These days, often despite a situation that can change very quickly, we hear or read in the media an interesting phrase: the new normal. This slogan is meant to express, and to call us to, a new way of living in the special circumstances we have been experiencing these past months.

We leave it to the civil authorities to regulate patterns of behaviour in this new normal.

It is very interesting to see what this interesting expression means in Christianity. This new normal has existed for as long as Christianity has existed, since the event of Jesus Christ. The Church has been living in a new normal since its founding. For the Christian, the new normal is not really new, yet in its essence it is always new. But let us begin with normality. Let us be normal.

For the Christian, what is normal is that which is in accordance with the natural law, a kind of moral code written into the conscience of every human person, which calls us to life in fullness. We spontaneously strive to live by this original code in every situation of our lives. A Christian is normal when he seeks, with the help of God's grace, to live according to God's will. The source of normality for the Christian is the will of the God who loves us. If I am attuned ("in tune") with God's will - in marriage as husband or wife, as a young man or young woman, as a father, as a priest - then I am, in the Christian sense, normal.

Normal is, in the Christian sense, also moderate, not excessive, balanced by the Holy Spirit. Normality is being God's man. Normality is humility. Normality is a calmness of spirit that desires the good of the other. The opposite of normality is not folly. The opposite of normality in Christianity is the rejection of God, unbelief. In Christianity, pre-marital chastity is normal; in Christianity, faithfulness to one wife or husband until the end of life is normal; in Christianity, the biological given of one's sex is normal; in Christianity, it is normal to accept a child in the womb and to remain open to life even when it is difficult and uncertain. However, for the mentality of today's society, all of this is folly. And so Christian normality is the same thing as folly in a non-Christian environment. Christian normality means something entirely different from non-Christian normality. It sounds strange even to write it. Christian normality is folly. Here I call on St Paul for help: "The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14). We conclude: Christianity does know normality, but it is rooted in the Spirit, in God. It surpasses ordinary knowledge. Whoever has come to know the new normal does not let it go so easily. He leaves behind normality without God, unfaithfulness, and embraces the new normal.

Let us also say something about the word new. Newness is something old in Christianity. Interesting. New is old. Christ's resurrection and victory over death, through which we receive the forgiveness of sins, took place, in terms of time, more than two thousand years ago, but sacramentally it is an incredible, ever-present and eternal newness. Also new is the conversion of the Christian. Again I must make a distinction. To convert (in the sense of changing religion) is when someone changes their faith. Conversion is the daily "work" of the Christian. A contemporary saint once said that every morning we wake up as nihilists. We always begin again. I believe it is hard, in the morning, to think of something new. But it is precisely then that we are called to newness. And that is conversion. To turn our mind, our understanding, our heart towards the Source. All my springs are in you. I make all things new.

To be converted in God's will is the new normal. Christianity offers a solution. If you want to be Christian-normal, you must be foolish to a world without God. "Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise." (1 Cor 3:18)  If you want to always be new and fresh, believe that your sins are forgiven (confession) and turn to the only truly Normal One. The Person of Jesus Christ. Love. Peace. Nothing new under the sun. But in Christ: everything is always new, and foolishly normal.