Sunday's Feast of the Ascension also marks the 49th annual World Communications Day. This is in fitting with the call in the Gospel to go out as witnesses “to the ends of the earth.” Mark’s Gospel has Jesus say to his followers: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”

In earlier generations, men and women ventured forth as missionaries, bringing the Gospel message to foreign lands, to peoples who did not know Christ. We no longer do that. Most of us know how important it is to respect the creed, culture and traditions of those with whom we work. Much of our evangelization these days is directed toward Christians who seek to grow more deeply in their faith, or to those who have wandered away from their faith.

And we look for creative ways to teach others about the Gospel and to facilitate a more intimate relationship with God. We do that with as much humility and openness as possible. Our way of being with people speaks more powerfully than any number of scholarly talks about God's love.

Pope Francis' message for this year's World Communications Day has the theme: "Communicating the Family: A Privileged Place of Encounter with the Gift of Love." His starting point is the recognition that "it is in the context of the family that we first learn how to communicate." The family is an environment in which we learn to communicate in an experience of closeness, a setting where communication takes place. He elaborates on the various ways in which the family teaches us about communication, such as prayer and forgiveness. The family is a "school" of communication.

In his message, Francis refers to both the helps and hindrances of the tools of social media, precisely because of the effect they are having on family life. "The media can be a hindrance if they become a way to avoid listening to others, to evade physical contact, to fill up every moment of silence and rest, so that we forget that silence is an integral element of communication." He says that the media can help communication when "they enable people to share their stories, to stay in contact with distant friends, to thank others or to seek their forgiveness, and to open the door to new encounters." Francis speaks of our need to employ technology wisely, rather than letting ourselves be dominated by it. He says that families often need to learn once again how to talk to one another.

The Communications Commission for the English Canada Province of the Jesuits recognized a few years ago the need for us to change our use of the web, from seeing it as a source of information, to a use of the web as a means of proclaiming the Word of God with depth, "to strengthen and develop a ministry of evangelization of the web." The question is how we evangelize in the digital age. That Commission has the task of helping our Jesuit ministries and communities to be more versatile in using social media for evangelization.

Elsewhere, Pope Francis reminds us that it is "important to know how to dialogue, and how to enter, with discernment, into the environments created by new technologies, into social networks, in such a way as to reveal a presence that listens, converses, and encourages."

This Ascension we are reminded of that call we all share in, to spread the Good News of God's presence in the world. We have access to more instruments of communication than ever before. How do we use them for good, for building up the Body of Christ rather than tearing her apart?