Being in the World

I remember studying the document The Church in the world today (Gaudium et Spes). The idea was that the church looks at the world in a positive way instead of the usual condemnation!

Being a married priest in Malta, I lost all the protective layer I had earlier in convent. Now I had to deal with the usual tricks of normal business practise. I began to discover that the so-called christians did business in a very pagan way! I was surprised that the so called former friends were treating their co-workers very badly! They were so nice to me when I was in the parish!

One of them, as soon as he heard that the workers were trying to form part of a union, he immediately put all dirty tricks in order to persuade them not to! It was not simply hearing about others, I was experiencing them first hand too!

At work this summer I discovered what I've been suspecting, that a friend of mine was secretly talking badly about me behind my back. I simply couldn't imagine that this friend was behaving like a school boy!!

Another 'friend' made me work hard for him. But when it came to paying for what I had already done (months before), he came with all sorts of excuses..... He tried to made me understand that there was no need of bugging him about the pay. He'll pay me, maybe in the next year or in 2010!

Another one made me sign up a contract of work. He didn't keep up his word as he didn't give me enough work as obliged by the contract. Yet he doesn't hide his face. He keeps smiling. He keeps promising that one day more work will arrive. Obviously he never answers the question When?

There are cases when shopkeepers tend to excuse themselves when giving the wrong change (on the condition that the customer is aware of the mistake!), others make silly mistakes all the time when it comes to write down the correct price. Others tend to add invisible things to your list! Some make you pay simply because you put your feet in their shop!

There are many cases but I don't wish to annoy my readers. My final thought is that being a married catholic priest makes me more aware of the skilful robbers of today. Justice seemed not to belong any more to our dictionary! There is a lot of work to do in the pastoral field! The fact that I live in today's world makes me more available and understanding.