“Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples.” (Mt 28:8)
This is the essence of the Easter proclamation. It sums up the perennial mission of the Church: with great joy and with due fear, we can all finally leave our tomb, come out of the tombs of our sin, stop mourning, eschew fears and wear the habit of joy, to be certain in the faith to aspire to our resurrection and that of all humanity, just as we rejoice over the resurrection of Jesus. We are called, just like the women in the Gospel of today, to be quick in announcing good and positive news. We are not rush to announce depressing and fake news.
Triumph of Bad News?
We live in an age, where with the help of technology and the Internet, almost everyone is turning to journalists. There is a sea of information and news shared over the internet on daily basis. In a frenzy to be the first to break a story and/or to gather more views and followers, fake news and misinformation often take the upper hand. Looking at the behavioral pattern of social media users, one sees what tends to be a preference of negative news over positive/good news. Horrible stories about failures and errors of famous personalities spread like a wildfire more than their good deeds. Stories that easily get higher number of retweets or views are mostly negative news or fake news.
Jonathan Swift once wrote: “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.” And according to Robinson Meyer: “Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.” In a bid to regularly amplify engaging and provocative content, social media platforms run the risk of also amplifying fake news. This reveals the urgent need to redesign our information ecosystem into a news ecosystem that favors and promotes truth and good news.
Easter Proclamation:
Finally, Easter is a season of joy occasioned by the good news of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The First Reading of today tells us how “on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven” and proclaimed the good news of Resurrection without fear or favor. The women in the Gospel, ran to announce the news of joy to the disciples. What type of news are you quick to announce or share? We are called to be bearers of good news and true stories. And the greatest of good news is the Gospel. It is the most viral true story of our time. As a result, let us continue to make it go viral. Let us be always ready to announce the Gospel to every creature.
Alleluia, Jesus is risen. The Truth is alive.
Happy Easter!
