By Kathy Berken
On Deck
I have a confession to make. I use Artificial Intelligence on an almost-daily basis. No, I am not part of some global conspiracy to end civilization through technological manipulation. I am not trying to replace our souls with computer code, nor am I involved in creating a robot takeover of the human race. I use AI as a tool, mostly for recipe and grammar questions, to list the top songs from the ‘60s, or to find Scripture quotes for an upcoming retreat.
Do I put my faith in AI? Sometimes, because I trust that for what I am asking, I usually get the results I want. Do I also put my faith in God? Of course, because my awareness of God is found in everyday moments, inside and outside of church and religion.
It is a spiritual reality to be a person of faith, a person who relies on God’s presence to guide me and keep me grounded in God’s grace while I am also busy with family, errands, writing, and other daily activities.
The 17th century Carmelite Monk Brother Lawrence prayed: “Lord of all pots and pans and things, make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates” (“The Practice of the Presence of God”). Where did Brother Lawrence place his faith? In the Lord of the ordinary, where the kitchen sink could be an altar and routine chores his daily prayer.
As Catholic Christians, we place our faith in God. Yet, I also put my faith in technology when I want to make supper with the veggies I just bought at the farmers market. So, like Brother Lawrence, my prayer is my awareness of God in the midst of shopping and cooking.
Our spirituality is defined as the search for meaning, purpose, and a connection to something larger than myself. We trust that putting our faith in God gives our lives meaning, purpose, and a deep connection to something far beyond our imaginations.
When I am praying at Mass, reading Scripture or a book of blessings, for example, I have confidence in my faith in God. And I also sense God’s presence when I interact with one of my grandchildren during an online game we both enjoy, or when I watch a movie about forgiveness, reconciliation, or peacemaking. I trust that — as Brother Lawrence says — God is everywhere, in everything, every moment of every day.
When I have first put my faith in God, in the unfathomable indefinable Ground of Being (ref. theologian Paul Tillich), then I am anchored in the same faith that Jesuit theologian Father Karl Rahner once described: “God is the silent mystery, absolute, unconditioned and incomprehensible. God is the infinitely distant horizon to which the understanding of individual realities points.” God is in our joy and grief, victory and defeat, clarity and doubt.
Where do we put our faith? We start with our priorities, our principles, and our purpose. My late friend Lee always said his priorities were God, family, friends, and work, in that order. He added that his principles and purpose flow from those four. God is in the midst of preparing those veggies, in feeling the emotion of a character in a movie, in talking with a friend in a video chat. So, this isn’t a question about banishing technology, but putting our faith in a God who is ever present and guiding us always, through our doubt, joy, grief, certainty, confusion and hope.
The 13th-century German Dominican friar Meister Eckhart once said, “If I had a God that I could get to know, I would never consider Him to be God.”
This is where I put my faith. In a God that Brother Lawrence, Father Rahner, and Meister Eckhart have called indefinable, ineffable, and absolute mystery.
(Kathy Berken is a spiritual director and retreat leader in St. Paul, Minnesota. She lived and worked at L’Arche in Clinton — The Arch from 1999-2009.)
