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…