Our life today is thoroughly absorbed by the constant vision of the exterior world. The means of communication have developed so much and are so aggressive that they draw our attention, they distract us, they draw us away from ourselves, and empty us of personal awareness.
We need, therefore, to be careful. We can move from a position of being simply observers to being critics, thinkers, judges. This attitude of reflective knowledge is of supreme importance to the modern soul, if this soul is to remain alive, and not simply be a screen subject to a thousand impressions.
This reflective act is necessary for Christians, if we wish to discover the “signs of the times”; because, as the Council teaches (Gaudium et Spes, n.4), the interpretation of the “times”, of the empirical and historical reality that surrounds us and concerns us, must be made in “the light of the Gospel.”
The discovery of the “signs of the times” is a matter for Christian conscience; it is the result of a correlation between faith and life.
Paolo VI
Udienza generale
16 aprile 1969