Final Monday, as the gang gathered round Castille, the sensation was palpable. When confronted with merciless tragedy, collective dread and burning ethical harm, the folks responded with a way of calm, quiet dignity and humble function. Girls, males and youngsters of all ages took out candles from their purses and baggage to mild them up as an indication of hope. The place darkness guidelines, a flicker of sunshine will conquer it nonetheless.
However the place did that mild come from? It ignited in a single lady: unassuming however decided, and never resolute to do a lot however to easily stand tall… proper there, motionlessness, remembering her useless son, lamenting how he was unfairly taken away by our collective sin, nonetheless unyielding even when mocked.
Her spark of fireplace was the reminder that the harmless sacrificed on the altar of depravity couldn’t relaxation in peace till justice is restored. Her hearth may contact hundreds, taking them to the streets, not simply because we have been in awe on the mom who stood resolute in her utmost vulnerability… however as a result of her gravitas evoked a way of righteousness that our collective greed, apathy and shamelessness had subdued. She rekindled our dignity; she reminded us of our deep-seated need for a extra simply world. She bore witness that not even all of the horrors of hell may extinguish the one true supply of life: Love that’s most superb in being outpoured.
Isabelle Bonnici turned our residing Mater Dolorosa, evoking the holiness and purity of affection within the darkest pits of filth that our collective sinfulness creates. We’re all responsible of her son’s loss of life – some, in fact, carrying a a lot heavier burden of their consciences. But when we had been residing with our share of the burden of guilt by numbing our souls and deadening them to empathy, her love broke by the stone of our hearts, turning them to flesh. We felt her simply plea, her tears rekindled our souls, she witnessed grace that now beckoned a nation to conversion, sparking the hope of therapeutic and renewal.
Bonnici didn’t simply unite a nation however turned a residing icon for ever-present love, that invitations to true life. She reminded us of the female facet of the divine that has no want for a hero journey to show its value, however is evoked in persistence, resilience, persistence, self-emptying.
It jogged my memory of a latest workshop I had the honour to take part in as Tyrone Grima and Angele Galea explored the illustration of womanhood in Malta that is still a patriarchal society. The affect of a collective anima break up as a demonised Eve and acquiescent Mary was challenged by giving voice to girls as we speak who longed for really godly female icons.
Whereas Grima, in his exploratory script, challenged our patriarchal assumptions concerning the relations between women and men, sacred and profane, Galea revealed up to date female faces of holiness in 4 poignant portraits of Justice, Maidenhood, Knowledge… and sure, an icon of Sorrow, that reminded us of the now-living icon, Bonnici.
Justice. Pictures: Rachel Fleri Soler Maidenhood Sorrow Knowledge
The sunshine of hope unfold within the pits of darkness because the Addolorata reminded that love conquers all. Will different highly effective residing faces of female holiness – of life-giving energy, of zeal for love-fuelled justice, and of the knowledge of equanimity that persists past all hardship – rise to steer this island to interrupt the chains of our slavery?
nadia.delicata@maltadiocese.org
