by Fr. James DiLuizo CSP

Readings: ISAIAH 5: 1-7; Psalm 80: Philippians 4: 6-9; Matthew 21: 33-43

Our Scriptures today are CAUTIONARY TALES – BE ON GUARD AGAINST HUBRIS and not accepting our need for God. Israel took for granted God’s Providence and the bounteous gifts he bestowed on them through the land. Through NEGLECT and DESIRE FOR GREATNESS OF THEIR OWN, they focused instead on worldly goals and the world left them bankrupt with its illusions of grandeur. 

The vineyard workers wanted everything—“to have it all” – i.e. complete control over their own lives and machinations, without the desire to advance in God’s ways. Instead, they resented authority and raged against God Himself, brutalizing and killing the Lord of Life. 

Pope LEO XIV’s encyclical  MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS is concerned about mindsets of striving for power and control—for these wreak havoc with our souls and allow our technological and economic advancements to deny our common humanity, sidestep the common good and our need for God. Leo is concerned that our rapid embrace of Artificial Intelligence and our growing dependance on computers alone for information, for commentary on the human condition, evaluation of nations, advances this illusion of perfection in what humans create, and makes us passive and inert. In brief, AI is tempting us as an IDOL that will not address human weakness or its own limitations . Everything about us, good as we may be made in the image of God, requires self-examination, guidance from Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes to assure we remain humble, never trying to substitute human initiative and progress for the ultimate meaning of life. There is nothing we can make that is PERFECT. ONLY GOD IS PERFECT. The Gospel is perfect.

Examining the benefits and burdens of  AI, Pope Leo’ insists ALL human inventions require oversight, and that AI advancement must engage representatives from all all strata of society, all nations, willing to share wisdom gained from experience and humble enough to admit how readily we are manipulated by false ideologies and quick fixes that neglect the consequences of our actions on lands and peoples outside of a particular purview. In regard to AI, facts, figures and algorithms will never address the totality of what true humanity entails— our hopes and dreams for the common good, for meaningful peace, for health and healthy relationships, for love of God and Neighbor, and the GRACE to learn from our mistakes. Frighteningly, AI has the potential to  dismiss attention to people who don’t measure up to progress, who don’t, for example, evidence “survival of the fittest.”  Humanity must never accept what it could present as an “ultimate solution”  to an issue without evaluating it with our primary values of faith, hope, and love. Indeed, nothing could be more contrary to the Gospel than trust in one worldly perspective alone, no matter how clarifying and expedient it may sound. Remember Saint Paul wrote “it is in my weakness that I am strong.”  Not in our aggrandizement or faith in the material world, but strength that comes from deference to Christ. 

Here is a QUOTE from Pope Leo’s encyclical: “Our relationship with life seems to be in crisis today. Everything that appears as a ‘limit’—incapacity, illness, old age, suffering, vulnerability—tends to be seen primarily as a defect to be corrected, rather than as a REALITY though which our humanity matures and opens itself to relationships. And yet we must remember that humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them.”

So, I close by reiterating this: everything humanity creates requires scrutiny, deliberation and oversight. As people who make  decisions on the world stage reveal their true allegiances,  we must  insist the allegiances of people who strive for the common good are integrated into local, national, and international plans, including those for AI. We, too, must have our say because our allegiance is to building up the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ to whom alone belongs “blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever. Amen.” And we don’t have to look that up! 

You can read the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas here: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html