Against the tide
Kairoi is celebrating twenty-five years since its creation. Kairoi (e-mail), a Greek word that means special times of celebration as opposed to ordinary times, is a musical group that was born after the Council in order to combine musical renewal with Christian renewal. At the start, its members were young Marist Brothers from Catalonia. Young people listen to their songs, in their different styles, during their free time, Religion classes, prayer time etc. Their music is also a resource for Christian communities and for their liturgical celebrations with songs such as Jesus is the Lord, Mary: God?s music, Close to God, etc. Throughout the years, the composers and the performers of Kairoi have included both female and male artists. The group is known by the quality and appeal of the music, which is more readily recognised than the faces of the artists. Today, more than 300 of their songs are on the airwaves.
On Saturday, 27th November, they presented their new CD Against the tide by performing a concert at Barcelona. This CD was born from the experience of the members of Kairoi after their tour in Central America in 1999: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, etc. The witness of Christians, the values of the leaders of the Church such as Ă“scar Romero and his prophetic might, the harsh reality of the shanty towns of Guatemala, all of this had a strong effect on them. God is everywhere, but sometimes you need to leave your own country, as did Abraham, to go to the country where God is calling you to discover new intuitions or to hear new calls. The songs on this CD announce and denounce: two attitudes of anyone who wants to live in love, following Jesus of Nazareth. As they sing in one of their songs, they are fighting for a Church of the excluded, and not for a Church that excludes. The literary and musical contents of this CD express their concerns and their denunciations, but also their hopes and their faith in this God of Jesus Christ who dirtied his hands to save the world, as he had done in creating woman and man from clay. Their message states again that there is no alternative to commitment. The music, the words and the concerts are only one way of self-commitment. Against the tide emphasises one of the characteristics of the life and preaching of Jesus and his disciples: money, power, prestige? have their own dynamics and tend to impose themselves in hearts and in the world. To wager on the Gospel of Jesus, is to live against the tide. However, the first struggle does not consist in building barricades, but in purifying hearts. This task, if it is authentic, will be realised through a commitment to social justice with a preference for the poorest of the poor.