June 27, 2024

June 27

June 27, 2024:  Thursday, 12th week, Ordinary Time

Listen
From the Vatican

Algorithms, serve people:  Communicating in the AI age:  How can we protect professionals and maintain the right to inform and be informed on the basis of truth, freedom, and responsibility?  How can we make AI platforms interoperable?  (Dr. Paolo Ruffini)

Pope Francis's interventions on AI demonstrate the Church's "intuition" in walking with humanity, as 500 years ago with the first Vatican printing press, in 1931 with Vatican Radio, and in 1994 with vatican.va. (Fr Lucio Ruiz)

Computers contributed to the A-bomb the breaking Nazi Germany encryption.  Then came "personal computing" through PCs, then smartphones.  We don't know how much computing will be local vs. cloud-based.  AI regulation is as necessary as traffic laws. (Fr. Paolo Benanti)

What makes AI have decisive anthropological impact is its reliance on so much data collected brutally over through free services that have become essential to us.  Algorithms have been trained with values and culture connected with the English language. Struggling to decode complex messages can be dangerous.  (Nunzia Ciardi)

Knowledge is becoming private property; e.g. OpenAI started as a nonprofit but is now partnered with Microsoft.  We must make AI a science with rigorous definitions, vs. a probabilistic tool that can't measure intelligence, truth, or causality.  (Prof. Mario Rasetti)

Love concretely:  Remember your founder's call to “make union with Christ, in His love for the Father and for all, the principle and centre” of your lives.

Unity is a gift not attained through our efforts, but we must do our part.  Give priority to sacramental life, meditate on scripture, and devote yourselves to prayer.  Make room for Jesus, whose heart eternally beats with love for us, inviting us to bring everything into His presence.

How can we be missionaries today, in a world marked by so many challenges?  Your founder understood that Jesus’ sufferings were a result of His love for the Father and for all people.  The secret of credible and effective proclamation is allowing, like Jesus, the word ‘love’ to be written upon us, in the concreteness of our actions.  (Pope Francis to Sacred Heart priests (Dehonians))

Hope and act with Creation:  Abuse of nature requires conversion.  It's our responsibility to take care of our Common Home, in obedience to Jesus’ commandment of love.  Creation was enslaved, unable to fulfill the purpose it was designed for.  Abuse of nature helps kill the environment, but our salvation is a hope for creation.  The Spirit guides and calls us to change our lifestyle to resist environmental degradation and to engage in social critique.

Join forces to rethink the meaning and limits of human power.  Injustice and war kill, destroy, pollute, and devastate.  The universe yearns for its original state to be restored.  War in Syria has eroded a lush forest.  Trying to possess, dominate, and manipulate nature is idolatry.  Creation is drawn toward its future; protecting it is an ethical and theological issue.

We're free, created in God's image, representatives of creation in Christ.  Creation suffers birth pangs, awaiting the revelation of the children of God.  Our life and eternity are at stake.  Remember your identity as God's children, empowered to live holy lives and effect change, become a song of love for God and humanity, with and for creation.  (World Day of Prayer for Care of creation message)

Act against trafficking:  Human trafficking is a grave violation of human dignity, and it often goes unseen.  We must reject the culture of indifference that desensitizes us and effaces the inalienable dignity of the exploited.  The poor are the most likely to fall into trafficking and slavery; we must help them find a safe place to rediscover peace and flourish.  We're called to deploy our efforts to prevent trafficking and to affirm the God-given dignity of victims of human rights violations.  Weakening values and relationships erodes families and the social fabric.

States need to pass laws to combat this offense to women’s dignity and to support victims of prostitution and address causes of such violence.  Continued growth in commodification and exploitation of women and girls calls for a concrete response to help victims, especially given the increasing prominence and use of surrogacy.   (Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the UN and Other International Organizations, Geneva)

  • 2 Kgs 24:8-17  Jehoiachin reigned three months in Jerusalem, doing evil in God's sight.  King Nebuchadnezzar's officials attacked Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, who took him captive, carried off the treasures, and deported all Jerusalem.  He deported Jehoiachin and led captive the king’s mother, wives, functionaries, and chief men.  He appointed his uncle Mattaniah king, changing his name to Zedekiah.
  • Ps 79:1b-2-5, 8, 9  "For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us."  The nations have defiled your temple, laid Jerusalem in ruins, and fed your dead servants to the birds.  Will you be angry and jealous forever?  May your compassion quickly come to us.
  • House built on rock
    vs.house built on sand
    Mt 7:21-29  “Only those who do my Father's will will enter the Kingdom.  Many will say, ‘Didn't we do mighty deeds in your name?,’ but I'll say, ‘I never knew you; depart, you evildoers.’  One who acts on my words is like a wise man who built his house on rock; it stood despite rain, floods, and winds.  One who doesn't act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand; rain, floods, and winds ruined it.”  The crowds were astonished, for he taught with authority.
        Reflect
        • Creighton:  Did Jesus tell the people who prophesied, expelled demons, and did great deeds to depart and suggest they had no solid foundation because they weren't properly motivated?  May love of God and neighbor be the foundation of our work.
        • Passionist:  Jesus calls us to do God’s will.  When we seek the Father's love and will, we find peace and stability even amid storms and winds.
        • DailyScripture.net:  "The wise who built their house upon the rock":  If you could foresee a threat to your life, home, and goods, you'd do what you could to avoid disaster.  Jesus' audience knew storms swept through their land unannounced and likely remembered the proverb, "When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm."  The foundation we build on determines how we survive life's storms and trials.  We may fool one another, but we can't deceive God who sees our heart.  Our sincerity can only be proved by our practice.  Our choices reveal our character.  If we make the Lord Jesus and his word our foundation, then nothing can shake us nor keep us from God's presence and protection.
          • St. Cyril of Alexandria, bishop, fought Nestorian heresy.  Read his writings online.
          • Mary, Our Lady (Mother) of Perpetual (Unfailing) Help
          • St. John Southworth, priest, martyr
          • Bl. Nykyta Budka, priest, martyr
          • Bl. Vasyl Velychkovsky, bishop, abbot
        Early Cyrillic: thanks, St. Cyril
        Dress legend (if only I'd packed the tie pins and bars I picked out Saturday)
        Our Lady of Perpetual Help
        • 'Crowns' tie:  Kings Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar, Solomon, and Zedekiah (1st reading)
        • 'Money bag' pin:  Nebuchadnezzar carried off all the treasures of temple and palace,... (1)
        • Gold-colored accessories:  ...broke up the gold utensils Solomon had provided,... (1)
        • 'Hammer' tie pin:  ...deported officers, soldiers, and craftsmen (1)
        • 'Skeleton,' 'bird,' 'beast' pins:  They gave your servants' corpses to the birds, their flesh to beasts (psalm)
        • 'Car' tie pin:  "Didn't we 'drive' out demons in your name?" (gospel)
        • 'Owl,' 'rock' tie pins:  If you listen to and act on my words, you'll be like a wise man who built on rock (gospel)
        • 'Fire' pin:  "Lord, will your jealousy burn like fire?" (psalm)
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