'Magnificent Humanity' - Weekly Reflection 28th June 2026

Well England managed to beat Panama in the last match of the Group Stages in the World Cup. I thought it was a bit lack lustre apart from a few moments of fizz and sparkle resulting in two goals.

I was listening to an article on the radio during the week that referred to England’s third goalkeeper.  Like everyone in the squad they must train hard and are at every match. Yet the chance they are going to be called upon to defend the goal is virtually nil. They are truly ‘team players.’  

Despite my name, Gordon Banks, I never liked either football or cricket while at school.

I was the one when a ‘Captain’ was chosen and invited to pick his team (it was always his in those days) I was the one left until everyone else had been chosen, begrudgingly accepted onto the team.  I know others also suffered this subtle abuse as well and when I came to playing numerous games with children, youth or even adults, I found a far better way of getting into team of mixed abilities. (Do ask me if you have to organise people into teams about some of the ways I did this)

And the value of people has been a bit of a feature in the week just gone.

On Thursday at the Discussion Group that meets at St Andrew’s Rugby, we were discussing the Pope’s Encyclical on AI.

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, addresses safeguarding the human person in the era of artificial intelligence, emphasizing dignity, justice, and the common good.

Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)

Oscar Wilde said: “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

That pretty much sums up the current social climate in the West at least. Everything has a value, everything must be graded on what it produces, it must have some output, something tangible must emerge.

Just think for a moment on those who lose their jobs because their work is being outsourced or increasingly been done by AI. They become ‘redundant.’   

That for me is one of the reasons that I am uncomfortable regarding assisted dying.

And Jesus – well today (The Fourth Sunday after Trinity) we were reflecting on John the Baptist and Jesus. (The Birth of John the Baptist was celebrated on the 24^th June). The reading was from Matthew 11:2-11.

The story is of John now in Herod’s prison because he was outspoken about Herod’s irregular marriage, and puzzling over Jesus and whether he was the Messiah or was there another one yet to come.

For John it would seem had the idea that Jesus was to be the one who would bring judgment on the nations, liberate Israel and establish once again the true reign of God through His chosen people.

Jesus, however, was demonstrating the power of love over the love of power.

“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”  Matthew 11.5

(Quoting mostly from Isaiah 35)

And Jesus was doing this up in the North, away from the city of Jerusalem. He was meeting, mixing and mingling with the outcast, the impoverished, the ‘little people’.

If Jesus was with you when that team was being chosen he would say, don’t worry, you can be on my team because I think you are absolutely wonderful, in fact you are Magnifica Humanitas – a magnificent human.

Last week I also listened to a podcast of a conversation with  Guli Francis Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford, ‘Guiding a Church in Time of Crisis.’

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ohipCs7O0nwxZOrPakwTd?si=fb7c3baefbf9413f

She spoke of the need to be open to seekers who come searching out the ancient ways, to see just who this Jesus might be and if he has anything to say about hope, joy and indentity and purpose.  That we should welcome every person who comes looking. However, she was also keen to say that we need to offer good ‘nurture groups’ where we could explain the Scriptures and what it means to apprentice under Jesus and allow God to transform our lives.  

As Max Lucado said in his book, ‘YOU! God's Brand New Idea: Made to Be Amazing.’  “God loves you just as you are but loves you enough not to leave you that way.”

And last night I watched the Netflix film, ‘I Swear.' A film of the true-life story of John Davidson, a Scottish man with severe Tourette syndrome who was the subject of the 1989 television documentary John's Not Mad. It is a film that puts you through the wringer with every emotion possible. It is funny, sad, it makes you angry at the injustice and yet shining through it all is hope and love. Love by just a few people who can see beyond John’s erratic behaviour to the person, a kind gentle soul with Tourette syndrome who cannot control his tic or the use of swear words.

Tourette syndrome was first clearly described as a distinct medical condition in 1885, but there is no single official “recognition date” specific to the UK; instead, it gradually became recognised through medical literature, diagnostic manuals, and clinical services over the 20th century, with full modern diagnostic criteria and wider UK awareness only really consolidating from the 1970s onward. John was part of that story and in 2019 was awarded an MBE for his work in making Tourette's more widely known and accepted. 

In the week ahead you will meet some magnificent humans – and one of those will be facing you in the mirror!