Message for the World Communications DayOmnes participates in Assembly for Social CommunicationsThere are two interesting reflections that emerge above all from Pope Francis' Message for the 56th World Communications Day, which this year will be celebrated on May 29, 2022, delivered today to the whole Church on the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.
Connecting the ear to the heart
The first idea comes from the title of the Message, Listening with the ear of the heartIt has to do with the ability to connect our vital organ par excellence with the sense of hearing, so that it becomes an "apparatus" truly functional to the purpose and meaning of our existence: men and women who live in extended communities where love, beauty and goodness are shared, with no other purpose than the encounter with the greatest Love.
It is a journey that takes place entirely within man, through "mechanisms" that cannot be deciphered visually, but that necessarily have repercussions on the lived reality, and can benefit (or not) those we meet along the way.
Connecting the ear with the heart is not only the task of the journalist and the communicator - even if the message is essentially addressed to them - but it is an attitude that should concern every baptized person, because each one of us is not only a Christian, but also a citizen, and we are inserted in a society that today is in great need of getting rid of those short circuits that have spoiled the heart-hearing connection, which Sacred Scripture has always proposed at all times and for every person of good will.
The patience of the silence of prayer
The other idea is that of "patience". In the frenetic rhythms in which we are immersed, we have lost the ability to stop, to pause, but also to know how to wait, to know how to slow down, to sit down and listen. To listen mainly to what God has to say to us - and this can only be achieved with the patience of the silence of prayer - but also to what other people like us have to say to us. What they have to tell us, or what they want us to hear, to encourage us to face problems together and to get out of the most difficult situations together, as the pandemic has shown us so well in recent years.
A bath of humility
So the Pope's Message comes as a bath of humility, and an invitation to be concrete in our days: it is useless to frantically pursue an earthly goal that is constantly receding because it is stronger than we are. Let us dedicate ourselves rather to restoring that inner "little stretch" that connects the heart with listening, and animated by "holy patience" let us all become "attentive listeners" to the needs of the world, so that each one can do his or her part for the benefit of all.
Good listening, lots of patience and best wishes to journalists and communicators, those who by vocation feel they must be the first to re-establish links with the truth.
