Against the tide

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

When we go up a river or we sail upwind we go against the tide. It is a maritime expression that also means to act or to behave contrary to the majority of others. This is the choice of the independent journalists and of the people who do not follow what everyone else is doing in the path of their lives. Some people can feel that something new or dangerous is going to happen.

In the Holy Scriptures the major prophets go against the tide, they do not adulate the rich and the powerful, they denounce the establishment and they exhort to listen to God’s world. Sometimes the spirit of contradiction may be a way to get noticed or to provoke someone.

Certainly the message of the Gospel goes against the tide and it does not suggest an easy path. Jesus’ behaviour is often disconcerting and his teaching seems to be paradoxical: “whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it”, “blessed are the Poor in spirit, blessed are those who suffer...” “if anyone wants to be the first he must be the last of all and the servant of all...”. Jesus suggests a new vision of the world and of life.

He invites us to swim against the flow and not to be conformists today as two thousand years ago. But what was the novelty of Christianity? The secular press revels in the clerical political and economic scandals and the stories of paedophilia, it denigrates institutional characters and exalts the charismatic ones. The institutional reforms Pope Francis envisions will not be made with documents or decrees.

The constant point of reference is the Gospel, the real revolutionary manifesto. The great innovators of history cannot be compared with Jesus and with his message. He did not take up arms, he did not instigate revolution, he did not carry out a hunger strike, arising from his authority he was able to announce God’s world. Words of freedom, signs of hope to give fullness to mankind.

The traditionalists were scandalised! Only the poor in spirit were able to accept his revolutionary and destabilizing message. As Christians we have the task to reaffirm the innovative message of the Gospel without denigrating the culture but by going against the tide when it is necessary: when it is about human dignity, especially of the most fragile, we have to bring out the extraordinary strength of the Gospel.

The pandemic puts us to the test and it can bring out the best of humanity challenging the idea of happiness based on selfishness. The generosity of spirit, compassion and kindness of many people remind us that we cannot do everything by ourselves and that we are all in the same boat. How many good deeds have been done in the world... if only we were able to see them!

The Coronavirus knows no boundaries and respects no borders: in the same way Christians must not find obstacles in preaching the revolutionary message of the Gospel.