God's call to evangelize society through media

 

Teachings of St. Josemaria on the duty of influencing public opinion

"Go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Mt 28:19-20)

Greatest enemy and dominant passion

The greatest enemy of God in the world is ignorance.

No son or daughter of Holy Church can live in peace, without feeling concern for the depersonalized masses…You have to be eager to make them happy.  

Our dominant passion is to give doctrine, the doctrine of Jesus...We want to lead people to Christ… May we have compassion on people eager for doctrine, truth and freedom. Filled with apostolic zeal for souls all over the world, we have to carry out the great charitable work of giving them the bread of good wheat—the bread of doctrine which Jesus will multiply in our hands.

Christians who work in media give doctrine, not to a small group of persons (as when you give a formation talk or a lecture), but like our Lord you preach to the multitude, in the open air.

Extraordinary importance of media

In former times, it was unthinkable that the written, spoken and visual word could be transmitted so quickly. Even less could we have foreseen such a worldwide and uniform influence as that imposed everywhere by media…That is why media is so extraordinarily important.

The people in media are educators, playing the role of teachers, often in a hidden or impersonal way. Millions of men and women surrender, almost unconditionally, their minds and even their consciences to them. Society sees them—rightly or wrongly—as having a doctrinal, scientific and even moral authority.

Because of the great good or harm they can do, I pray particularly every day for people who have this service as their profession.

To sleep in our social duty is suicidal

 “The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.”  (Mt 13:24-25)

If weeds appear, it is because men have failed to respond…

The current situation is a sign of the tremendous failure on the part of the laity in their task of consecrating the world. It’s a sin of comfort-seeking, of suicidal absenteeism.

Each and every one to lead the media to God

The media in itself is good…When we think of these new developments [in communication], we can only have admiration and goodwill, with a desire to contribute all of us to lead to God, to return to our Lord this portion of creation.

It is good that people try to direct the media in such a way as to achieve greater freedom, to give the good doctrine of Christ, and to propose good solutions to the problems of mankind.

You have to give clear ideas on all temporal issues, on every aspect of human life: the family, civil society, the professions, entertainment, sport, science, education, art, fashion…

From all the professions, one can exert an influence on the media. On seeing the surpassing importance of this apostolate, your apostolic zeal will suggest to each one what way you can help.

God’s truth has to reach everywhere through publications, movies, radio, and TV [and other media]…And this task is yours.

You may be quite sure that, as this apostolate spreads sound doctrine through all the channels, the great problems of public opinion will be solved.