In Sunday’s first reading, Jeremiah is struggling with where the Lord is in his life as it seems that all his enemies are delighting in his demise. Finally, after a dialogue with God in which God reviews with Jeremiah his presence always, he concludes that “The LORD is with me, like a mighty champion.” It is a similar dialogue we hear in the Book of Job that we have seen in the recent Musical JOB: The NOW Testament by John Angotti. The story is so relevant and powerful about where we see God in our lives and how we put our trust in God when we are going through some difficult times.
We just released the 2-part video production of the musical for all to enjoy and it is fantastic. If you did not attend, I encourage you this summer to take two hours and watch it with your family. We held a watch party for some of the staff and volunteers who worked the show but were not able to enjoy the show itself. It is a powerful story with brilliant music. Maybe you can host your own watch party with friends and family just like a movie night. Here are the links to the show:
I want to acknowledge the incredible work that Jurgen and Tim did to get this post-production video. It is truly awesome. Jurgen did amazing work with the audio mix and Tim did a great job with the video features and additions. Thank you both for your dedication to this project and thank you to all involved. Our children did a wonderful job singing and it was a great community experience – the messages of hope, faith and God’s love truly came through.
Speaking of seeing God’s love in all things, on June 19, Pope Francis published an apostolic letter, called “Sublimitas et Miseria Hominis” (“The Grandeur and Misery of Man”) celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of Blaise Pascal, the great French thinker and church layman. Pascal was one of my personal heroes as a child because I loved Math and Science, and he was brilliant in both as well being a committed Catholic and Christian. I read a lot of his papers many years ago and I was shocked to see the Pope write about him.
Pascal invented what is considered to be the precursor to the computer and was a genius ahead of his time. He publicly challenged many Jesuits who considered him to be dangerous and wrong which makes Pope Francis’ letter even more interesting and ironic.
I find the release of his letter particularly timely given the recent attention that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChapGPT 4 is getting in the press and our struggle to control where our technology development goes from here. I have worked with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and the Vatican’s Dicastery of Culture and Education over the last five years to address this very issue and we will be making some announcements in the coming days to advance the case for ethics at every level of the development of Artificial Intelligence in all companies throughout Silicon Valley and beyond.
Pope Francis acknowledges the many paradoxes of the human condition with which Pascal struggled in this time and we are still struggling with today. He quotes a typical paradox from Pascal’s book (posthumously edited) called “Pensées” (“Thoughts”): “What is man in nature? Nothing with respect to the infinite, yet everything with respect to nothing.” Beautiful indeed!
Msgr. Richard Antall, pastor of Holy Name Church in Cleveland, Ohio, puts it best as he reflects on the Pope’s recent letter: “Over and over again, in masterful metaphors, Pascal pointed out the contradictions of human existence. The human being is the best and the worst, both grand and miserable, exalted and lowly at the same time. The recurring motif of Pascal’s great wisdom is the dialectic between the infinite divine and the limited human…Pascal saw grace in the chaos of contrasting aspects of existence. Pascal’s “Pensées” was a work addressed in the Age of Reason to people who doubted the Gospel.”
I agree with the Pope in that we live in an age of doubt and indifference, an age of constant struggle with all the potentialities of the human condition: good and bad! It is up to every new generation to step up to the challenges of its time. Artificial Intelligence is bringing us many new gifts and many new challenges. I hope all our parishioners who work in the Technology industry in any way are willing to take a step back and realize that we are at a precipice as humanity in which we need courage to examine and ask the difficult questions such as “Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do it.” These are very interesting times, and our faith ought to be a part of the equation of life and not relegated to Sundays. May we all take the courage to live our faith in our work and engage our time with these new tough questions.
As you reflect on this, I ask you to pray for the missionaries to Tijuana, of which I am one, who travel July 1-8 to serve the people of Tijuana by building three homes while we are there. May we encounter Christ in all people and in all things as we work together to serve others in need. Please also pray for our young adults and youth as they coordinate and attend our Vacation Bible School this week. It is sure to be a stellar week of fun and learning as they “blast off” to see how God’s love shines in us all!
God bless,
Fr. Brendan