From L’Osservatore Romano
Andrea Monda
Like joy, hope is a good that inevitably pushes one towards sharing; it could even be said that hope exists inasmuch as it is shared. Pope Francis made a clear affirmation on this point: “Hope is always a community project”. This is one of the key points in his Message for the 2025 World Day of Social Communications, whose title, “Share with gentleness the hope that is in your hearts”, is a direct quote from the First Letter of Peter (3:15-16). Pope Francis describes it as “an admirable synthesis in which hope is linked to Christian witness and communication: ‘In your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence’”.
Pope Francis focuses on this famous New Testament passage and highlights the readiness to account for hope “to anyone who demands” it. The Pope wants to stress that the witness of Christian life is in itself a “communication”, a message that elicits questions. The Pope highlights that “Christians are not primarily people who ‘talk about’ God, but who resonate with the beauty of his love and a new way of experiencing everything. Theirs is a lived love that raises the question and calls for an answer: Why do you live like this? Why are you like this?”.
In his 1965 essay, “God’s Revolution and Man’s Responsibility”, Harvey Cox, an American Baptist theologian, observed that “Christians are those who can’t be explained in the world’s terms, because they are not living simply for their class or race, their national or sexual interests. They present an enigma to the world, an inexplicable thing which people finally have to ask them about”.
There is an inverted framework, then, in which the communicator is primarily “one who talks”. For a Christian, “talking” about God is not simply about relaying a message or speech; it is not a matter of supplying information. Rather, talking about God carries the power, weight and beauty of witness. It means listening, or better yet, encountering, others. It is no coincidence then that immediately afterward, in his message, Pope Francis refers to another New Testament passage, namely, the one about the disciples of Emmaus: “In Saint Peter’s words, we find, finally, a third message: our response to this question is to be made ‘with gentleness and reverence’. Christian communication — but I would also say communication in general — should be steeped in gentleness and closeness, like the talk of companions on the road. This was the method of the greatest communicator of all time, Jesus of Nazareth, who, as he walked alongside the two disciples of Emmaus, spoke with them and made their hearts burn within them as he interpreted events in the light of the Scriptures. I dream of a communication capable of making us fellow travelers, walking alongside our brothers and sisters and encouraging them to hope in these troubled times”.
Therefore, may the Jubilee be an opportunity for “true” conversion, for a change in direction, for a communication style capable of eliciting wonder and questions, and thus of offering credible hope to a world greatly thirsting for it
