Hajja Salesjana

individuals otherwise we risk being fake, flimsy and futile persons who swerve like a weathervane according to the ever changing wind directions. Jesus Christ Himself could not digest the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and strongly dubbed them whitewashed graves. They were people who knew nothing of coherence and whose aim was solely to appear to be good rather than to really and truly be so by practising the faith. For Our Lord Jesus Christ, coherence between words and deeds was, is and will always be paramount. A faith based solely on lip service, mere words and rampant devotionalism will lead us to nowhere. Our faith must be translated into facts in our here and now otherwise it is not a coherent faith at all but a hollow faith worth nothing (James 2:18). We cannot pretend to be Christ’s disciples only for forty minutes a week when we attend mass and once that is over, then place our faith on hold throughout the whole week by doing, saying and upholding things which sure enough God will not approve of. Coherence in the world we are living in where wars smash our normalcy, where corruption infiltrates institutions, were vulgarity is the norm and where values are pushed aside, usurped or even bent beyond recognition to suit one’s needs, is indeed a rarity but once one finds a coherent individual one realises the Gospel truth that a city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden! (Mt. 5: 14-16) EDITORIAL Fr. Sandro Camilleri sdb What lies beneath In our fast paced world, old fashioned coherence is often placed at the sidelines and replaced with a plastic facade portraying an apparent camouflaged consonance with our surroundings that tries to fit in and not stand out in today’s volatile social milieu that transforms and changes in the blink of an eye. Yet when one digs deep, one can note what lies beneath it all – a threadbare value system, bartered on the altar of consumerism, greed and egoism where as long as I am fine, nothing else matters. Recently in one of his talks during one of his audiences, Pope Francis highlighted this issue and pertinently asked all those who were in attendance and consequently, all those of us who heed to his soul-searching words, “Are we coherent? Or are we so and so?” (Papal Audience 31.05.23). The answer to this poignant question can only be given by each and every one of us in the deepest recesses of our soul. We all intuitively know whether the person we portray in our social life, the person we portray on social media networks, the person we are behind closed doors, the person well known by those who live and work with us is coherently the same or like a revolving door, adapts and adjusts according to who is seeing and listening to us or is by our side. We all must strive to be who we are and to be that well whether in private or in public. We must strive to be wholesome, wholehearted and authentic Photo by Fr. Sandro Camilleri 3 Lulju-Settembru 2023 hajja