Commentary@ITRealms:
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis at the occasion of the 51st World Communications Day, 2017. Excerpts.
Fear not, for I am with you (Is 43:5):
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.
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