Communication

It is here that the church runs the risk of changing the Gospel, the good news of God's communication to humanity, into bad communication. This happens when parresía, the evangelical boldness of Christ's disciples, gives way to the timidity and subservience of officials in an ecclesiastical institution; when authority, instead of remaining at the service of communion, degenerates into an arrogant display of power; when the ecclesial community plays favorites, privileging some and marginalizing others; when censorship, duplicity, hypocrisy, and half-truths create that climate of fear that is a direct contradiction of the evangelical freedom inspired by the Spirit; when dialogue is shunned rather than pursued, and so on. It is only when the Christian community makes itself an environment where authentic freedom is possible that it also becomes a space for discussion, dialogue and communication among brothers and sisters! Community life, which is the face of the Christian community and the fundamental form of testimony the church offers humanity, depends on communication. Communication is an art, not a technique, and it is an art that demands humility. It is not an overflowing fullness, an expression of an 'extra' or a 'too much;' rather, it arises from an emptiness, an awareness of a lack, a need. When we communicate, we express our need for others, we acknowledge that we depend on them and owe our life to them, and we confess that the gift of God, the munus from which our communication arises, precedes us.