God’s blessings and call are an invitation to witness, communicate, and live the Word.
On May 28 this past week, I stood in a hall at Harvard University. There, I received the Outstanding Dean’s Capstone Award for my digital media tech design project, EnKrist. When they called my name, something in me paused because, at that moment, I felt a deep rousing of the Spirit. This wasn’t just about a project. It was about a confirmation of a call. A calling I had felt for years but which, on that day, I felt affirmed in a new, unshakable way for people of significant influence to see.
I thought back to the moments of prayer that shaped the journey. The many hours of painful, excruciating sacrifices put into this labor to design and hopefully build a technology that serves the church. The nights I knelt before the tabernacle, asking God how communication (this often noisy, hurried thing) could ever serve the eternal. How media, with all its pixels and data streams, could speak of grace. And in Cambridge, Massachusetts, holding that award, I heard an answer I hadn’t expected: “You are being lifted so you can help others hear. So, you can speak light, ‘share the hope in your heart’ (1 Peter 3:16).”
Communication as Witness
In the Gospel for this Seventh Sunday of Easter, Jesus prays. The Lord prays not just for the disciples of old but for those who would believe because of their word. The line, “Because of their word”, caught me.
Beyond their lives and their love, there is also their word. It felt like a personal message. A reminder that words matter deeply, and living the Word matters even more. That communication is sacred ground when it carries the resonance of divine love, witnessed through actions, and spoken and unspoken words.
Ascension Day’s reading from Acts (1:1-11) added another layer to the story. Christ lifted before their eyes, not to leave them, but to entrust them. To entrust us, actually. “You will be my witnesses,” he said. Witnesses not only of doctrine but of presence. Witnesses not just by standing still but by moving into the world, cities, screens, and soundwaves.
World Day of Communication
Then I thought of Pope Francis’ message for the 59th World Communications Day, published on the feast of Saint John Lateran, 24 January 2025, which is also the memorial of Saint Francis de Sales. That is, three months before he passed. He spoke of the power of listening and the gentility that should follow the sharing from the heart. Not the passive kind of listening, but that deep listening that restores dignity. He talked of communication as closeness, like Jesus on the road to Emmaus, who drew near, walked alongside, asked, listened, and finally revealed.
The Pope’s words felt like a continuation of Christ’s prayer: that the world may know love through the words we offer, words shaped by silence, gentleness, respect, and a desire to heal.
Not to Be Seen, But to See
After receiving the award that afternoon, I walked along the Charles River, reflecting on all these connections. It struck me that evangelization today isn’t only done in pulpits or mission fields. It’s done in the edit bay, in the classroom, behind a camera, within a podcast episode, or even on a line of code. It is done between the streaks and reels as we share stories on social media.
When we bring God into those spaces with reverence and divinely creativity, we are evangelizing. We are building a Church that speaks not just in sermons but in stories, real ones, vulnerable ones, stories of people who feel forgotten, and voices long buried beneath the noise.
God did something new for me this week. He lifted me, not so I could be seen, but so that I could see more clearly where he is sending me to die to myself as he did for me, so others may live. It is a responsibility. It is also a promise that every gift we receive can become a bridge for someone else to walk into grace.
Gentle and Truthful Words
As we move toward Pentecost and the winds of the Spirit blow anew, I pray that my words may be woven with tenderness and truth. The platforms we build become altars, and our technologies become instruments of encounter. May we boldly live the Word, everywhere. May our communication inform and transform, seasoned with gentleness and grace (Colossians 4:6).
And in your own story, wherever you are, may you know this too: when God lifts you, it is never for ego. It is always for mission. Always for self-emptying love. For that, is bearing witness.
[Seventh Sunday of Easter: Acts 7:55-60; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17:20-26; Ascension Sunday: Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24:46-53]
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