Looking into the future

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

On July 2019 we remembered the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing (21 July 1969). I was five years old and I couldn’t feel the sense of such an undertaking. I also remember adults using the old Italian saying, “Beware of those who promise to show you the moon in the well”, which means “Beware of those who want you to believe impossible and absurd things with the intention of deceiving you”.

I don’t remember if there was some old fable from which this expression originates, but essentially the image is that of a person who makes another one believe that he has the moon in a well, showing the image reflected on the surface of the water. In my simplicity as a child, it was clear to me that it was impossible for the moon to be in a well, because I could see it was in the sky. I could also see it reflected in the dark, deep water, apparently at hand, but not reachable. There are so many possible lessons from this metaphor.

Looking at the moon makes you raise your eyes, widens the visual horizon. What a spectacle to contemplate our satellite on clear starry nights, bright and fascinating. Enough to light the way without the need for artificial lights. But also how many allusions to the problems of the present time. There are many “windbags” who promise the impossible in order to gain consensus. Ideas are also good, we feed on dreams, but risky if they are too far from reality. Other times we look into the well unable to yearn for higher goals: fascinated by what seems within reach, but of which we see only a reflection.

Dreams and wishes can also be fulfilled by looking down. Great projects can be pursued in the everyday ferocity and concreteness. The policy of the mustard see, the grain of wheat, the yeast is far removed from economic or military performance, yet so effective and possible. It is the discreet and continuous charity of many benefactors; it is the silent and hidden prayer of hermits; it is the trusting devotion of all of us. And equally, what lies at the top is not unreachable. In the face of many needs, it would be useful to have a “wishing well”.

A place where to cast expectations and from which to draw hope. In it, instead, we find only the reflection of what is higher, which invites us to turn our gaze to the One who is already looking at us. Jesus never promised the impossible, even with his miracles. Faith does not assure us the solution of problems, but it makes us look up to see the reflection of the Father’s caring attention. This is what Pope Francis also wanted to show us in recent months when, in the midst of the pandemic, in a deserted St Peter’s Square he invited every Christian to pray.

Man went to the moon and, soon after this difficult period, will go even further in the coming decades. They are large enterprises, but they start from what this planet offers and what you can count on. The immensely large and the infinitely small surround us like a fascinating and mysterious gift. We should not delude ourselves into thinking that we can know everything and get to unravel every mystery. We have the possibility to use every potential of creation to improve human life. We cannot let the selfish perspectives of a few compromise the lives of many.

The pursuit of immediate profit leads to exploitation and impoverishment. What is at hand today may no longer be available tomorrow. And that moon that seems so close, reflected in the well in our own backyard, could become a chimera if the naive desire to catch it led us to fall into it.