05/30/2026
Living For Sunday - Father Leo Gajardo
May 30, 2026 - May 31, 2026
Dear Friends,
You may have read or heard that Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical letter this past Monday. An encyclical letter is a major teaching document that a pope writes to all Catholics and people of good will around the world. This first encyclical of Pope Leo has the Latin title Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity, in English; hereafter MH) and its subtitle is On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. As the subtitle suggests, the encyclical letter presents the pope’s vision for how the Church and her members are called to care for all people at a time of significant technological change and uncertainty.
I took a good bit of time on Memorial Day to read the whole encyclical and found it to be a thoughtful and wise document. The pope outlines how the Church can accompany and assist all of humanity in navigating the possibilities and challenges that artificial intelligence. Those changes have already, are currently, and will further affect all of us as individuals, as local communities, as countries, and as members of humanity.
There is much to consider in what the pope wrote, and I am sure I will be sharing with you some of my reflections on the encyclical in the coming weeks and months. But on this Trinity Sunday, I would like to share with you what the pope wrote about the Holy Trinity as the basis for our life together as disciples and as humans. In a section entitled, “The human person: image of the Triune God,” the pope writes:
The Church’s Social Doctrine brings us to the very heart of our faith: the mystery of the living God, revealed in Jesus Christ, who, as a communion of Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is love itself in relationship, expressed in the mutual gift of self and in sharing with the world. As the Council recalled, human persons are called to communion with God and “can fully discover their true selves only in sincere self-giving.” Indeed their deepest vocation is to enter into the Trinitarian dynamic of love received and shared. (MH, 48)
While in this quote the pope doesn’t cite the gospel passage we hear at Mass this Sunday, I think his words describe the same truth the Evangelist John proclaimed in the immortal words, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes might not perish, but might have eternal life.”
In a subsequent paragraph of the same section of the encyclical, the pope adds:
At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27) of the Triune God. Created for relationship, every human person is planned and willed by God to enter into communion with him, with others and with creation. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made; instead, it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love. For this reason, the human person always remains the “way for the Church” and the heart of every authentic path of integral human development. (MH, 50)
With these words, the pope is reminding us that our capacity and desire for relationship is one of the most beautiful and transformative ways in which we “image” (reflect) the very life of the Triune God. Our value and dignity are not dependent on our abilities or achievements, but on God’s love for us. This is one of the great liberating truths that our faith gives about our existence, and it is one of the great responsibilities we have. We don’t have to earn our dignity; all we have to do is respect it and respect the dignity of every other person whom God has created.
As we navigate the changes that are part of each of our lives, of our life together as disciples, and of our life as members of humanity, Pope Leo’s words challenge us to remember that we are created, redeemed, and loved by a God who is a communion of Persons. That same God calls us to deepen our communion with him, with each other, and with all people. Only by remembering and living from God’s love for us will we be able to deepen and broaden that communion.
Peace,
Father Leo
