When we think of communications most of us look at it from the point of view of the person who speaks or writes. We think about the best ways to address our audience.
However, in his message for World Communications Sunday (22 May), Pope Francis looks at communication from the perspective of the person who is addressed. His theme is listening. He reminds us that communication is a two-way process, involving a speaker and a listener. Communication is effective when each partner has an opportunity to speak and to listen.
When we focus on listening rather than speaking we notice things that might otherwise escape us. We recognise how strong in all of us is the desire to be listened to and understood. Pope Francis speaks of the universal and ‘boundless desire to be heard’. This passionate desire explains in part why people find social media so appealing, and how destructive its effects can be. It gives ordinary people who would otherwise never find people to listen to them the opportunity to speak and be heard. Unfortunately, they will often find themselves, not listened to, but judged, mocked and condemned without a hearing. That is one of the risks that face young people who are disadvantaged in many ways.
In public conversation it can deter people from communicating and encourage shouting. The result is that they will then confine their communication to people with whom they agree. They do not seek the truth but trade in their own version of it. Listening then lies at the heart of our work.
Pope Francis sees listening as a gift that we need to nurture, not something that we do naturally and can take for granted. Nor does taking it in turns to speak guarantee that we shall listen to the other person. In our homes as well as in public conversation in Parliament, newspapers and on television communication can degenerate into serial monologues in which no one listens, and all go away dissatisfied. Good listening does not take place only through the ears but also through the heart. We treasure what we hear in our hearts, making space in silence to be touched and surprised by what we hear and so to enter the other person’s world and life with compassion.
We often speak of God’s Word. That is right, but it can lead us to imagine God’s communication as one in which God speaks and we listen. Actually, as Pope Francis says, in our relationship with God, God spends most of the time listening, hoping we might leave a silent space when we are open to hear God’s still voice.