Beauty pageant contestants almost always advocate for world peace, education, environmental protection, public health, and other causes with measurable impact. Rarely do they choose truth as their central advocacy. Perhaps this is because truth appears so abstract that it cannot be fully explained in the Q&A segment of the pageant.

Moreover, beauty contestants may be afraid to offend followers or viewers whose idea of truth has been shaped by algorithm-driven narratives and ideologies in social media. To avoid being “cancelled,” they choose to be safe, advocating for what is convenient over what is truly important; what is pleasing over what is real.

Yet herein lies the irony. Whenever contestants speak about the causes they champion, they are, in fact, already advocating for truth. Peace and genuine reconciliation, for example, depend on the honest acknowledgment of wrongdoing, the rejection of propaganda, and a commitment to justice, all of which are rooted in truth. Likewise, advocacy regarding climate change presupposes fidelity to sound science, objective data, and intellectual honesty.

Without truth, even concern for the poor and marginalized can become a form of manipulation. Imagine a contestant advocating for children victimized by human trafficking. She shares a moving story about her work with abused children in order to stir compassion from the audience. The immediate emotional impact may help her win, but if that story later proves to be fabricated, not only will her credibility suffer, but also the children whom she vows to help. The absence of truth reduces advocacies to platitudes, self-serving narratives, or politicized agendas.

Advocating for truth has never been more urgent than it is today, when virtually anyone can create content and influence public opinion through social media. Language itself is no longer used solely to express, explain, or clarify. It is also weaponized to confuse, sow conflicts, and bury truth beneath layers of distortion. Media outlets magnify some facts while omitting others to push people toward particular viewpoints, preferences, orientations, and attitudes.

Against this troubling backdrop, our Gospel reading today proves relevant as Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever: The Spirit of truth” (John 14:15–21). But in our society tyrannized by falsehood, it seems that the Holy Spirit have fallen silent.

Silence, however, is not the same as absence. The Holy Spirit makes Himself present, not mainly through extraordinary events or experiences, but through the quiet movements of our conscience. The discomfort we feel after lying, the inner peace that comes from doing what is right, the courage to act against rampant corruption and criminality, and the desire to seek what is true even at the cost of great sacrifice, are signs of the Holy Spirit’s action within us.

The Holy Spirit quietly works through the journalist who chooses accuracy over popularity, the scholar who pursues clarity over ideology, the ordinary netizen who refuses to share unverified or malicious information, the politician who maintains integrity despite public pressure, and the young person who upholds moral principles rather than surrendering to comfort, pleasure, or convenience.

No, the persistence of lies and fake news does not prove the Spirit’s absence. It simply reveals our tendency to ignore, resist, or be deaf to the promptings of our conscience. The Holy Spirit continues to guide, illuminate, and call, but He respects our freedom. This may appear as weakness, but it actually reveals the power of truth: it does not coerce in order to prevail. Rather, it enlightens our will and moves us to love it. As we read in our Gospel reading today: “Whoever keeps and obeys my commandments is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).

The greatest tragedy of our time is not that the Holy Spirit is absent, but that we refuse to acknowledge His presence. So, perhaps the advocacy most needed today, even on the global stage of beauty pageants, is precisely this: the courage to stand for truth, not as an abstract ideal, but as the foundation of every cause worth pursuing and defending.