Santiago (Chile), 05/16/2021, Sr. Licarayén Fernanda Torres.- Pope Francis, in his message for the 55th World Communications Day, invited us to refocus our eyes on the key to the Gospel "come and see", because in human communications, the challenge of delivering a message cannot be understood without referring to the concrete places where life sprouts. Our words, gestures, and actions will not be fruitful if we do not impregnate ourselves first in the reality that human history is going through. Our words will be dead if we have not stepped and touched the pains and joys of our brothers and sisters, especially those who suffer injustice and the scourge of poverty that suffocates the hearts of so many.
In addition, it is a call to leave our comfort zones to face history as it is so that everything we communicate comes from the contemplation of people’s concrete life. Especially now in the context of a pandemic, we have to be very attentive otherwise we could run the risk of remaining undaunted just sitting at our desks without acting; if it is like this, everything we say or express through so many means of communication that are available today for the service of communication will be dead and infertile words, because everything we say about God does not come from the encounter with His favorites.
Our Charism cannot be understood without encountering others
At the end of His message, Pope Francis gives us a great challenge, “to communicate by meeting people where they are and as they are” and this challenge reminds us of everything that Marie Poussepin accomplished in her life. Our Charism cannot be understood without encountering others, meeting cultures with their diversity, or knowing their history with its social and political crossroads. This is why we are called to go out and tell others to "come and see" wherever we are. However, our words will say something about God, only if we nourish ourselves through the contemplation of humanity as Marie Poussepin did. She entrusted herself to God's Providence, left everything, and went out to meet the poor of her time.
In this global context of a pandemic, it is time to ask ourselves, how can we go out to meet others? Where do we feel called to spend the soles of our shoes? In this time of political and social fractures, what kind of words do we have to express? Where and how should we be present to others?
This moment in history has shown us and revealed to us how perishable our mission is, what aspects we need to change urgently, what things we must let go definitely to walk freer and lighter through the paths God is inviting us to go. This is the time, to leave behind everything that does not allow us to go out beyond ourselves and our structures, to walk the prophetic path from Dourdan to Sainville, using our feet to fulfill the inexhaustible dream of person-to-person encounter. So, we can say to humanity "come and see."