Excellent episode as always. I remember the Isaiah 6 discussion from the Sunday School season on Mark, linking it to Mark 4:10-12. It's probably the fruit of Sunday School that's most imprinted itself on me. I even used it as the inspiration for a retreat I ran for youth ministry workers in our diocese, so I was glad to have it refreshed in this episode.
Two things about this episode struck me which I think I will spend some time pondering over the next few days (or perhaps longer). The discussion of the Corinthian "cult of personality" made me think of my own Mass-viewing habits during Covid lockdowns. I opted to watch Bishop Barron's live-stream masses rather than my own local parish. It was so easy to choose "my" Mass, "my priest," "my bishop" to watch - and shockingly, each choice conformed precisely to my preferences and expectations. I worry that there is something in that cult of personality which is now expressed via digital technology - if I don't like my bishop's theology, or ecclesiology, or personality, or whatever, it is so easy for me to turn my back on my own bishop and turn towards a bishop I do like, even if he is on the other side of the world. And of course, this applies for priests too (and it seems that some people want it to apply to popes too, although that gets a bit messier). I hope, someday, that Sunday School does a season on Corinthians like the season on Romans.
The other thing was that I really liked the discussion about Simon's reaction to Jesus in the Gospel. One temptation I have to shrug off now and again is to view the saints, and the apostles in particular, as "holy men" - of course Simon followed Jesus, he was (Simon) Peter! That's definitionally what he (or Saul/Paul, or Thomas, or...) would do. I'm not a holy man, and so of course I struggle more, of course that kind of calling is for the Simons and the Sauls and the holy men and women, not for me. Except of course it is for me, and I can't shield myself by categorizing some people as "holy" and myself as "not" and losing myself in the abyss between those two.
I hope, someday, in my parish to be able to start a kind of discussion group which generates conversations like the one at the end of this episode. (It's kind of selfish, as I'm fairly jealous of the conversations you have on this podcast)
Excellent episode as always. I remember the Isaiah 6 discussion from the Sunday School season on Mark, linking it to Mark 4:10-12. It's probably the fruit of Sunday School that's most imprinted itself on me. I even used it as the inspiration for a retreat I ran for youth ministry workers in our diocese, so I was glad to have it refreshed in this episode.
Two things about this episode struck me which I think I will spend some time pondering over the next few days (or perhaps longer). The discussion of the Corinthian "cult of personality" made me think of my own Mass-viewing habits during Covid lockdowns. I opted to watch Bishop Barron's live-stream masses rather than my own local parish. It was so easy to choose "my" Mass, "my priest," "my bishop" to watch - and shockingly, each choice conformed precisely to my preferences and expectations. I worry that there is something in that cult of personality which is now expressed via digital technology - if I don't like my bishop's theology, or ecclesiology, or personality, or whatever, it is so easy for me to turn my back on my own bishop and turn towards a bishop I do like, even if he is on the other side of the world. And of course, this applies for priests too (and it seems that some people want it to apply to popes too, although that gets a bit messier). I hope, someday, that Sunday School does a season on Corinthians like the season on Romans.
The other thing was that I really liked the discussion about Simon's reaction to Jesus in the Gospel. One temptation I have to shrug off now and again is to view the saints, and the apostles in particular, as "holy men" - of course Simon followed Jesus, he was (Simon) Peter! That's definitionally what he (or Saul/Paul, or Thomas, or...) would do. I'm not a holy man, and so of course I struggle more, of course that kind of calling is for the Simons and the Sauls and the holy men and women, not for me. Except of course it is for me, and I can't shield myself by categorizing some people as "holy" and myself as "not" and losing myself in the abyss between those two.
I hope, someday, in my parish to be able to start a kind of discussion group which generates conversations like the one at the end of this episode. (It's kind of selfish, as I'm fairly jealous of the conversations you have on this podcast)
Here me thinking you used the ESV for all the English listeners :(