We Really Are What We Communicate
Dominique Lapierre frequently echoed Alessandro Gisotti's statement that "everything that is not donated is lost.". Words from the recently deceased journalist and author that are best connected to Francis' message for World Communications Day, which was released last Tuesday.
The Pope once again invites us to be the architects of an integral communication that involves the entirety of who we are rather than just a small portion of us for a limited purpose or for instrumental interests. Speaking "from the heart" has nothing to do with giving in to the sentimentalism (or sensationalism) that is so fashionable today; rather, it has to do with communicating and giving oneself, both of which are very difficult tasks.
Somehow, using St. Jude's testimony as an illustration. Francis de Sales, the Message says that what we communicate defines who we are.
or at least that is how it ought to be. The quotation from the patron saint of journalists, "it is enough to love well to say good," is one of the document's key points because it echoes the Augustinian maxim "love and do what you want." This is why Francis' tenth message to communication operators is important.
The Pope views communication as movement. It only exists if it is being transmitted; otherwise, it is just an echo that wearily bounces around a room.
It originates from a beating heart that also causes the blood in our veins to circulate, which in turn causes our hopes, aspirations, and dreams to be circulating. The fact that this message is focused on "speaking from the heart" and follows those from the previous two years that were centered on seeing and listening is not a coincidence.
Three verbs and three actions are the central focus of a trilogy. In the same way that he did in his first homily following his election to the Chair of Peter, he listed the three verbs walk, build, and confess as the turning points on the path to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ on March 14, 2013, during the Mass with the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel.
Ten years later, Francis regrettably notes that the divisions and conflicts that mar humanity today also affect the church, undermining the edification and confession that, as Léon Bloy once observed, are the difference between praying to the Lord and praying to the devil. How many controversies and how many controversies, while we Christians, the Message reminds us, should know how to guard the language from evil to prevent misunderstandings and self-referential closures.
In a time when some would prefer to leave even feelings and emotions in the hands of artificial intelligence, the Pope also serves as a reminder that there is one thing that no amount of technology will ever be able to replace: the human heart. Likewise, a communication that comes from the heart must animate our relationships and make us more human, or more brothers to one another, just as this organ supplies the blood and maintains the life of our body.
The culture of encounter necessitates communication with open arms, which is why the Pope will embark once more on his journey to the heart of Africa in a few days. And it needs communicators who have the guts to resist the cozy temptation of doing things the way they've always been done while also being bold and inventive.
Francis notes in the Message that the great movement influenced by the synodal process should also influence how we communicate as Christians. In the words of the great theologian Yves Congar, the Pope appears to be encouraging us to communicate differently rather than to make yet another ecclesial statement.
A message that has the power to ignite the hearts of the numerous emmaus disciples who are waiting for a message of solace and hope in today's world. May you find the motivation to escape our increasingly small and sparsely populated enclosures in your encounter with the Lord.
Because it rejects any form of fundamentalism that would reduce us to nothing more than individuals, it supports the integrity of the individual. Finally, there is a form of communication that does not hurl the stones it encounters along the way.
In the same way that he did in his first homily following his election to the Chair of Peter, he listed the three verbs walk, build, and confess as the turning points on the path to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ on March 14, 2013, during the Mass with the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel.
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