The photo of Pope Francis wearing a big, white, puffy coat from haute couture designer Balenciaga has been circulating for a couple of weeks now. I suspect more people will have seen the photo - which makes him look more Michelin Man than monsignor - than will hear his Easter sermon. In the photo, there is a pectoral cross hanging around his neck. But it’s the wedding band on his left hand that gives the photo away as a deep fake, generated by Artificial Intelligence. It has to be said, the pope can carry off high fashion, he looks terrific in Balenciaga. Apparently the pope is an extremely popular subject for deep fake photos. I’ve now see one that shows him on a motorcyle, in a fighter jet, drinking a pint of beer at a pub, and wearing a black leather biker jacket as he addresses a crowd - all fakes.
A headline in yesterday’s Times asks this question, “Can We No Longer Believe Anything We See?” The story goes on to discuss the ease with which deep fake photos can be made of almost anything - from AI-generated photos of the moon-landing being staged, to a beach party, to action shots of Premier League soccer, and so much more.
But the suspicion that you can’t believe your own eyes lurks behind Easter too. It’s probably a lot easier to believe that the resurrection was a fake than it is to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The “guard” that we heard mentioned in the Gospel today was placed there by Pontius Pilate, who was told by the chief priests et al that Jesus’ disciples would try to fake his resurrection, and that they “may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’” Of course, by next Sunday we’ll be remembering that Jesus’ own disciple, Thomas, had to be convinced that Jesus wasn’t somehow a fake. And maybe Thomas wasn’t the only one. Establishing the truth of the resurrection - the actual factuality of it, that Jesus of Nazareth really died and that he really, truly rose from the grave, and that the whole thing isn’t a fake - this was a serious concern on that first Easter morning, and it has been ever since.
Artificial Intelligence can do more than produce deep fake photos of the pope. You can ask the AI-driven chatbot ChatGPT to write an Easter sermon for you. I did. And you may never know whether or not what I am saying to you now are my own words, or whether they might have been generated by Artificial Intelligence. Although the first give-away that these words are my own is that I did not begin this sermon by addressing you all as “My dear friends,” as was the case for nearly every version of an Easter sermon I asked ChatGPT to write for me.
I asked Chat GPT to write sermons for me that employed the central theme or illustrations that I have used on Easter’s past. And do you know, the chatbot was happy to do so. I asked for “a short homily on the resurrection using reverse logistics as an illustration.” The sermon began like this:
“Reverse logistics is the process of moving goods from their final destination back to their point of origin. It is often used in the world of business to manage returns or defective products. However we can also apply this oncept to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” I’ll say you can! And I did last year! I mean, I am flattered to assume that ChatGPT has been reading my stuff on the internet!
I asked the chatbot to write a six-word homily on Matthew 28:1-10, and this is what I got: “Christ is risen! Rejoice and believe!” Not bad at all!
When I just asked ChatGPT to “write an Easter sermon,” it gave me a text that is a lot shorter than what you’re getting now, and ended with a perfectly lovely prayer.
When I asked ChatGPT why Jesus rose from the dead, I was give a four-point answer that asserted that the resurrection “validated Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God and the Messiah,” “gave people the hope of eternal life with God and the promise of resurrection for all believers,” “defeated sin and death,” and “paved the way for the Holy Spirit to come into the world and empower believers to carry on His mission.”
I asked ChatGPT if the message of Easter is good news for all people. And do you know, the chatbot did not hesitate to say, “Yes”. And it went on to tell me why! “The message of Easter tells us that no matter how broken or lost we may feel, there is always hope for a new beginning. It tells us that even in the midst of suffering and pain, there is a light that shines in the darkness. It tells us that God's love is unconditional, and that through faith in Jesus, we can be forgiven, reconciled with God, and have eternal life.” Very soon, I may be out of a job.
I was hoping that Artificial Intelligence would provide me with the ridiculous and the ludicrous, so that I could both give you a good laugh this Easter morning, and also contrast the inadequacy of AI with my witty and insightful wisdom. As I say, I may soon be out of work.
I asked ChatGPT to write a short homily on Matthew 28:1-10 that would be suitable for children “Hello children!” it began. “Today, I want to tell you a story about a very special person named Jesus.” It went on to give a perfectly concise and simple account of the Gospel reading, taking a lot less time than I usually do at the Family Mass. And this response from ChatGPT really was my favorite, because it included this short paragraph:
“This story reminds us that even when things seem sad or scary, there is always hope. Jesus shows us that even death can't keep us down, and that we can have new life in Him.” How relentlessly hopeful ChatGPT is: even death can’t keep us down! My, oh my, what faith!
When I asked ChatGPT if Jesus really rose from the dead, I was told that this is “a matter of personal faith and belief,” which is true, as far as it goes. But this answer began to suggest to me certain limitations of having ChatGPT write your sermons for you. Because, plausible though all that sermon material may be, it lacks the courage of its own conviction.
I asked ChatGPT if the story of the resurrection of Jesus us true. This is what it told me:
“As an AI language model, I cannot determine whether the story of Jesus’ resurrection is true or not. The question of the authenticity of the resurrection is a matter of personal faith and interpretation of religious texts.” This response sounds right on its own terms, but of course it’s also a little disturbing. If you can’t attest to the truth of the resurrection, how can you write such reasonable proclamations of it? How can you tell us that we could apply the concept of reverse logistics to the resurrection of Jesus Christ? How can you tell us that even death can’t keep us down, if you don’t really believe it? And if Artificial Intelligence can produce sermons that are superior to some I’ve heard preached by real clergy, (and it can!) how can we know what’s real and what’s fake?
That, of course, is the question that everyone must have been asking on the first Easter morning. And if they wondered then, who could be blamed for wondering now? St. Matthew seems to address this question, in a way, in the telling of the story. For he includes a detail in his account that I suspect is meant to address this very question. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary have visited the tomb; they have been told by the angel to “go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead.’”
Matthew tells us that the women departed quickly, full of both “fear and great joy.” Then, “suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.” The reason, I suspect, that the women took hold of his feet, and that Matthew reports this detail to us, is to prove that it’s really Jesus, and not just a ghost, not just an apparition, not just a deep fake of some kind, but the actual, real person of Jesus, who not only has a body, but a body that can actually be recognized as Jesus.
Each of the gospels makes the effort to proclaim in its own way that the risen Christ is a real person, who has a body, and who can be actually be recognized as Jesus, although it may take some time. Originally, the Gospel of Mark lacked such convincing details, and the longer ending of Mark may have been added to in order to provide just such a proof. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of the resurrected Jesus walking with disciples who do not realize who he is on the road to Emmaus, but eventually Jesus reveals himself to them. And the Gospel of John tells of the resurrection appearance of Jesus on the beach during which he cooks fish for breakfast for his disciples on a fire and eats with them, as if to prove that even in his resurrected state he’s got a body and he needs to eat. Each of the gospels addresses, in its own way, the question of whether the resurrection might be a scam, a trick, a fantasy, or a fake.
I asked ChatGPT to write a sentence about why Easter is not fake. It was unconvincing.
I asked ChatGPT to write a one sentence conclusion to an Easter sermon. What it gave me wasn’t too bad: “Let us celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and may his love and grace fill our hearts with hope and joy, not just on this day, but every day of our lives.”
But I think we can do better than that. We live in an age when we can almost longer believe anything we see. It is an age of fakery, to be frank, and you will find fakery everywhere - it didn’t start with pictures of the pope made by artificial intelligence. In such an age, our faith depends in part on those women who left the tomb full of both fear and great joy, who took hold of Jesus’ feet and knew him for who he was: resurrected and real. I believe those women, and I believe the evangelist who tells us about them. More to the point I have the courage of my convictions, and on the basis of the testimony of those women, I am willing to end my Easter sermon this way:
Hello children! Today, I want to tell you a story about a very special person named Jesus… who lived a long time ago. He was very kind and loving, and he helped many people. But one day… Jesus died on a cross and was buried in a tomb. But then something very amazing happened… some of Jesus’ friends went to visit the tomb, but when they got there, they found the tomb empty!… An angel appeared to the friends and told them that Jesus wasn’t there anymore! … He was a live again! The friends were so happy to hear this news. This story reminds us that even when things seem sad or scary, there is always hope. Jesus shows us that even death can’t keep us down, and that we can have new life in him.
Or, let me put it another way, using just six words:
“Christ is risen! Rejoice and believe!”
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
Easter Day 2023
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
