“A.I., Holy Spirit, and Human Progress”– Pentecost – 5.28.23

“A.I., Holy Spirit, and Human Progress”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

Assumption Church (Regina Coeli Parish) - Bellevue, PA

Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052823-Day.cfm

(Transcript of audio - preached without notes)

I’m sure you’ve heard or seen some of the new artificial intelligence or AI technology that has been coming out recently. It seems like some of it could be good and do a lot of really amazing things technologically. It seems like an amazing technological advancement. But we also see that there is a lot that is not so good about it. There are a lot of scary things that it could do, and it’s kind of unpredictable, and we aren’t really sure what’s going to happen with it. Now the point of this homily is not to dissect A.I. but to reflect on the question, “what is true human progress?”

I think society measures true human progress by how much we advance in technology. So the more technologically advanced we become the more progress we are making as society, as humans.

However, this is not the case, because what true human progress is, is what allows us to grow more in our humanity. What allows us to be more human. So we are reflecting on this notion of human progress we need to ask the question, “Is this making me become more human? Is this allowing us as humanity to become more ourselves as human beings?” And in a lot of ways we can say that some of this technology and technological advancement, and even our present technology, we can say that in a lot of ways that it makes us less human and is a detriment to humanity.

This isn’t to say that all technology is bad as technology is neutral, it just depends on how we use it. As there is a lot of good use of technology and a lot of bad. But it’s reflecting again on this notion of ‘is this helping me to become more human or is it a detriment to my humanity?’

And this whole notion of human progress, the standard of what we should be aiming for, our human potential, our human destiny is to be more like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the perfect human who came down from heaven and He shows us what it means to be man. Jesus reveals to humanity what it means to be human. So any true human progress is going to lead us to be more like Jesus Christ who is both human and divine. And the only way that we can become more like Jesus Christ is through the power of the Holy Spirit which we celebrate in a special way today on Pentecost.

It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can reach our potential and destiny as human beings. Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and I think we sometimes forget about that divine element of Christ, and even our own humanity, and how this divine element is not just waiting for us in heaven, but we can experience it right now because God pours out His Holy Spirit upon us. He pours out His Love. He pours out Himself into us, into humanity, so that we can do things that are beyond our imagination, that take us beyond our human nature. And it allows us to tap into this divine realm and these divine gifts and we become divinized in the process. And through this, the Lord pours out His Holy Spirit upon us, we receive His gifts- supernatural gifts of healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, discernment of spirits, mighty deeds. And even beyond these more supernatural and miraculous gifts, we experience a deeper peace, a deeper love, a deeper joy. Something that this world cannot give to us. And only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we experience these things.

We see a perfect example of this with the Apostles who, as we know on the day of Pentecost, were hiding in the Upper Room from the Jews. And we know they were hiding in a cowardly way, we know that they had abandoned Christ during His Passion, and now they are hiding in this Upper Room, but when the tongues of fire came down upon them, when the Holy Spirit came down upon them in a powerful way they were completely transformed. They became men who were bold and courageous and they went out into the world and they proclaimed the truth of Jesus Christ and they were truly on fire. The Lord set their hearts on fire, so that they can go and set the world on fire with His Love.

We see this also with the saints. We see the great saints throughout the centuries. They were men and women who opened themselves up to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit came down upon them in powerful ways and they were able to do great things for the Kingdom of God. They were men and women who truly reached their potential and their destiny of what it means to be human in this life. Of what we are made for.

God looks at each one of us and He desires to do the same thing in our own lives. As He looked at each of the Apostles and the saints and saw their potential. He looked at them and said, “I know the potential that you have if you open yourself up to the Holy Spirit. If you cooperate with my Spirit you will do things that are beyond your imagination.” And it is the same thing with each one of us, as He looks upon each one of us, and He says, “I see what you are capable of. I see your potential. I see your destiny if you are willing to cooperate with my Holy Spirit. If you open yourself up to me, you will do things in this life that are beyond your imagination. You will receive great gifts.”

At each of our Baptisms and Confirmations, each one of us received gifts from the Holy Spirit, and these gifts are laying dormant within us. An image that we can think of is like at Christmas time how we receive a gift and it is all wrapped up, but if you don’t open the gift, it doesn’t mean anything. So a lot of us have received these gifts, but they haven’t been opened. They haven’t been ignited. They haven’t been launched forward. And the Holy Spirit wants to ignite those gifts within us. These gifts He has already given, and to give us even more gifts, so that we can do the supernatural, we can do gifts of healing, prophesy, speak in tongues, and interpret tongues, and do mighty deeds. And also to have a peace and a joy and a love that we can’t imagine. That we can be bold and courageous in these various situations in our lives to live out our faith, or these situations where we might have coward away before, but with the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to do things, again, that we never thought we could imagine doing.

So today on this Pentecost, we reflect in powerful way on the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit. On how there is no technological advancement that can help us to do what the Holy Spirit enables us to do. There is no technology that can help us reach our true human potential as human beings. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that allows us to become more like Jesus Christ. That allows us to do things beyond our wildest imagination.

So today, let us pray for that grace to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, to open ourselves up to whatever the Lord wants to give to us this day. Not only this day, but every single day, as the power of the Holy Spirit can hit us at any moment and any time. And again we will be doing things that we never thought or imagine ourselves doing. So we just ask for the Holy Spirit to come down upon us today, to reach our full human potential, and to reach our destiny. To become like Jesus Christ both human and divine, as we share in this divinization with our Lord both now and for all eternity.