Message for World Day of Communications: Communicating
Hope and Trust in our Time
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican has released Pope Francis’
Message for the 51st World Day of Social Communications. The theme of this
year’s message is "Fear not, for I am with you": Communicating Hope
and Trust in our Time. The World Day of Social Communications is
celebrated in almost all countries on the Sunday before Pentecost. The message
is being issued on 24 January, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron
of journalists.
Find the full text of the message below
«Fear not, for I am with you» (Is 43:5):
Communicating Hope and Trust in our Time
Access to the media – thanks to technological progress –
makes it possible for countless people to share news instantly and spread it
widely. That news may be good or bad, true or false. The early
Christians compared the human mind to a constantly grinding millstone; it is up
to the miller to determine what it will grind: good wheat or worthless
weeds. Our minds are always “grinding”, but it is up to us to choose what
to feed them (cf. SAINT JOHN CASSIAN, Epistle to Leontius).
I wish to address this message to all those who, whether in
their professional work or personal relationships, are like that mill, daily
“grinding out” information with the aim of providing rich fare for those with
whom they communicate. I would like to encourage everyone to engage in
constructive forms of communication that reject prejudice towards others and
foster a culture of encounter, helping all of us to view the world around us
with realism and trust.
I am convinced that we have to break the vicious circle of
anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on “bad
news” (wars, terrorism, scandals and all sorts of human failure). This
has nothing to do with spreading misinformation that would ignore the tragedy
of human suffering, nor is it about a naive optimism blind to the scandal of evil.
Rather, I propose that all of us work at overcoming that feeling of growing
discontent and resignation that can at times generate apathy, fear or the idea
that evil has no limits. Moreover, in a communications industry which
thinks that good news does not sell, and where the tragedy of human suffering
and the mystery of evil easily turn into entertainment, there is always the
temptation that our consciences can be dulled or slip into pessimism.
I would like, then, to contribute to the search for an open
and creative style of communication that never seeks to glamourize evil but
instead to concentrate on solutions and to inspire a positive and responsible
approach on the part of its recipients. I ask everyone to offer the
people of our time storylines that are at heart “good news”.
Good news
Life is not simply a bare succession of events, but a
history, a story waiting to be told through the choice of an interpretative
lens that can select and gather the most relevant data. In and of itself,
reality has no one clear meaning. Everything depends on the way we look
at things, on the lens we use to view them. If we change that lens,
reality itself appears different. So how can we begin to “read” reality
through the right lens?
For us Christians, that lens can only be the good news,
beginning with the Good News par excellence: “the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son
of God” (Mk 1:1). With these words, Saint Mark opens his Gospel not by
relating “good news” about Jesus, but rather the good news that is Jesus himself.
Indeed, reading the pages of his Gospel, we learn that its title corresponds to
its content and, above all else, this content is the very person of Jesus.
This good news – Jesus himself – is not good because it has
nothing to do with suffering, but rather because suffering itself becomes part
of a bigger picture. It is seen as an integral part of Jesus’ love for
the Father and for all mankind. In Christ, God has shown his solidarity
with every human situation. He has told us that we are not alone, for we
have a Father who is constantly mindful of his children. “Fear not, for I
am with you” (Is 43:5): these are the comforting words of a God who is
immersed in the history of his people. In his beloved Son, this divine
promise – “I am with you” – embraces all our weakness, even to dying our
death. In Christ, even darkness and death become a point of encounter
with Light and Life. Hope is born, a hope accessible to everyone, at the
very crossroads where life meets the bitterness of failure. That hope
does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts (cf.
Rom 5:5) and makes new life blossom, like a shoot that springs up from the
fallen seed. Seen in this light, every new tragedy that occurs in the
world’s history can also become a setting for good news, inasmuch as love can
find a way to draw near and to raise up sympathetic hearts, resolute faces and
hands ready to build anew.
Confidence in the seed of the Kingdom
To introduce his disciples and the crowds to this Gospel
mindset and to give them the right “lens” needed to see and embrace the love
that dies and rises, Jesus uses parables. He frequently compares the
Kingdom of God to a seed that releases its potential for life precisely when it
falls to the earth and dies (cf. Mk 4:1-34). This use of images and
metaphors to convey the quiet power of the Kingdom does not detract from its
importance and urgency; rather, it is a merciful way of making space for the
listener to freely accept and appropriate that power. It is also a most
effective way to express the immense dignity of the Paschal mystery, leaving it
to images, rather than concepts, to communicate the paradoxical beauty of new
life in Christ. In that life, hardship and the cross do not obstruct, but
bring about God’s salvation; weakness proves stronger than any human power; and
failure can be the prelude to the fulfilment of all things in love. This
is how hope in the Kingdom of God matures and deepens: it is “as if a man
should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day,
and the seed should sprout and grow” (Mk 4:26-27).
The Kingdom of God is already present in our midst, like a
seed that is easily overlooked, yet silently takes root. Those to whom
the Holy Spirit grants keen vision can see it blossoming. They do not let
themselves be robbed of the joy of the Kingdom by the weeds that spring up all
about.
The horizons of the Spirit
Our hope based on the good news which is Jesus himself makes
us lift up our eyes to contemplate the Lord in the liturgical celebration of
the Ascension. Even though the Lord may now appear more distant, the
horizons of hope expand all the more. In Christ, who brings our human
nature to heaven, every man and woman can now freely “enter the sanctuary by
the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way he opened for us through the
curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Heb 10:19-20). By “the power of the
Holy Spirit” we can be witnesses and “communicators” of a new and redeemed
humanity “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7‑8).
Confidence in the seed of God’s Kingdom and in the mystery
of Easter should also shape the way we communicate. This confidence
enables us to carry out our work – in all the different ways that communication
takes place nowadays – with the conviction that it is possible to recognize and
highlight the good news present in every story and in the face of each person.
Those who, in faith, entrust themselves to the guidance of
the Holy Spirit come to realize how God is present and at work in every moment
of our lives and history, patiently bringing to pass a history of
salvation. Hope is the thread with which this sacred history is woven,
and its weaver is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Hope is
the humblest of virtues, for it remains hidden in the recesses of life; yet it
is like the yeast that leavens all the dough. We nurture it by reading
ever anew the Gospel, “reprinted” in so many editions in the lives of the
saints who became icons of God’s love in this world. Today too, the
Spirit continues to sow in us a desire for the Kingdom, thanks to all those
who, drawing inspiration from the Good News amid the dramatic events of our
time, shine like beacons in the darkness of this world, shedding light along
the way and opening ever new paths of confidence and hope.
From the Vatican, 24 January 2017
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