The Cross is His Throne by Canon Victor Austin
The church wisely has us read the Passion from John on Good Friday because St. John most clearly understands Jesus’ passion as his enthronement. He is lifted up there, to draw all people to himself, for he is indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He truly has rule over all the peoples of the earth, for all time. This is effectuated on Good Friday.
John points it out to us in many details. There is no agony. There is not total abandonment. He even chooses his own time to die: when it is finished or completed.
The one detail that speaks to me most poignantly about his kingship is his concrete provision for his followers. Earlier he had said to Pilate, Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. And thus, even there, nailed and hanging in the torture of drawn-out capital punishment, he took care of his mother and his friends. He made new family, right there, right at the foot of the cross: Woman, behold thy son! And to the disciple: Beyond thy mother! Matthew and Mark emphasize his dying as isolation and abandonment, but the truth is not only that. He creates family; he creates the church; even as he is dying, he inaugurates the new human body of the city of God.
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Out & About: Meanwhile, our life goes on. The next Good Books & Good Talk seminar will be on so-called Low Sunday, April 27—but what’s “low” when we can think about a magnificent cat cemetery in California in the mid-20th-century? And how can we be in anything but high spirits when enjoying the novel The Loved One by the great satirist Evelyn Waugh? We meet from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, and anyone who reads the book is welcome to the discussion. (Others are welcome to listen.) To find the seminar: Park in the garage in the new apartments (lower level parking is reserved for the cathedral) and when you leave the garage and face the cathedral, to your right is Garrett Hall. The entrance is new, glass-enclosed, and someone will be there. (You can also buzz the cathedral receptionist via the pad at the door; we will hear the buzz.)
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On the Web: A Christian ethicist has written a careful, subtle analysis of AI in the Spring issue of The New Atlantis: “Will AI Be Alive?” The essay aims, first, to help us see clearly what is happening with AI. “Artificial General Intelligence” is coming very quickly—but general intelligence is different from human intelligence. However, “we should expect AI programs to look decreasingly like chatbots and increasingly like agents: having agency, the ability to directly affect the real world.” Thus, part two is to judge what we are dealing with: “It will seem to be alive.” This will be a time of moral danger for us. If alive, third, “we must steward, not subjugate nor worship it.” There will be moral dangers in how we treat AI; I am struck by the thought that, if we create something that seems alive, we should not think we can make it do whatever we want, nor should we feel worthless and worship it: “stewardship,” for AI as for the rest of creation. But is that possible? https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/will-ai-be-alive