Blessed James Alberione

A Spirituality for Communications

By Fr. Jeffrey Mickler, SSP, Ph.D.

All communication takes place through words, signs, and gestures. All authentic spirituality is based on a human response to God’s self-revelation in word, signs and gestures. The created universe in all of its complexity and grandeur is the original and most fundamental sacrament. The universe that was created by God’s word is sustained by God’s love and is the place where we come to know how much God loves us. Molecules and galaxies alike are signs of God’s intelligence and concern. They communicate to us the Creator's wisdom.

Because of our limitations that spring from sin, God chose to reveal himself directly to the Patriarchs, lawgivers, judges, poets and prophets of Israel. Again and again he did this in words and signs. The Patriarchs and prophets clearly heard God’s word, responded to it and passed it on to others. Moses in the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (literally the "ten words"), revealed to humanity how to live a godly life. The prophets of Israel through their godly words and gestures taught the people how to treat the weak, the widows, the orphans and the strangers. People who were spiritually alive took these words, wrote them on their hearts and became fully alive. The authors of the wisdom literature and the psalms taught humanity how to respond to God’s love in a practical manner and to sing God’s praises in such a way that the singers of God’s word became godly themselves.

God’s greatest communication to humanity was in the Word that became flesh, Christ the Divine Master. In the beginning was this Word, and this word bridged the gap between God and humanity in a definitive way. Jesus our Divine Master, the Way, Truth and Life, makes it possible for us to become ourselves living words of God, to proclaim salvation to the poor and freedom to a world enslaved by sin. As St. Paul tells us, in Christ we become living letters of God to humanity. When we tell the story of Jesus to others, we become channels of grace. When we live as Jesus taught, we become living symbols for all to marvel at.

We can do this one to one, in small groups, on a parish level and as members of the universal community we call the Catholic Church. If we tell the story of Jesus, however, through the arts, music, and the social means of communications, we become apostles for our time and utilize the means that human ingenuity has developed for the good of the Gospel.

When media are used to corrupt and seduce the human spirit, it is a betrayal of human genius and an instrument of degradation. When the media are used to tell the story of Jesus, however, the human spirit is uplifted. The person who is dedicated to truth in media will reach those who are open to the truth and will show those willing to learn how to live lives of heroic love.

Father Alberione based Pauline spirituality on a love for the scriptures and the Eucharist. He wanted each member of the Daughters of St. Paul and the Society of St. Paul to bring this spirituality to bear on the media ministry. In this way, the evil uses of media are effectively combated. The beatification of Father Alberione is an affirmation not only of his personal holiness but of the way to holiness and apostolic zeal that he has passed on to the Pauline Family as a whole. For this, all of us rejoice. As the story of Jesus is told through the press, radio, television, music, audio-visuals, and the Internet, the Pauline storytellers themselves become a little more holy and a lot more human.

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