Five years ago, the Vatican hosted one of Shakespeare’s plays for the first time, and one writer astutely noted that the choice of Hamlet was appropriate given the “sea of troubles” and multitude of Shakespearean drama then playing out at the Vatican.
The human drama has only intensified since then, and Pope Francis this year quotes Shakespeare in his letter for World Communications Day message. In the letter, Francis warns us about fake news, which is nothing new, as well as advising us to be wary of anyone “who speaks an infinite deal of nothing.”
It was the character Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice who originally spoke “an infinite deal of nothing,” but the charge also applies to us as Christian communicators today, says Francis.
“We think of how much empty rhetoric abounds, even in our time, in all areas of public life, in business as well as politics,” he says, cautioning us about “the risk of misinformation being spread on social media.”
His letter, titled Come and See, speaks to the need to follow Jesus’ example of inviting others to follow; the letter’s subtitle, Communicating by Encountering People Where and as They Are, is instructive.
We’re in a badly polarized time when, instead of discussing and arguing about issues, people talk past each other, engage in insult-ridden rhetoric, and attempt to silence, cancel, and cast from social media.
The Pope understands we need to “move beyond the complacent attitude” we have in which we assume we “already know” everything there is to know about a particular matter. Instead, “we need to go and see” for ourselves, “to spend time with people, to listen to their stories and to confront reality, which always in some way surprises us.”
“Come and see” is the simplest way of getting to know a situation, says Francis. “It is the most honest test of every message, because, in order to know, we need to encounter, to let the person in front of me speak, to let his or her testimony reach me.”
The next time we’re tempted to insult, silence, and cancel someone, let’s try to remember that he or she is a real person who the Pope, and Jesus, is calling us to get to know.
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