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𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 — 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲. 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. & 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁.
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https://app.flocknote.com/note/24643736 OR https://bit.ly/HangingOutatOLM
News from Priest in Training (P.I.T.)
For our comprehensive exam in seminary, we were given a pastoral scenario, and we were asked to write a homily responding to it. After we had submitted the homilies, we decided to see what the artificial intelligence bot, ChatGPT, would come up with. The homily it generated started pretty well: “In this reading, Jesus calls us to love God and to love our neighbor.” But things went downhill pretty quickly. “And you, as sinners, are in direct violation of the Church’s teachings.” The AI-generated homily might have been correct in essentials, but it lacked any sense of hope in God’s mercy.

In the First Reading, we hear about Jonah’s preaching mission to the people of Nineveh. After he runs from God’s command to preach repentance, is swallowed, and spit up by a great fish, he preaches a hopeless sermon: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” But astonishingly, this pagan city repents before Jonah can even finish preaching, and God shows them mercy.

In the Gospel, Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be fishers of men. Biblical scholar John Bergsma says that this is a fulfillment of a prophecy of Jeremiah: “I will send many fishermen to catch them. After that, I will send many hunters to hunt them out from every mountain and hill and rocky crevice” (Jer 16:16). The context of the original prophecy is judgment on Israel’s idolatry. But in Jesus’ fulfillment, something surprising happens. Rather than condemning sinners, the fishermen are sent to preach repentance.

View the rest of the Parish Update here https://app.flocknote.com/note/24643736
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