A quick glance at any forum, WhatsApp group, or church discussion is enough to confirm that the national pastime—even among those of us who claim to serve God—has become offering opinions on everything and everyone with astonishing flippancy. We live with a war of words between our teeth, infected by a climate of constant suspicion where it seems our own side is always right and the other deserves to be condemned.

Faced with this drift, Pope Leo XIV recently reminded us in the Angelus of a truth as simple as it is uncomfortable: “The vineyard we must cultivate justly is the Church, which we build up or damage with our decisions.” On the eve of the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis, it is worth pausing to consider whether, with our daily noise, we are building community or rather behaving like unruly laborers who spoil the harvest.

Today, all the faithful without exception—priests, consecrated persons, and laity—are extraordinarily exposed to a daily avalanche of information, news, and opinions that are rarely properly verified. Our current digital culture pushes us, almost unconsciously, toward quick, visceral, and polarized opinions. We have a lot at stake. What sources are we drawing on for our intellectual and spiritual nourishment each day? It is worth pausing and examining ourselves rigorously. Today, the information ecosystem is rife with content for all tastes and ideologies, but the danger of being overwhelmed by misinformation or rash judgment is extremely high.

Shouldn’t we honestly ask ourselves whether the platforms or newsletters we consume seek to build communion or, on the contrary, fuel permanent suspicion against the Church?

The faithful Catholic cannot and must never lose that supernatural instinct—the sensus fidelium —which enables him to discern the truth with simplicity of heart. In this area, not everything is permissible: it is never legitimate or compatible with the Catholic faith to go against doctrine, nor to undermine the authority of the Pope and the bishops under the pretext of a supposed superior orthodoxy. By allowing ourselves to be swept along by disloyal currents of opinion, we can easily fall into the subtle trap of slander and defamation, sowing discord that is completely contrary to authentic Christian charity and the truth that sets us free.

The parable of the vineyard workers teaches us that, despite rejections and crises, “God never abandons our lives!” miraculously transforming evil into redemption. We are merely workers in that vineyard; not its owners or its supreme judges. The fruitfulness of the Church does not depend on our squabbles on social media or our human strategies, but on our union with Christ. As the Pope pointed out when recalling the saint of Assisi—to whom the Lord entrusted the repair of his Church—our task must begin in the invisible foundations of the spirit. Francis built his life on the foundation of Christ, sharing in his poverty and his cross.

The saint of Assisi did not heal the divisions of his time through rallies, riots, or by fueling gossip and slander, but rather by being a man of fervent prayer and ardent charity, whose rigorous asceticism with his first companions was the authentic condition for true reform. He healed the cracks of discord with the living witness of fraternal love. His figure brings us back to an uncomfortable truth: before pointing the finger at the imperfections and miseries of others, we must allow Christ to examine and purify our own hearts, helping us to rise from our daily falls.

Along these same lines, the Holy Father insists on the urgency of being mindful of our attitudes and language within the community. As we joyfully celebrate this Franciscan Jubilee Year, the Pope encourages us to pray for peace and to build harmony among peoples, which undoubtedly begins with eliminating verbal belligerence in our ecclesial relationships. We need words that are peacemaking, disarming, and profoundly disarming. Distancing ourselves from gossip and sterile confrontations is not evangelical weakness, but rather the only way for the Gospel to reach us in its purest form. Truly Christian language does not seek to win dialectical arguments or easy applause in the trenches, but to win souls for charity.

Cultivating the Lord’s vineyard in the present time therefore requires courageously undertaking a twofold task.

On the one hand, a profound inner renewal through assiduous prayer and daily surrender —personal renunciation and hidden sacrifice— intimately united to Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, a commitment to bearing witness in our daily interactions and in our consumption of information, rigorously examining what we read, hear and share, so that our words always distill the truth, peace and harmony that this wounded world so desperately needs.

Let us simply be good, faithful, and humble workers in the Lord’s vineyard. May our constant prayer sustain the Church in times of trial, may our daily sacrifice cleanse and rectify our innermost intentions, and may our words—gentle, pure, and fraternal—be a living and luminous reflection of Christ’s love in the world.