This article was published in the 2025 Edition of Tinig Loyola Magazine of the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
Introduction
The merger of these two profound realities ‘creation’ and ‘hope,’ in the theme of Tinig Loyola Magazine this Jubilee year is timely and fitting. This is because they are important in our pilgrim life, highlighting our having a beginning, a journey and a destination. In today’s digital era, both creation and hope are often ignored, compromised, and silenced. This is due to shifting social and moral values and competing interests. This article argues that social media must be reclaimed as a space for evangelization and where the Gospel of hope and creation will be transformative.
God, humanity, communication
In today’s fragmented world, humanity fractions itself, and allows its fascinating discoveries, desires, dreams, and aspirations to give new meaning and value to itself and to the surrounding creation at the expense of faith and reverence to the Creator. The creator God, as Pope Benedict XVI says, is a ‘God of communication and Communion’ (Benedict XVI, New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship, 2009, par. 3). This is important as we explore how we can spread further and fruitfully the message of creation and hope by use of social media.
Social media mirrors human experiences and shape how we perceive creation, hope and belonging, though not always accurately. It is, however, a fact to be acknowledged that social media influence how people look at their lives and the lives of others, and the roles they play in both. As a societal force, social media platforms are important ‘as they contribute to the positive ordering of the human society’ (The Church and Internet, no. 2).
At the moment social media reflect more than ever the prospective thoughts of Communio et Progressio no. 128, which over fifty years ago envisioned ‘modern media’ as a new way to confront the people with the message of the Gospel,’ and a happy space of common understanding, free information, and collaboration (Towards Full Presence, no. 11).
What happened to Creation?
Humanity has since the beginning been charged with taking care of creation – a diversity of life that the human mind cannot even attempt to completely grasp. Humanity itself is a sign of hope, called to care for creation with love. This responsibility is not merely human-driven; it is God who leads us by his grace to recognize in faith that creation has a divine origin and purpose, and thereafter inspire us to act more fairly as stewards. This is a reason we relate to creation with reverence and gratitude to the Maker.
It is important that our use of social media reflects the value of the created world in its diversity as belonging to God and purposed for his will. There is a lot of pessimism, negativity, denial, and seemingly normalized absurdity towards the profound yet humbling reality of ‘creation’ and that of a Creator God who has purpose for his creation.
Many people adopt ideologies that undermine gratitude and reverence for the Creator. This way they reduce creation as mere tools and resources for their purposes and plans at the cost of creation itself. We can use social media in transformative ways to address absurdity, to challenge injustices and negativity, as well as promote life, faith and appreciation of creation. Hope is lost when the perception of creation is distorted, resulting in wounds.
Hope that heals wounds
Many people feel unsafe in the social media, despite the ever increasing ‘digital neighbourhoods.’ Many employ extreme privacy measures, including having their user accounts private, to minimize possibilities of being known or accessed, which could lead to them being exploited or abused. Many have been trapped and wounded by their digital footprints.
Many social media users encounter toxic interactions that trigger and fuel division, outrage, and emotional harm. These interactions contradict the Christian message which restores among people wholeness, gratitude, faith, hope, peace, unity, joy, and the fullness of life. But as St Paul reminds us, ‘suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope’ (Rom. 5:3-5). We can endure this hostility while we cultivate a hope that transforms negativity into an opportunity for our Christian witness.
Our Christian hope is a hope that seeks to heal wounds and fills those who receive it with joy and peace. It is a hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom. 15: 13). It is built on belonging to community, and seeks to spread goodwill in real and enduring relationships beyond mere connections. It is a hope that is both courageous and patient to accept, understand, learn, share, inspire, guide, teach, correct, forgive, and build bridges. We are, in words of Pope Francis, called to be the tangible signs of this Christian hope. Though social media is broad and complex there are many avenues of positive evangelization.
Positive evangelization on social media
Our style of communication ought to be rooted in and inspired by Christ who aside the message in speech, manifested (communicated) the Gospel values of truthfulness, sacrifice, fairness, justice, love, empathy, and mercy in the whole manner of his life, revealing by his life how ‘communication at its most profound level is the giving of self in love’ (Towards Full Presence, no. 65, 67).
The virtual nature of social media transforms our kindness in the ways possible to the medium available, and allows us to explore in a more synodal way beyond the boundaries of distances, borders and cultures, more possible avenues to love, care, support, spread hope, and appreciate the Gospel values, others, and the rest of God’s creation, to which we are stewards (Gen. 2:15).
The anonymity of internet and social media is as well not a license for negligence, isolation, lukewarmness, meanness, or a double life that contradicts who we truly are in real life. It is, using the words of Towards Full Presence, ‘another ‘road to Jericho,’ replete with opportunities for unplanned encounters’ (nos. 48, 49). With our good conduct online we can be sure of claiming the ‘digital continent’ for Christ (Pastoral Letter on the Use of Social Media, Canadian Bishops, 2024, no. 7).
It is also easy in our time to be caught in propaganda, falsehood, absurdity, false news, misinformation, and biased clout opinions which appeal to our strong emotional triggers such as race, histories, national identities, political beliefs, and our other vulnerable aspects. These are also opportunities to respond with mercy and empathy, and to spread hope, especially bearing in mind the unlimited and irreversible nature of the impact of a word written on the internet.
Emergent issues today
There are emergent issues that challenge both our ethical and theological considerations in the use of social media. How can we restore hope amidst the high rising superficial interaction and representation in social media? What about the avalanche of misleading, sensationalized and diluted messages shared on social media platforms with the intention to go viral? What about the abuses of all kinds that are done in and through the social media, hugely affecting children and vulnerable persons?
In addition, what is our response to organized/institutionalized efforts that undermine humanity and its core human values through social media, hidden in the scarfs of consolation? What about the irreversible use of Artificial Intelligence in unethical and damaging ways such as manipulation of images, aggregating and distribution of personal information, scamming, and other ways which undermine the human capacities, freedom, safety and privacy? There is still a lacuna of knowledge in handling these effectively as people of faith, but we can do our part by promoting content that empowers, inspires and uplifts.
These challenges also remind us who are pilgrims and prophets of hope, how careful we ought to be in our participation in social media so that we are not stepping stones in the chains of exploitation, abuse, or endangerment of other persons and creation, but vessels for the Gospel of creation and hope, built strongly on foundations of love (cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-7) and the truth that sets us free (cf. John 8:32).
Conclusion
To amplify the Gospel of creation and hope, we must engage with social media as fearless digital missionaries, bringing the light of hope to the peripheries of the digital world. As bearers of the image of God, Imago Dei, our task of restoring hope and healing wounds is urgent. Our presence online needs to reflect our love of Christ and our commitment to the Gospel of hope, as we turn every comment, post, and online interaction into an opportunity to evangelize and to uphold dignity and integrity of creation.
