We might have indulged our materialistic instincts when buying presents for Christmas, but a new year is a good time to reaffirm a higher standard. The best gift we can give to others, and to God, is to offer up ourselves. It’s emerging as an existential priority in 2026.
The Feast of the Epiphany has reminded us of portentous treasures which the Magi brought to the incarnate Son of God. That shouldn’t make usforget a song we heard throughout December, the story of a Little Drummer Boy, who gave a simple gift to express love. His “pa-rum-pum-pum” made Mary nod and Jesus’ smile, proving to be a human gesture truly “fit to give the King.”
Ideally, the immaterial offerings we present throughout the year will likewise convey something unique about us, something that bridges the gap between divinity and humanity. This could include God-given attributes or aspirations—prayers or deeds, sacrifices or joys—which send a message of love, just right for this moment in history.
The gift implied here is simply an affirmation of resilient personhood. Consider this an ongoingpledge of intimacy and solidarity, expressing the incarnational unity found throughout the Scriptures:
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. Hewill dwell with them, and they will be his people.”
—Revelation 21:3
The gift is well-timed for these days when our essentialnature faces a crucial encounter with artificial intelligence. We’re also battling tendencies toward sloppy thinking and emotional overreaction, forces that divide us from others and from God.
Novelist and commentator Walter Kirn voiced this secularstate of urgency in an America This Week podcast afterciting recent headlines about outbreaks of violence and hatred. “There’s a real weakening of the human self going on,” he observed.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen news sparking a more hopeful awareness. Oddly, it has emerged from the corporate world of communications and marketing.
Thanks to a recent decision about branding, your favorite radio station or podcast may now be announcing its own campaign for solidarity. You’ll notice it as a boldly stated slogan: “Guaranteed Human.”
As Editor and Publisher reported on Nov. 26, “iHeart Media is doubling downon its positioning as one of the last ‘truly human’ mass-reach ‘entertainment platforms’ amid a 'media landscape increasingly shaped by AI.'"
iHeart, the world’s largest podcast publisher and owner of more than eight hundred radio outlets, has made “Guaranteed Human” an official part of its identity—repeated during those top-of-the-hour station identifications that are legally required in broadcasting.
An executive told Editor and Publisher that iHeart’s platforms now promise they will not use AI-generated personalities. Nor will they play AI music featuring synthetic voices that mimic humans. Podcast hosts will all be human beings, too.
Of course, it’s possible that AI will creep in through commercial sponsors. Some news and other content may be written using thetechnology. Behind-the-scenes decision-makers may still seek advice from task-specific “AI agents” analyzing their business.
Nevertheless, we’re told this basic “guarantee” has sent other media leaders and music producers scrambling. They must match or counter Heart’s new doctrine, a preferential option for the human.
Most noteworthy is the awareness that a pledge to “be real” is suddenly necessary. The company was smart to realize its challenge: Podcasts and radio programs are valued companions for countless people, and the content is expected to provide crucial, trusted connections within geographical areas or communities of interest.
The media giant also conducted revelatory research to support its branding. An iHeart memo reported by Inside Radio included these findings:
These are clear reasons not only to salute iHeart Media’s secularwisdom, but to consider how audience members with faith might adopt the same "Guaranteed Human” label. “Merch” touting this statement didn’t come out in time for Christmas, but it seems inevitable.
Imagine wearing a “Guaranteed Human” t-shirt to the nativity scene in Bethlehem. Or to the gates of heaven when we die, when Christ comes to us again.
Perhaps the first supernatural reaction to our t-shirts, in either setting, would be a smile. A heavenly voice might say, “Your pro-human logo is clever and laudable. But have you considered all the ramifications ofthe guarantee?”
This inquiry prompts us to ponder what our declaration of identity means. We are part of a species (homo sapiens) upon which Godhas bestowed immense dignity, entailing rights and responsibilities. When facedwith such terms of endearment, how should we comply?
This is not a question that secular culture prepares us to answer, or even to ask.
The drummer boy passed his first compliance review with no problem, no wordy report. We grown-ups assume that a demonstration of humanity, if we take it seriously, implies lifelong striving to discern and heed the guarantee’s meaning.
Assistance for our future compliance comes from the Magis Center, Father Robert Spitzer’s Institute for Catholic Catechesis, based on rational and science-based evidence. Ironically, thanks to innovations, our research into human nature can be aided by the center’s “magisAI,” an authoritative chatbot that provides authentic instruction.
Its database, informed by two thousand years of Christian teaching, reassures us that people don’t need to avoid AI completely. When circumstances warrant, it makes sense to use rigorously designed artificial intelligence as a tool to turbo-charge our learning.
Our first question for the chatbot explores the belief that God made humans unique, giving us immortal souls. Asked about this, Magis says, “The soul, in philosophical and theological terms, can be understood as the immaterial organizing principle of a living being.”
A soul “actualizes and directs its matter (body) toward life and its specific activities or ends,” according to magisAI. These ends would include nourishment and growth (in the case of plants), plus self-movement and sensation (in the case of animals), plus intellect and will (in the special case of human persons).
The human soul organizes the body’s physical processes toward powers that are ours alone—“rationality, intellectual knowledge, andself-consciousness.” We see relationships among ideas, so we have the capacityfor reflection, abstract intelligence, and free will.
We can express complex concepts, even universal thoughts, with sophisticated language, Magis continues. Unlike other animals, we have a conscience. We are open to impulses of the ego, but also to choices between good and evil. Ensouled persons can gain knowledge of God and moral law. In lieu of these essential qualities, we would be “merely physical machines without true freedom, moral responsibility, or the capacity for higher spiritual experience.”
AI technology is indeed a “physical machine” lacking access to, or interest in, a relationship with the divine. Jesus came to earth not to launch us toward materialistic transhumanism, but to bestow an intimate, salvific God-man connection, as taught in the Gospel.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may attain eternal life."
—John 3:16
Even though some tech gurus think we’re on the way to an “artificial super-intelligence” that mimics a god, humans retain the distinct advantage of being made in God’s image and likeness.
Let’s proceed to ask, “What are the crucial qualities ofbeing a human?” Here, magisAI offers insights forputting our guaranteed humanity into action. One excellent goal is to spread the Gospel message to a secular culture that hungers for the transcendent.
Our essential nature and consciousness are rooted in whatphilosophers and theologians have called “transcendentals,” Magis explains. Humans “uniquely possess an awareness of and desire for” five things: truth, love, goodness (justice), beauty, and a sense of being at home. What’s more, we want to experience these in their perfect totality, not just in occasional samplings.
“This awareness drives humans to seek limitless horizons and fulfillment beyond what is algorithmically and materially determined, indicating. . . a spiritual dimension to human nature,” says Magis. The impetus toward higher, fuller reality yields rich bonuses in our lives; our yearning gives us a knack for wonder, contemplation, creativity, and imagination.
Meanwhile, our dignity provides the crucial groundwork for human rights and ethical principles. Persons deserve respect and protection in our pursuit of the transcendentals, regardless of individual abilities or characteristics.
All these insights combine to imply this: When we tell others that we are committed to being human—increasingly in contrast to being copycats of artificial intelligence, careless ideas, and chaos—we are making a profound promise.
Just as iHeart Radio’s surveys discovered, AI promises us many amazing gifts, but we still feel a desperate need for trusted companions who agree that “we’re all in this together.”
It sounds like full compliance with “Guaranteed Human” is nearly impossible, not only among iHeart’s broadcasters and audiences, but throughout society.
However, we need not be discouraged by the work ahead of us. All can be well with our souls.
There are hopeful ways to keep humanity intact today and inthe future. First, we should foster continuous remembrance of, even celebrationof, the plentiful joys and capabilities of homo sapiens—drawing upon the lessons from magisAI.
We can also return to marveling at the record of civilization-building, the long historical arc of innovations that have improved material circumstances, and the enrichment of providential and scientific collaborations pursuing truth, beauty, and goodness. On the micro level, we can recollect and retell our many experiences of individuals’ qualities, big or small, with the power to transform lives.
Of course, humans will often be on the defensive when declaring inherent worth. Those who doubt our dignity will stress all sorts of past and present missteps, the role of free will in causing great misery, and our frequent failure to live up to the potential of faith or reason. Nihilists and utopians will portray humanity as a flaw, not a feature, in the march of progress.
We clearly must commit to cultivating bold, wise leadership in such fields as religion, governance, and education (the humanities, liberal arts, and sciences) to help liberate us from self-centeredness and thoughtlessness. The goal is to grow in forgiveness and humility, truthful discourse and critical thinking, courage and creativity, so we can advance our compatibility with God and each other.
Families, friendships, and soulful communities will help us share compelling, surprising stories about the material and immaterial gifts we’ve received in good times or bad. At its worst, artificial intelligence pretends to weave personal stories that are merely billions of stolen narratives reconfigured according to patterns, not priorities. We form and learn from authentic bonds.
Help is always on the way for us, if we’re open to it. Catholic News Agency reported on Dec. 25, 2025, that the patriarch of Jerusalem urged drawing hope from the story of Christ’s activity in the past, present, and future. In his homily at the 2025 Christmas Eve Mass celebrated in Bethlehem, the cardinal said God “does not wait for history to improve before entering into it” but rather embraces all of human reality.
That’s why the Little Drummer Boy is a story of “guaranteed humanity” we should preserve. Though we stagger from the apparent complexity of humanity’s potential for good and evil, excellence and imperfection, our souls call us simply to hold true to our enduring kinship with God, who lifts up the lowly and makes all things new.
The boy in the song responded confidently to the possibilities of the moment, answering a call to reach out beyond himself with the resources a poor child had at hand. He aspired to be a worthy instrument—one beat at a time.
Whenever we’re asked whether we know who we are and what we’re destined to do, we can reply with something vain and materialistic—like extra technological achievements—or an acknowledgement of reality that is patient and glorious.
We’ll experience many more ramifications of humanity in the coming year and beyond. But our souls can find peace because we’re always just beginning, and God is always with us in his nature and ours. Each responsive step, one beat at a time, is a moment to reassert our genuine intention, or “brand identity,” with gratitude and generosity. This present, offered up and spread around in each present moment, is a sufficient, enduring promise.
It’s also a powerful rebuttal to a secular mindset that constantly reprograms itself, contriving at a fierce tempo for only temporary gains.
Our built-in instincts for life’s most important relationships will keep us pointed toward the transcendent, not the transhuman. The former comes with a much better guarantee.