Meditations
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field
The Gospel for Sunday, July 27, 2008
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Matthew 13:44-52
...In all cultures and at all times, certainly in the midst of today’s global transformations, people ask the same basic questions about the meaning of life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? (cf. Fides et Ratio, 1). And in every age the Church offers the one ultimately satisfying answer to the deepest questions of the human heart: Jesus Christ himself, “who fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his high calling” (Gaudium et spes, 22). Therefore, the voice of Christians can never fall silent, for the Lord has entrusted to us the word of salvation for which every human heart longs. The Gospel offers the pearl of great price for which all are searching (cf. Mt 13:45-46).
It follows that the Church cannot fail to be ever more deeply involved in the burgeoning world of communications… The world of the media can sometimes seem indifferent and even hostile to Christian faith and morality. This is partly because media culture is so deeply imbued with a typically postmodern sense that the only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths or that, if there were, they would be inaccessible to human reason and therefore irrelevant. In such a view, what matters is not the truth but “the story”; if something is newsworthy or entertaining, the temptation to set aside considerations of truth becomes almost irresistible. As a result, the world of the media can sometimes seem no more friendly an environment for evangelization than the pagan world of the Apostles’ day. But just as the early witnesses to the Good News did not retreat when faced with opposition, neither should Christ’s followers do so today. The cry of Saint Paul echoes among us still: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).
Yet, as much as the world of the media may at times seem at odds with the Christian message, it also offers unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human family… As the whole Church seeks to heed the Spirit’s call, Christian communicators have “a prophetic task, a vocation: to speak out against the false gods and idols of the day�materialism, hedonism, consumerism, narrow nationalism…” (Ethics in Communications, 31). Above all, they have the duty and privilege to declare the truth, the glorious truth about human life and human destiny revealed in the Word made flesh. May Catholics involved in the world of social communications preach the truth of Jesus ever more boldly and joyfully from the housetops, so that all men and women may hear about the love which is the heart of God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (cf Heb 13:8).
Excerpted from the MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR THE XXXV WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY, Sunday, May 27, 2001.
