When you welcome Jesus, you will be an influencer that brings his voice so that people can get out of their tombs ». These words of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle are enough, pronounced in the Basilica of San Pietro during the jubilee mass of the Catholic influencers, to understand how deep the stakes in the digital mission of the church is. The purple Filipino, with his usual ability to combine theology, spirituality and reading of the times, did not propose a slogan, delivered a vision: that of An influencer who stops measuring himself in views and begins to measure himself in resurrections. It is a radical invitation: In a world where “influencing” has become synonymous with monetization, marketing, algorithmic pressure, Tagle has returned to the end its original root: to influence, flow inside. The question, then, is inevitable: what are we making flowing into the hearts of others? From which “stars” do our content come? In the homily, the cardinal has traced a necessary discernment: the network can be poison or medicine, a manipulation tool or a way of liberation. The Christian influencer, he said in no uncertain terms, cannot be neutral. “You are not only influencer, but missionaries”: for a Catholic influencer there is no room for narcissistic rhetoric that sometimes softens the feeds, Tagle, in fact, has recalled any digital evangelizer to its true vocation: not to produce content, but generate life. The purple insisted on what distinguishes the Christian announcement from any other form of communication: God did not send a link, but his son did not reach us with a message generated by artificial intelligence, but with a body, a face, a heart. Love, he said, does not arise from an algorithm, for this reason, those who are missionary in digital cannot be satisfied with techniques and strategies: he must let himself be changed by the love he proclaims, he must be channel and not a barrier, fluid of mercy and not control.
But the heart of the message, as always in Tagle, is never a moralistic call, the Filipino prelate gives a word that consoles, which encourages, which calls to beauty: that of being, like Marta, Mary and Lazzaro, friends of Jesus. Figures that become a paradigm of what every digital missionary is called to live. Marta serves with zeal, Maria listening to with her heart, Lazzaro who returns to life because he heard the maestro’s voice. It is in this triad that the truth of Christian influence is played: do not impress, but to make room; Don’t say everything, but really listen; Do not collect consensus, but to arouse hope. The missionary influencer, the cardinal said, is the one who helps people get out of their tombs. In a time when words run more than relationships and numbers count more than the faces, the Eucharist celebrated by Tagle has put in the center what really matters: the person of Jesus and the ability to let himself be influenced by him. His homily was an examination of consciousness for anyone who dresses nets with evangelical intentions. But it was also a caress: “Jesus loves you, not doubt,” he said with the tenderness of a father. It is from here that every mission can start again: from the certainty of being loved, and by the urgency of making that love contagious. Perhaps, really, the challenge is no longer growing your audience, but to resurrect it.
