During the preceding week, a flurry of thank you cards found their way to our house. Apparently, some of our grandchildren found them to be a great canvas for artwork, practicing writing their letters and words, testing new metallic markers, and for actually writing “thank you” note. Some of these envelopes were hand delivered in a running, pony express, across our backyard and some found their way into our mailbox. All brought a smile.

We’ve had the cards out on our counter all week and I have found my eyes drawn to them daily. The colors, the words, the letters, the swirls and swoops and designs…the love and desire to share their creative energy. The urge to create and share is universal. We still have folders of works from our children and the collection of such moments from our grandchildren fill a new generation of a priceless gallery that seems too precious not to keep.

Last week, Pope Leo XIV issued his first Papal Encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. There are many great summaries and commentaries, however, it is really pretty self-explanatory and I encourage all to read it. The title, meaning “magnificent humanity” has rolled around in my head all week. We all have plenty of examples of not-so-magnificent-humanity that may jump to mind, but I can’t help but look at those cards on my counter and feel the tug of a profound thread the Pope is drawing us to in his Encyclical.

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates Trinity Sunday, the great mystery of a belief in one God, comprised of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In a reflection this week, Father Dwight Longenecker describes human beings, created in the image of God, reflecting the Holy Trinity in our composition of mind, body, and soul. He describes these three unique elements of our person, when properly integrated, as reflecting the unity of the Trinity.

What makes humanity magnificent? There are certainly moments in which we show our best selves – I really do love the creative art work of my grandchildren and in its way, all of it is magnificent. However, humanity is made magnificent in its creation as an image of God. Furthering this magnificence, this inherent dignity, God took on human form, in Jesus Christ, as an expression of His love for humanity. Today, Catholic Churches the world over, universally proclaim John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish.”

At a dinner event in Rome just over a month ago, I had the opportunity to sit next to His Eminence, Cardinal Michale Czerny, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. I didn’t know what that meant either so I asked. Essentially, the Dicastery promotes Church teaching on social justice worldwide; integral human development is concerned with the God-given dignity of the individual and justice is about recognizing and honoring that dignity in all forms, particularly for those who are most vulnerable.

Integral human development – the integrated person. Head, heart, and spirit. Behind all the big words, centuries of theology, and Church organizations, is the universal truth that human beings have objective value, an innate, God-given dignity, that does in fact make us magnificent. Not because we earned it, but because we are loved into existence in the image of our Creator.

Pope Leo’s Encyclical affirms this truth, sharing the beauty of Catholic social teaching as an answer to the dangers of technology. It’s really quite simple. When technology, AI or otherwise, affirms human dignity and supports human flourishing, it is good. When it doesn’t, it is bad.

The closest thing I can imagine to the love described in John 3:16 is what pours from my heart when I look at the collection of cards laying on my counter and think of my children and grandchildren. In my mind, I can see each of them, running across my backyard, reaching for me in the middle of a crowd, wanting to sit on my lap at breakfast, jumping into my arms after a recital, or just saying “Hi, Pop!” as greeting. They cannot earn what I feel for them and nothing they do will change that.

Beautiful. Amazing. Magnificent.