The Readings lend themselves to the theme for World Communication Sunday. The 1st Reading described the post-Ascension scenario in the Cenacle. The Apostles prayed while waiting for the fulfilment of Christ’s promise of the Spirit. The Gospel also took place in the same Upper Room but this was before Calvary, and Jesus was praying for those whom He had to leave behind. He prayed for His follower to be united based on the unity between the Father and the Son.
Unity is the goal of communication or put in another way, to communicate is to aim for a union of minds and hearts. How do we achieve this unity? The theme for this year’s World Communication Sunday is “Preserving Human Voices and Faces”. The backdrop to this theme is the inevitable encroachment of Artificial Intelligence in our interactions. The Church’s position is that the progress made in AI should aim to promote human dignity or preserve it rather than itreplacing genuine human interaction or worse still utilise it to fabricate reality.
All we need is to scroll through YouTube. How often have you come across a short movie or some snippets of talent shows and after watching it for a while, you realise that the movie or snippet is no more than click bait and the story is nothing more than an AI-generated production. What the President, the Prime Minister or the Pope purportedly said depends on the political persuasion of the content creators because AI can generate videos and speeches which support their positions. There is a possibility that elections can be won with the assistance of AI. Papers or theses are already written by AI. Everything now is AI-aided. Even the Jesus we worship can be AI-moulded. Depending on which side of the aisle one sits or stands, Jesus can be shaped to fit into that narrative.
All the more the prayer of Jesus is important.
He prayed for our unity to reflect the unity between Him and His Father. That unity is cemented by truth. And here is where AI must show its true colour by serving this purpose of upholding truth and protecting human dignity which means that augmented communication must always preserve genuine human faces and authentic voices
The first goal of communication is to reflect truth. But we know how often when we communicate, what we think to be the truth can simply be gossip or slander or an outright lie. How often have we presented the so-called truth from the perspective of making ourselves look good and those who are our enemies,look bad? And even if we do not intend to bolster ourselves, how often have we painted another person in unsavoury light. As witnesses to Christ, what we declare to be true must be done with integrity and charity and always ensuring that our words are aligned with our actions.
The second goal of communication as mentioned earlier is to forge unity. Families, communities or societies can be divided because people want different things and have different goals. More so when we emphasise individual autonomy and the freedom to choose. But buried within us is also an innate desire for union as exemplified by the attempt to build the Tower of Babel. However, that attempt to unify sprang from pride. In a way, one can say that Babel represented human pride endeavouring to stand on par with God. It was as if man could offer unity as a gift to God.
Notice that during the era of communism, the same desired for unity was forged by the imposition of a certain truths. However, truth does not impose itself. Rather it is a proposition in which people are, by virtue of their reasoning power, able to come to an understanding and acceptance of what it is. The bonum or the good of unity, be it of a family, society, community and a country, can foster prosperity and development. However, that goal cannot be purchase with the currency of coercion. The good we intend must always respect the freedom of those who are served.
Babel is a symbol of the temptation towards megalomania—the dream of dictators or fascists or socialists who believe that they are owners of truth who have been granted the divine right to impose their particular vision of reality on others.
In a way, the 2nd Reading makes sense. To bear the truth that unites will entail suffering because we are but servants and not the lords, let alone, the owners of truth. We can only serve Him which when translated it usually means having to suffer because we are on the right side of what is true, good or beautiful. It is not easy as the temptation is always to believe that one has truth on one’s side rather than seek in humility to know if one has been on side of truth.
As such World Communication Sunday is a modern response. Given that our capacity for communication has progressed by leaps and bounds, with greater speed and outreach, we are challenged to use the different media to promote the Gospel message. Sometimes it is not easy to make out which the voice of the Gospel is. The cacophony of competing certainties highlights that both to communicate and to remain silent are part and parcel of the effort to allowChrist’s message come to the fore. Given that the landscape for proclamation is noisier today because of jostling media and a shorter attention span, silence is also necessary so that the message of Christ can be heard. The advancement of artificial intelligence has rendered the ability to sift through what is true or notso much more fraught. The moral dilemma we face as a civilisation highly dependent on artificial intelligence is how we can preserve genuine human encounters free from the abuse or misuse of algorithms and the possibilities of deepfakes.
Finally, when God created Man, He made us in His image and likeness. Despite the fall, all throughout salvation history, God has kept His communication channel open. And in the last days, God has spoken and revealed Himselfthrough His Son. The primary task of communication for the Church is to manifest both the face and the voice of Christ. Our desire for authentic communication will inevitably bring us back to Jesus Christ for without a personal encounter with Him or an experience of His voice, we will be, at best, a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal that distorts His message. Without Jesus, we will struggle to preserve the human face and protect the human voice. In the end, truth is never what we possess but He whom we serve which means to communicate carries with it the possibility of suffering on account of His name and His truth. If you are on His side, He will give you the courage.
