Full text of speech delivered by Dr. Miriam Sciberras, Chairperson of Life Network Foundation Malta, during the Christmas on Campus 2016 event.

 

Your Excellency President of Malta, Rector, Chaplain, distinguished guests, academics, students

The countdown to Christmas is a special time. It is a time of new beginnings. It is a time of hope and love. And aren’t we all in need of new beginnings, new hope, love?

As we go about in the business of our daily lives we often lose track of reality. Day after day we struggle to juggle time, to fill our time, and yet oftentimes we hardly have time to think.

We are so busy that we are too busy to find a moment for ourselves. Too busy to find peace!

We have access to so much – wardrobes overflowing, new mobiles, new this and that and yet we do not feel new or refreshed at all but instead we crave for more. And more…

We are so drowned in constant noise that having a quiet moment scares us.

We want to live lives to the full yet our lives are so full that we feel lost and confused.

We believe in freedom yet the only truth that can free us all is when we are able to look at each other as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, created with equal dignity and worth, and created in the image of God. This vision of hope for the world where love and inclusion embrace all of us, believers or not is the message of life brought to us by the Christ child.

Yet all around us we see violations of the message of life.

Look at recent history: the unprecedented torture and genocide of Christians, the on-going growing refugee crisis, the genocide of preborn children (at least 1 million preborn children lose their lives to abortions in the US alone per year in the name of choice), and now the latest news from liberal France which recently censored the public expression of happiness of people with Down syndrome based on a concocted fear of upsetting post abortive mothers!

What’s next? Will kids with Down syndrome be banned from schools in France? Will they be segregated from society and placed in institutions like in the old days, because their presence upsets post-abortive parents?

In Malta too cracks in protection of life from conception to natural death are starting to appear. We have truly lost our way. The message of life has never been so urgent, so needed- maybe more so and in this special time in the run up to Christmas day,

Confronted by the bleak picture that I have just painted, what is our response going to be? How do we rediscover our humanity? How do we satisfy our search for meaning? How can we have hope that raises us up beyond the petty and transient concerns of the day?

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10

It is really easy, as one pastor said, as easy as ABC– Admit, Believe, and Confess

First we have to admit – Admit that we all fall short, that we are not perfect and we all need forgiveness.

We then have to Believe – that Jesus Christ; the Son of God loved us so much that he died on the cross for our sins. That each one of us is so precious in His eyes. That He believes in us, maybe more than we believe in ourselves, that we are all worth saving.

And we need to confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord.

“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9-10

Last week as you probably followed, we had Rebecca Kiessling from the USA. She is a pro- life speaker born from rape – and in sharing her testimony she would often repeat –“We are all in need of heroes in our lives!” And isn’t this true?

WE ARE ALL IN NEED OF HEROES!! And our hero is Christ!

Not this paper or plastic baby image! This is just a symbol! We can make a mockery of God if this is the image that we have of Him in our hearts.

The hero is the God who fashioned himself in human form, who cares about each and every one of us here, who left us the spirit of son ship that we may all call out Abba Father .We do not need to go on any desperate quest to find out who we are . A truly liberal education sets us free in confidence – enabling us to face the future together in peace – free- from conception to our natural earthly death, as cherished sons and daughters of God.

This is my message of hope and life – Living life to the full here on earth but ultimately aimed towards heaven, that with a joyful heart we can all sing together “Gloria in excelsis”.

I would like to end with a short prayer:

Father, I bless you for sending your only begotten Son into our world, for taking on our humanity – to save us from ourselves.