Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Blessed John Beyzym, Priest [Jesuit Churches]
In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV uses the image of Jerusalem as the holy city rebuilt by Nehemiah in the 5th century B.C. After the Babylonian exile, Jerusalem was in ruins, with its walls collapsed and its gates burned. Nehemiah led the initiative to rebuild the wall; he assigned each family a section to rebuild. The story shows how the city is reborn through shared responsibility: men, women, priests, artisans, heads of household, and young people all play a part. But another Jerusalem represents biblical faith as part of the intellectual tradition, in contrast to speculative philosophy, represented by Athens. While Magnifica Humanitas does not explicitly discuss two different Jerusalems, it still shows a hidden connection between Jerusalem as an intellectual tradition and Magnifica Humanitas. Jerusalem as an intellectual tradition represents the discernment between good and evil, as shown in Genesis through the story of Adam and Eve. In his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo says that technology, especially AI, is not inherently evil; however, it is never neutral because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise and finance its use. So, while the Pope does not suggest that AI is intrinsically evil, AI is prone to evil, as AI can be used to commit many social evils. But at the same time, a well-designed AI is more likely to serve the social good. So the lessons from two Jerusalems are the necessity of cooperation and collective effort (Jerusalem of Nehemiah) and the necessity of discerning good and evil (Jerusalem as intellectual tradition).
In the first reading today, St. Paul also talks about two different Jerusalems. Paul contrasts the two covenants and the present Jerusalem with Jerusalem from above. He sees two distinct lineages: one is the slave line (Hagar/Ishmael) and the other is free-born (Sarah/Isaac). The former relates to the present Jerusalem, and the latter to Jerusalem from above. The contrast seems troubling because the Old Testament offers no obvious connection between Hagar/Ishmael and Jerusalem. On the other hand, the notion of Jerusalem from above seems very apocalyptic. We can easily get lost in detail when reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians, but we can presume that Paul uses the Old Testament passage loosely; his main point is not lost. Paul is pointing to Christ, because in Christ we have become adopted children, not slaves. Paul wants to remind us, as Christians, that we are not supposed to fall victim to any slavery in this world but rather to embrace the larger freedom we inherited through Christ. Basically, this is the same message in Magnifica Humanitas: we can be easily enslaved by AI; nevertheless, as Pope Leo XIV says, the primary choice is not between yes and no to AI, but rather we must use our freedom to become the children of God in the era of Artificial Intelligence.