Purpose of communication

POPE Benedict has just given his message for this year’s World Day of Communication, celebrated on May 24. It is entitled, “New Technologies, New Relationships—Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.”

It’s a call for all of us to make use of the advantages these new technologies of communication—the mobile phone, computers, Internet, etc.—can give us. The obvious alternate corollary is that we avoid their dangers and other disadvantages. They too can turn traitors, if we are not careful.

Of course, it presumes that we know well the peculiarities of this new development. That’s why, it’s good of the Pope to remind us of basic realities that rule our lifelong business of communication.

They tend to be forgotten, or at least taken for granted, with obvious dismal effects and consequences. In the frenzy and excitement that often accompany these new technologies, we can easily forget the real and ultimate purpose of communication.

Ironically, instead of strengthening our unity with everyone, they can become clever tools of division that can isolate people in the world of their own making. Each one becomes an island with no sense of archipelagic solidarity.

I was struck when the Pope said in one of his opening lines that “this desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations.”

That fine distinction is, I think, worth reiterating. We tend to be so captivated by the novelty offered by these new technologies that we forget that this need for communication comes from our nature that has objective laws and requirements to be followed and respected.

It’s easy for us to fly into purely subjective ideas of why we communicate. We tend to make that task to serve narrow, selfish ends. We do not make any effort to attune it to serve God and the common good. If the latter are served, it often is a result of accident, not by intention.

Quite clearly, the Pope spelled out the nature and purpose of communication. “In the light of the biblical message,” he said, “it should be seen primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God who desires to make of all humanity one family.”

Now I don’t know how many people know this basic truth and how much they are applying it in their communications. What can easily be gathered is that most people communicate merely for very personal reasons.

If not personal, then it’s done more to pursue purely human needs in the areas of professional, social, cultural life. There’s actually nothing wrong here as long as everything is rooted and focused on God’s will and design. This basic truth is, sadly, often set aside.

Often, we make our communication a purely human affair. It’s with this kind of mentality that distorts our communication, resulting in discord and enmity among ourselves. The Pope appeals to all to see to it that our communications promote respect, dialogue and friendship among ourselves.

In fact, our communications should foster communion first of all with God and then among ourselves. It’s a communion that welcomes diversity of opinions in things precisely open to opinion, without compromising the absolute truths.

It’s not one to straitjacket us. Rather it enhances, if not perfects our freedom in all its rich but unified possibilities. It’s like a tapestry, containing so many different threads, but with a beautiful and harmonious design.

Thus, we have to understand that our communication, in whatever form it takes, should always be a way of participating in the eternal communication God has within himself and with the rest of creation. It cannot be any other way.

This is a tremendous challenge for us to attain this abiding sense of the nature and purpose of our communication. It surely would require the cooperation of everyone, according to his possibilities, and massive resources.

Given our human condition, with our need to be subjective, to pass through several stages, not to mention, our weaknesses and limitations, and the temptations around, we need to be patient and focused in this task of educating ourselves about communication.

We have to be quick to detect and heal both the human and devious tricks that can poison the original nature of our communication.

The Pope also encouraged all, especially the young, to make use of these new technologies for the purpose of evangelization. In the end, that’s what they are for.