The Rev. ChatGPT's homily for Christ the King - UPDATED

Update 8-Dec (the person I work for is based in Europe, and wants us all to use dates in that format): down below in the comments, a week or so ago (I know, I've been struggling to keep up, even with our not-really-that-busy blog), Jean threw down this challenge: 

Try "Catholic homily on sheep and goats with sports references." I'll give you odds you get at least one mention of Notre Dame or Knut Rockne ...

Like the servant who invested his master's five talents and had 10 waiting for the guy's return, I did as Jean requested.  The result is pasted at the bottom of the post.  

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Here is another in our occasional series of homilies generated by ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence engine from OpenAI.  As you may see for yourself below the break, it somehow avoided any mention of Broadway theater, not to mention the game of golf, so it seems a bit defective to me. But according to an Axios newsletter I read a bit earlier today, ChatGPT is evolving "insanely fast".  You may judge for yourself whether it has outstripped your poor blog author and any other preachers who stood at the pulpit before you this past weekend.  Here is ChatGPT's homily,  generated just a few minutes ago:

Preparing for what comes next

 This is my homily for yesterday, The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (aka Christ the King).  Yesterday's readings are here.

Free Will

I saw this article on the Vox site: Do human beings have free will? - Vox

Stanford University professor of biology and neurology, Robert Sapolsky, has written a book, "Determined: A Life of Science Without Free Will". He attempts to make the case that free will doesn't exist.  Columnist Sean Illing interviews Sapolsky in the article:

Gospels: Last Weeks of the Liturgical Year

The three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are used as Sunday Gospel Readings during Ordinary time in Years A, B, and C. We are now near the end of Year A (Matthew), and will begin year B (Mark) in Advent.

The three synoptic Gospels are also read each year at weekday Masses during Ordinary time in the order Mark (Weeks 1-9), Matthew (Weeks 10-21), then Luke (Weeks 22-34). The Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke are not read during Ordinary Time. The Passion Narratives of Matthew, Mark and Luke are not read during Ordinary Time. 

However, SOME of the sections of Mark (and parallel sections of Matthew and Luke) beginning with Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem up to the Plot to Kill Jesus are read during Ordinary Time (both Sundays and Weekdays).

As depicted in the chart below the episodes of Matthew and Luke very closely parallel Mark with only a few additions or deletions from the story of the Entry into Jerusalem until the Plot of Kill Jesus.

First there is a series of stories (rose) which narrate the encounter of Jesus with various Jewish authorities in the Temple. 

This is followed by a series of stories (yellow) which foretell the destruction of the Temple, persecution and the Coming of the Son of Man. Matthew and Luke add one additional common story on Signs of the End of the Age (orange because it might be from Q the common document beside Mark which they both knew).

Church / LGBTQ developments

Three recent church developments indicate that Christianity continues to grapple with the presence of LGBTQ persons.

Eschatology

 

This Advent hymn, "Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending", isn't in our parish' music edition.  I think is more in the Anglican tradition.  The tune is "Helmsley", the lyrics are by John Cennick and Charles Wesley. It differs from most Advent hymns, in that it is more about the second coming of Christ than the first.

Jack's previous post about Advent started me down the path of this post.  As he said in his comment, "...the coming of the Kingdom is very much in line with what Advent should be about, the choice of “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The study of the "last things" is eschatology.  The stages of eschatology "...include individual human death, particular judgment, the choices of heaven, purgatory or hell, the end of the world, the living being "taken up," the resurrection of the body, the Second Coming of Christ, general judgment, and the New Creation." (Eschatology: The Last Things (catholicapologetics.org)

The Scripture readings leading up to Advent,  and during Advent, and the Creed, refer many times to the Second Coming of Jesus, and to "end times". 

Seven Weeks of Advent (beginning this Sunday)

 There is a proposal by some members of the North American Academy of Liturgy (an Ecumenical group) to celebrate Advent for Seven Weeks rather than just Four but using the present readings from the Common Lectionary.

Rationale

The aims are:

1. To establish the primary purpose of Advent as eschatological, the Coming of the Kingdom, rather than incarnational (the Coming of Christ)

2. To retain the present lectionary readings which are clearly eschatological.

3. To interpret these readings around themes from the O Antiphons, in a slightly rearranged order

Advent I O Sapientia Wisdom “wisdom from on high” 

Advent II O Adonai Lord “Lord of might” 

Advent III O Rex gentium Ruler of nations “desire of nations” 

Advent IV O radix Jesse Root of Jesse “branch of Jesse’s tree” 

Advent V O clavis David Key of David “key of David” 

Advent VI O Oriens Morning Star “dayspring from on high” 

Advent VII O Emmanuel God with us “Emmanuel

The historical justification for all this is that Advent was once observed for a longer time usually beginning on the Sunday after the Feast of Saint Martin (November 11). An Advent fast of forty days (excluding Saturday and Sunday) also began the first weekday after November 11.

On Joe Biden's age...again

I have lost count of the opinion articles I have read saying that the Democrats need to dump Joe and run someone younger, more charismatic, who doesn't "look" old. Because old people turn the voters off. Or something. As a senior myself, I find the attitude offensive. But it's not about me. It's about, where is this magic unicorn candidate, who can beat the pants off Trump in 2024? I've got news for the naysayers, their imaginary friend isn't running for president. We have to deal with reality as it exists. A vice president is sometimes a good candidate to run, following the term of the person they served under. But indications are that Kamala Harris is less popular than Biden. Even though I think she would do fine as if something happened to him; as people keep hinting, and saying outright, that he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

OHIO VOTING

 Ohio voters decided they wanted reproductive and marijuana rights yesterday. Perhaps it was more of libertarian victory than a Democratic or Republican, progressive or conservative victory. 

Republican politicians were against both Issue 1 (reproductive rights) and Issue 2 (marijuana) rights. Both won by double digit majorities. Maybe we should stop thinking of Ohio as a Red state. Maybe it is a purple (libertarian) state where people basically don't want the government whether Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, making decisions for them.

Here is an update of the chart I had about the August election in which the Republican effort to amend the constitution to require a 60% vote for future amendments was defeated. In that chart I had compared August No Vote to the Catholic and Black populations for the counties that are part of the Diocese of Cleveland

My conclusion was that the Black vote was largely against the amendment while the Catholic vote was likely split. The percentages in each county that voted for the November reproductive rights amendment were almost exactly the same as those who voted against the August amendment which if it had passed would have meant that this November vote would have failed to make the 60% threshold.  The votes in favor of marijuana were similar but not quite as pronounced. 

County	MARIJUANA  YES	ABORTION  YES	AUGUST   NO	Catholics	Blacks
Cuyahoga	67%	74%	76%	28%	30%
Summit	60%	65%	66%	22%	15%
Lorain	59%	62%	63%	25%	9%
Lake	59%	60%	59%	35%	6%
Medina	54%	55%	54%	28%	2%
Geauga	52%	40%	52%	34%	1%
Wayne	44%	42%	42%	8%	2%
Ashland	45%	42%	37%	3%	2%

As a nursing mother

A quick thought came to me during mass this past weekend.  The following snippet of Scripture is taken from Sunday's second reading.  It's from St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians (2:7b-8):

Rather, we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us.

The "we" in the first verse are the trio of authors of this Letter: even though the lectionary has readers at mass announce that this is the "First letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians", and the letter is pretty widely acknowledged among scholars as being genuinely written by Paul, the text itself identifies three authors: Paul, Silvanus (aka Silas) and Timothy.

So I am not sure which of the three thought of the simile proposed in v. 7, but that's what I wish to mention here: that Paul and his band of missionaries came to the Thessalonians "as a nursing mother cares for her children."

That's a pretty wonderful image in its own right.  But until I heard the passage proclaimed this past Sunday, I hadn't appreciated that the image is (possibly) extended in v. 8: "we were determined to share with you...our very selves as well."  Because of course, that is what a nursing mother shares with her infants: the act of nursing is, quite literally, a sharing of herself.

When that thought struck me during mass, it occurred to me that the simile of the nursing mother is applicable to God, with the church as the mediator; and the Eucharistic resonances were immediately apparent to me.  But amid the plenitude of metaphors one hears for the Eucharist - the sacred repast, the unbloody sacrifice, the medicine of immortality, and so on - I rarely (or never) hear of this maternal imagery of a mother nursing her infant being proposed for the Eucharist.  

I think the American church could do worse than to use this brief simile as a starting point for its Eucharistic Revival.  Do we dare to use such feminine imagery for God?  And can we bear portraying ourselves, not as mighty culture warriors a la that recent article in America, but as utterly dependent infants?    

Apostolic Delegate on U.S. Bishops

America has a great interview of Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Delegate to the U.S. who was recently made a Cardinal. His duty here has been extended indefinitely.  Betty and I have come to admire him for this well thought out homilies when he presides on feasts at the National Shrine such as All Saints Day.  He was welcomed with full honors with four bishops including the Archbishop who is head of the military diocese and currently the president of the bishop's conference.  

Cardinal Pierre on why the U.S. bishops are struggling to connect with Pope Francis

 Cardinal Pierre said he was “shocked” to learn that many U.S. Catholic bishops did not know that synodality had developed in South America in the last few decades and are still struggling to understand what it is. “We cannot say there are bishops who are on the left and ones that are on the right. This is a false analysis,” he said. They are “good men,” he said, but “they are all struggling” to find ways to evangelize in this new moment in history and to cope with the economic fallout from the abuse scandal.

Cardinal Dolan defends culture warriors

 American has an article from Cardinal Dolan:

Cardinal Dolan: In Defense of Culture Warriors

The sobering reading from Ezekiel in the Liturgy of the Word from Sunday, Sept. 11, 2023, is still echoing in my head. You may recall it: The Lord is reminding the prophet that he, Ezekiel, is a “watchman,” whose task includes warning God’s people, including telling them they will die if they do not change their ways in accord with the Lord’s commands.

It is hard to dodge that call as anything but a challenge to be a “culture warrior.” I might prefer “critic” rather than “warrior,” but the call is to speak for the Lord in sternly calling the people to fidelity. If not, the consequences are death, for both the prophet and the hearer. Rather somber!

Yet today, such a style of advocacy and preaching is dismissed as improper and ineffective. Sure, a positive, conciliatory style is to be preferred, and we readily admit that a nonstop negative, condemning, threatening style is usually counterproductive. But the prophet’s role as a “culture warrior” is hardly novel or evil.

It seems to come down to this: We like “cultural warriors” when they are on our side; we are not so pleased when they take on issues not on our agenda:

My comment on the America Website was:

As one of his Four Principles, Pope Francis has said that “Realities are more important than Ideas.” They are both important and they live in tension, but ideas, which are a means of communication, must give way to the rich reality of God’s presence in the world which is not limited to certain ideas.

The problem with becoming a culture warrior is that ideas prevent us from seeing the realities of life, most importantly the rich diversity of persons with whom we need to communicate whose experience and situations may not fit our experience and ideas.

Culture warriors tend not to just critique ideas as an academic exercise, but also criticize people who hold those ideas, making dialogue and community more difficult. It does not matter that cultural warriors may be right about their concerns if they cause a lot of harm to others and the social fabric in the process.

Finally religious cultural warriors suffer from the great temptation to think that only they are on God’s side. We all need to recognize not only that we may not be on God’s side in many ways but that others with different ideas may have an experience of God which we are lacking.