevates my thoughts to God, to Our Heavenly Mother and to the fact that we are but pilgrims on this journey we call life. As I behold it, I always ask myself, who is the one that is providing me light for my path as I journey here on Earth? Who or what is my light that shows me the way forward in the sometimes tough times I face, like many others surely? Is Jesus Christ still this light and is His Word, still a lamp for my life's path? Isn’t it true that we are so often embroiled in life’s mess that we forget to raise our eyes and see beyond the here and now? Isn’t it true too that very often we are so concerned, and understandably so, about the nitty-gritty details of everyday life that we tend to forget why we are here and what we are on about here on Earth? Perhaps it would be wise to sometimes learn to pause for a while and see beyond the mundane every day. In so doing, we will be able to get off the treadmill of our fast- paced existence and opt to start living more authentically. In this way we can learn to enjoy life more and appreciate it further because very often we tend to take everyone and everything on the way as for granted. Alas, this is an attitude we seem to get sucked into during the humdrum routine of everyday and we are only jolted out of it, when something out of the ordinary occurs to us. Covid-19 has certainly taught us this fact i.e. to further cherish the now. It is all we have. Life is God’s gift to us. What we make out of it, is the gift we give to God in return. As we celebrate the joy of Easter, God’s eternal victory over the powers of darkness, despite the looming pandemic, let us praise and thank God for the gift of every moment, every day and of all those whom we hold dear. Let us choose to live more conscientiously and thus savour the beauty and gift of life God has lovingly bestowed on us. Fr. Sandro Camilleri sdb