Robotics

There was a movie I watcher years ago. The movie was entitled "Bicentennial Man" which starred Robin Williams and I don't know if readers are all familiar with the plot. A robot reached the point of becoming fully human, though a mechanical one, experienced grief, love, success, and even death. The film was engaging. I really would love to see it again.

The movie made me reflect of what it is to be a human person. Paradoxically, here was a robot who wanted to act humanly while there are persons who acts like robots. Every human individual must strive to make their lives worthwhile here on earth, able to improve and grow not just in physiological terms but in psychological, social, and spiritual aspects also. I am not in a position to extensively discuss such human requirements which will make this reflection purely intellectual. I just want to wonder about Christianity's challenge for all believers to avoid robotic Christianity.

Robotic Christianity is a word which I myself coined after reading Matthew chapter 5. It is doing the commandments without understanding the objectives. Robotics is basically about commands. Robots will operate only if there are commands from the user. Commands are executed through buttons or even voice commands. Several robots are highly intelligent that they can translate into binary system the human language. Amazing! By this we become prosthetic gods. Many Christians act in this way. They follow the commands because they were told to do so. I was not an exemption. Before, I am only following the rules of the Bible and of the Church to please people and to secure myself in fear that I may be punished. But regular participation in the Holy Eucharist must transform and purify us. We must evolve.

It is from the beginning God's intention to empower man and not to enslave. God graced His 'crown of creation' with total freedom to decide for himself. Not only that, man was given with intellect too so he can decide with epistemic certainty. Each one of us is free to choose whichever college degree we want, careers, spouse and religion. We are free to choose between good or evil, yet Christians must not be thorned between these two choices. Christians are to choose between what is good and better.

God wants to delight on us. He wants us to do good but in doing so, it must be our personal choice to do it. That's how much God loves us. He does not want to make robots out of us.

In finding the central them on this Sunday's readings, I am entranced by how explicit the parallelism in the First Reading and the Gospel Reading. In the first reading taken from Leviticus 19;1-18, God, through Moses, challenges the Israelites to be holy as He is holy. In the Gospel taken from Matthew 5;38-48, Jesus told the listeners of his sermon to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Going back to the first reading, God issued the order for His chosen people to be obedient to the laws of conduct. This is the very first instance we heard God saying "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" [Lv 19;18]. Jesus cited and posited this but he went further. Not only are we to love our neighbors only but we must also love our enemies. Jesus is totally radicalizing the Jewish norms and the law of God. Jesus once again underscored that at the core of all laws is love. It is love that keeps the Divine Law very legitimate.

Now Saint Paul, in the second reading, completes the liturgical teachings today. God endowed man with intellect but many never attained wisdom because they did not meditate on the laws. The psalmist affirmed that a godly person makes it a habit to mediate on God's laws day and night. This way a person can reach a level of wisdom as love itself unfolds gradually, the love which is at the center of the laws. Without understanding the within the letters of the law, it will be a burden to perform the commandments because it will appear futile to us. Who can say that giving your right cheek to be punched is easy or wise? Who told us to go as far as two miles when we were only asked for one mile? Who can say, it is wise to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you? The wisdom of this world does not operate this way! That is why, what appears to be wise in this age is foolishness in the sight of God while it is foolish for the wise of the world to follow Christ. Saint Paul is telling, we have two choices. It depends on us, how we will use the intellect and the freedom to choose [both coming from God by the way].

Jesus came to this world to let us understand the essence of the law. When a person loves absolutely, it is no longer a burden to obey. The person is free. To do good is his freedom and God will be glad because it is the person doing it out of his own volition and not a robot.