教宗指出：给我们的时代提供“喜讯逻辑的讲述”
教宗方济各发表第五十一届世界社会传播日文告《不要害怕！因为我同你在一起》（依43，5）。在我们的时代传播希望和信心。“用信仰，让圣神引导的人，便成为有能力在天主与人之间的各种事务中辨别的人，在这个世界的灾难景况中认得出祂正在完成救恩历史”
梵蒂冈城（亚洲新闻）—拒绝只有坏消息才是‘消息’、只有邪恶才是主角的逻辑；给我们时代的男男女女们提供“‘喜讯’——对那些信奉耶稣基督的人——逻辑的讲述”。“传播建设性的、拒绝对他人的偏见”。勉励“所有人打造一个拒绝对他人抱有偏见的建设性新闻传播，从而推动一个相遇文化。得益于此，能够学会本着自觉的信心去看待现实”。这是教宗方济各为五月二十八日耶稣升天瞻礼举行的第五十一届世界社会传播日发表的文告中阐述的，文告题目是《不要害怕！因为我同你在一起》（依43，5）：在我们的时代传播希望与信心。
文件继续指出，“我认为我们应该打破焦虑、摆脱恐惧的不断升级，这是只关注‘坏消息’（战争、恐怖主义、丑闻、各种人类事务中的失败）这一习惯的恶果”。诚然，这不是“促进错误消息的传播，也就是无视痛苦灾难；也不是盲目乐观，不去触及邪恶丑闻”。
“超越常常困扰我们的不满和气馁的情绪，此类情绪将我们推向了冷漠，造成了恐惧或者认为邪恶是没有止境的。……在好消息不会引起人们的注意，所以也就不是新闻；痛苦灾难或者神秘的邪恶很容易被炒作的新闻传播体系中，可能会受到麻痹良知或者陷入绝望的诱惑”。
教宗鼓励“开放的、建设性的”新闻传播方式。永远也不要让邪恶担当主角的作用。而是本着对传播对象积极和负责任的态度，尝试揭示可能的解决办法”。“人的生活不仅是一个事件的冰冷报道，而是故事，一个等待通过有能力汲取其中最重要内容的筛选来讲述的故事。事实没有一个唯一的意义，因为都取决于怎样去汲取、我们选择什么样的‘眼镜’去审视。对于基督徒而言，诠释现实的最佳眼镜只能是福音，从最出色的福音开始：耶稣基督、天主子的福音”。
教宗继续写到“一条消息不好是因为没有痛苦，也是因为是广泛意义上经历的痛苦，是其对天父之爱、对人类之爱的组成部分。在基督内，天主与人类的各种处境同在，向我们启示了我们不是孤独无助的，因为我们有永远也不会忘记祂儿女的天父”。在此前景下，“每一次世界历史遭遇的新痛苦也变成了可能成为喜讯的舞台，从爱总是能找到其道路、能唤起会感动的心、有能力不放弃的面孔、随时准备好建设的手”。
教宗邀请从业人员“意识到并彰显每一个历史现实、每一个人的面孔上的好消息”。“用信仰，让圣神引导的人，便成为有能力在天主与人之间的各种事务中辨别的人，在这个世界的灾难景况中认得出祂正在完成救恩历史”。“希望是最谦逊的美德，因为始终隐蔽在生活的祈祷中，但却效似让面发起来的酵母。……今天，圣神也在我们内播种天国的意愿，通过那些在历史的灾难之中让福音引领自己的人，就像是这个世界的黑暗中的灯塔，照耀了前进道路、开启了新的信心与希望的历程”。
教宗文告全文英文版如下：
«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
FRANCISCUS
