Listen on:
Episodes
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
Saturday Sep 21, 2024
IMAGE DESCRIPTION AND CREDIT:Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons - cc-by-sa-4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKS
St Peter’s Colonnade Statues:https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints-List-Colonnades.htm
Vatican bio of Cardinal Parolin:
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_parolin_p.html
Pietro Parolin on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvadore Miranda):
https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2014.htm#Parolin
Cardinal Parolin on Gcatholic.org:
http://www.gcatholic.org/p/666
Cardinal Parolin on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bparolin.html
Secretariat of State on Gcatholic.org:
http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/romancuria/d01.htm
Secretariat of State on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dxsta.html
Monsenior Parolin's Knighthood:
https://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/insigniti/161548
Cardinal Parolin speaking on behalf of Pope Francis at COP28 (English, via Vatican News):
https://youtu.be/xF4AgpYjhws?si=NHmzgYqpdLtkaQlO
Thank you for listening, and thank my family and friends for putting up with the time investment and for helping me out as needed.
As always, feel free to email the show at Popeularhistory@gmail.com
If you would like to financially support Popeular history, go to www.patreon.com/Popeular. If you don't have any money to spare but still want to give back, pray and tell others– prayers and listeners are worth more than gold!
TRANSCRIPT
Hey folks! Remember last episode when I said I reached out to the ladies from Pontifacts for comment on one of the colonnade statues that help frame Saint Peter’s square? Well they got back to me on *several* of them, and it looks like we’re going to have an ongoing segment for them we can refer back to whenever we have a Rome-born Cardinal, because I’m absolutely not going to miss the opportunity to have Bry and Fry judge some statues! So, welcome to Faciam Saintues, starting with the statue I’m retroactively associating with Cardinal Lojudice, that of St Gallicanus:FACIAM SAINTUE W/BRY AND FRY 1
This week of course we’ve got a double header, because they also covered our patron statue for Cardinal Zuppi, that of Saint Leonard of Noblac:FACIAM SAINTUE W/BRY AND FRY 2
All right, with that out of the way, let’s get on with the show!
Welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church we can get our hands on, from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come.
Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.
Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.
Pietro Parolin was born on January 17, 1955, in Schiavon, a community in the diocese of Vicenza, part of Italy's Veneto region. This is actually our third Cardinal from the Veneto region, if you remember Cardinals Marchetto and Gugerotti we laid Gugerotti's scene in fair Verona and Cardinal Marchetto was from Vicenza, the city that gives Pietro's home diocese its name. It's worth noting that Cardinal Marchetto was one of our three cardinals elevated this past year who were already over the age of 80, meaning Pietro will be our first actual Papal elector born in the diocese, which is fair enough because there's a lot more dioceses in the world than there are Papal Electors.
Anyways, Pietro was the son of Luigi Parolin, a hardware store manager, and his wife, and an elementary school teacher named Ada Miotti. Pietro was one of three children, having a sister, Maria Rosa, and a brother, Giovanni. At the age of 10 father Luigi died in a car accident, and young Pietro found a different kind of father in his pastor, who guided Pietro from altar serving to Vicenza seminary, which he entered in 1969 around the age of 14. Eleven years later, he was ordained as priest for the Diocese of Vicenza at the age of 25.
Father Parolin got a couple years of pastoral work in before the Bishop decided to send him to Rome for additional studies in Canon law, presumably to put him to work for the Diocese but the trouble with sending promising young priests to Rome is sometimes Rome doesn't send them back. In 1986 he received his doctorate in Canon Law with a thesis on the Synod of Bishops, and that same year Fr Parolin entered the Diplomatic Corps for the Holy See–something I have to think wasn't *entirely* out of the blue, considering he had studied diplomacy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy while working on his doctorate. Either way, he was on board, his bishop was on board, and the Vatican was most certainly on board. He was off to sunny Nigeria to serve as an adetto, which is apparently Vatican-speak for an attaché, which is in turn diplomacy speak for a generic staff member for the main diplomat, in this case, presumably, the nuncio. He was soon promoted to secretary, and then, following the normal custom of the Holy See's Diplomatic Corps, promptly switched gears to three years of diplomatic service in Mexico. He kept rising through the ranks, becoming a Monsignor, and eventually undersecretary of the section for the Relations with the States within the Secretariat of State, which is a mouthful. This section of Monsignor Parolin's bio is the first time in all these bios I saw an Interdicasterial Commission mentioned, the multidepartmental role he served there seems to have served him well given his future posts.
Like several of our Cardinals, Parolin is knighted, which is interesting because Italy doesn't even have a monarchy but yup, on June 24th 2005 he was named knight grand cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
On August 17, 2009, Pietro Parolin joined the upper crust of the Holy See's diplomatic corps, being named as the full on Nuncio to Venezuela. I'm sure there are exceptions, but generally you don't get to be nuncio without being a bishop, and in this case Monsignor Parolin was no exception– he was announced as Titular Archbishop of Acquapendente that same day.
A few years later, in 2013, Pope Benedict resigned the Papacy and Pope Francis was elected to replace him. By August of that year Archbishop Parolin was named as Pope Francis’ Secretary of State. At 58, he was certainly on the younger end for a person holding such a high office, the last person to be Secretary of State before their 60th birthday was Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. Dun dun dunnn… also, though it wouldn't be out of character for Pope Francis to ignore this rule, as Secretary of State Archbishop Parolin was canonically required to be made a cardinal whenever Pope Francis got around to nominating a fresh batch, which he did in February 2014. Parolin's name was at the top of the list, and I mean that literally, as we saw when we went through the 2023 consistory the new Cardinals are pretty much always listed by diplomatic precedence, or, you know, something along those lines.
Before he even took possession of his titular church, Pope Francis had nominated him to four dicasteries and the super-selective Council of Cardinals, where he's still a member- and his name is at the top of that list as well.
As Pope Francis’ Secretary of State, part of Cardinal Parolin's job to run around with the giant scissors doing any ribbon cuttings and celebrations that might need done, for example in January 2017 he was named pontifical legate to the celebration of the 25th World Day of the Sick, and later that year he was named pontifical legate to the celebration of the eighth centenary of the consecration of the Basilica of the Cistertian Abbey of Casamari, Italy. The sheer quantity of such special missions nearly made me miss the fact that Pope Francis promoted him to the higher rank of Cardinal-Bishop in 2018. Most of the Cardinal-Bishops reach that venerable position at a late stage in their career indeed, with the only other Cardinal-Bishops who are still under 80 and thus eligible to serve as Papal Electors being Cardinal Tagle, who we discussed previously, and Cardinal Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad, who ranks as a Cardinal-Bishop automatically by virtue of being both a Cardinal and a Patriarch of a Sui Iuris–that is, self-governing–Catholic Church.
If I were picking the Italian I'd consider most likely to be the next Pope today, I'd pick Cardinal Parolin with little hesitation.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2035.
Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening; God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
Friday Sep 27, 2024
Friday Sep 27, 2024
IMAGE DESCRIPTION
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus fragment with text of John 6:8-12. 3rd century. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:POxy1596-III.jpg
LINKSWords of Jesus ("All the Red Letter Scriptures"):
https://www.jesusbelieverjd.com/all-the-red-letter-scriptures-of-jesus-in-the-bible-kjv/
Parallel Passages in the Gospels:
https://www.bible-researcher.com/parallels.html#sect1
Miracles of Jesus reference list:
https://sunnyhillschurch.com/3301/the-37-miracles-of-jesus-in-chronological-order/
Venetian folk tale of Saint Peter’s mom:
https://iamnotmakingthisup.net/5663/saint-peters-mom-bless-her-heart/ Judas Boo:https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/boo-6377/Joke Rimshot:https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/rimshot-joke-funny-80325/ TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21h: Sayings of the Savior Part VIII: The Last Gospel
All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!
Today we continue our Sayings of the Savior series with a look at the Gospel according to John, covering everything Jesus said there that we haven't yet discussed–yes, still leaving off things like the miracles we did in 0.20 and the parables and other sayings we did in earlier Sayings of the Savior installments--once again leaving you in suspense right before the concluding few chapters discussing Jesus’ death and such, which we'll cover as we finish the remaining mysteries of the rosary in future episodes of our Catholic Worldbuilding series.
Before we get into it, a quick reminder that the Gospel of John is the odd one out of the four canonical gospels, that is, the Gospels that made it into the Bible. There are other Gospels, but not others that the Catholic Church holds as part of Scripture, that is, the inspired word of God.
As you likely remember very well from the other episodes unless you're starting here for some reason, and if you're starting here because you don't know where to find the others you can check out the Catholic Worldbuilding section of my website, Popeularhistory.com, in any case, as you probably do recall the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are all known as synoptic gospels, that is, Gospels that should be read together, and clearly have a close relationship, with most of all of them being found in the rest of them. Luke Is the most unique, something like 35% of its material being standalone, much of that parables, some of that is Luke's memorable infancy narrative, while the approximately 20% of Matthew that's only in Matthew is a hodgepodge including Matthew’s take on Jesus’ infancy, and the 3ish % of material that's unique to Mark is… well Mark is the shortest Gospel so 3% of it isn't much but even so we haven't hit the most memorable bit of that small slice of the synoptics. We'll get there, but of course not yet because like I said today is about John. And I don’t mean John Mark, the guy who wrote the Gospel of Mark, which really should be called John because you know, John is his actual first name, Mark’s just a second part of it, anyways, uh yes so guy named John wrote half the gospels, don’t worry about it, it’s fine, one’s the Gospel of Mark, one’s the Gospel of John. I’m sure that’s not confusing anything. Anyways, ignore the fact that I haven't said much about John yet today. I needed to give the Synoptics a bit of a collective farewell before we moved on and it seemed like a bit of statistics might be just the thing to get you all ready for me to change the topic.
Now, though John’s Gospel (not John Mark’s Gospel) isn't one of the synoptics, there are a few parallel areas I'll flag as we go, so don't think we're leaving the other Gospels behind entirely. Even if we tried, they're a big part of looking at history through Pope Colored glasses overall, which, in case you've forgotten, is the actual main plan for this podcast. Allegedly these worldbuilding episodes are just the background materials for that.
Overall, John stands out as the most theologically sophisticated of the Gospels, which has generally led scholars to argue it’s the last-written of the bunch, a stance that actually aligns with tradition that credits the Gospel of John to, well, John, the longest-lived of the Twelve Apostles. Scholars, of course, aren't so sure about that specific attribution, as we've mentioned here and there they often like to think of a school of multiple authors writing the texts attributed to John, not just the Gospel but his three letters and the Book of Revelation.
In any event, that sophisticated theology is on full display right from the beginning of the text, and the opening verses of John, often called the Prologue, are extremely well known and influential within Christianity. Which I know is a given for pretty much every section of the Gospel texts, but I mean like even more so than the average Gospel text. As in, these verses used to be read as an epilogue to nearly every Mass, something that gave it the nickname of “The Last Gospel”.
Let's take it in:
JOHN 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
GREGG
First, I'll simply note that it would have been a straightforward enough matter for me to start the podcast here, rather than back in Genesis. In fact, the basics of Christian theology, the trinity I discussed in that first episode before launching into Genesis’ actual narrative, all that is more at home in a discussion of these verses than in that creation story, because here is what makes Christian history: the Incarnation. The Word made Flesh.
This word and flesh and light and darkness business is also a pretty natural tie-in to the oldest wrong theology in the history of Christianity, and it's fair enough that various commentators have seen hintings at gnosticism in the text of John's gospel. In fact, some have theorized that the Gospel of John was written as a refutation of Gnosticism, but of course I'm treating this as a start-from-scratch beginner friendly kit, so it wouldn't be right of me to just keep saying “gnosticism”, “gnosticism” without spelling out what that means. Oh, and speaking of spelling, it starts with a silent “G”, check out the transcript I'm now consistently creating for the show notes in the episode description if you'd like the full spelling.
Gnosticism, in a nutshell, is the idea that the physical world is evil, created by a flawed God. To the gnostics, this evil, broken world is something to be rejected, to escape from. For many of the gnostics, Jesus is the servant of the higher God, and is our ticket out of the icky yucky material, fleshy world. The knowledge of the evil of the world and how to escape from it is the secret that gives gnosticism its name, “gnosis” being Greek for “knowledge”. Gnosticism had a habit of piggybacking off Judaism and Christianity, with Gnostics basically forming secret clubs within the already generally secret Christian communities.
We'll talk plenty more about Gnosticism as we go, as it was a sort of theological cancer within the Church for many years, but there's your official high-level overview.
Getting back to John 1, the first verse is probably the most famous:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The notion that Jesus has been around since the beginning, as outlined in this chapter, is ultimately what cemented the victory of Catholic theology over Arianism, another wrong belief found among some Christians, aka a heresy, this one teaching that Jesus is not God Himself but is simply a creature-an important creature sure but in the end still one of God's creatures and so not as exalted as God Himself. Like gnosticism, the The Arian refrain of “there was a time when he was not” cannot be be squared with John 1, hence the fundamental importance of The Last Gospel to Nicene Christianity. And yes, we'll talk about what “Nicene” Christianity is in the future, specifically in 0.24. But we'll need to get past the first verse of John to get there.
The second verse, “He was with God in the beginning” really solidifies the anti-Arian interpretation, but believe it or not I’m actually not going to repeat the rest of the prologue, because ultimately this section, while very, very, important to Christian history, isn't one of the sayings of the Savior we're focusing on in this series.
So, when does Jesus show up? Well, after a focus on John the Baptist, Jesus appears in verse 36, and speaks in verse 38:
JOHN 1
38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
GREGG
This particular calling is a favorite of the tv series The Chosen, which I know I've mentioned before but am not expecting to mention again, as we're heading out of their wheelhouse, at last as far as they've gotten up to this point. But it's worth checking out if you've got the time, and let's be honest, if you're listening to this, you probably do.
What's next? Andrew and Simon Peter!
JOHN 1
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ).
GREGG
This section allows us to introduce the split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, though first off, there's been many splits and resolutions in that relationship over the years, not just the one in 1054, and second, while there’s not currently unity there's not as fundamental a split as there has been previously since the mutual excommunications were lifted sixty years ago. Oh, and we've also made some reference to the difference already, when we were talking about the differences in biblical canons back in 0.7.
Anyways, that's all years in the future. For now, just know that the tie-in is that eventually St Andrew would be credited with founding the Church in what wouId become Constantinople, the chief see of Orthodoxy, while St Peter would go down as the first Bishop of Rome, the beating heart of Catholicism.
Having Saint Andrew as the first-called of the two--and the first-called Apostle overall–is therefore a point of pride for Orthodoxy, and one that I daresay as I look through these pope-colored glasses is a sorely needed one given Peter's elevation on pretty much every count afterwards. Note that he's already picked up his Peter slash Rocky nickname, much earlier in John than in the other Gospels, for example in Matthew that didn’t happen until Chapter 16.
Before we move on, I want you to know that I tried to look into Peter and Andrew’s mother, considering we featured Peter's mother-in-law already and therefore it would seem to be quite the oversight to skip his actual mother, especially since she was apparently also the mother of Saint Andrew. Plus, it happens to be Mother's day when I'm writing this. But it turns out there's surprisingly little tradition on Peter's mother. Google seems to think her name is Joanna, but she's definitely not the better-known Saint Joanna mentioned at a few points in the Gospels. In fact, she's not a saint at all, according to the one story I did find about her, from, and this is the actual name: iamnotmakingthisup.net. Which isn’t exactly an authoritative source but it points to a Venetian folk tale that describes Saint Peter's mother as irredeemable to the extent that Saint Peter has no way to let her into heaven based on her deeds. Which to be clear is incorrect theology considering your deeds aren't what get you into heaven, but let's roll with it. Apparently there was a time she gave someone an onion, so she got to try to climb to heaven via a string of onion roots, an effort which failed but got her promoted to taking care of Heaven's used wine barrels, ‘cause Venice.
Speaking of promotions, before Chapter 1 is out Jesus promotes two more randos to disciple status, first Philip, who He tells “Follow me”, and then Nathanael, who gets to hear “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
When Nathanael asks Jesus how He knows him, Jesus replies, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you,” to which Nathanael replies “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Which leads us to Jesus's reply in the last couple verses:
“You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The next chapter begins with Jesus’ first public miracle, the miracle of the wedding at Cana, turning water into wine to keep the party going, which we covered in our miracles roundup in 0.20.
The next scene is Jesus driving the moneychangers from the Temple, another one that shows up much earlier in John than it did in the synoptics, and always a crowd pleaser. Here's John's version:
JOHN 2
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
GREGG Considering John is already talking about the resurrection in Chapter 2, I guess my running gag of treating it as a spoiler is done.
In John 3, we have the first appearance of Nicodemus, a man unknown to the Synoptics but a recurring figure in John's account. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “born-again Christian”, you've got this colorful exchange to thank for the imagery:
JOHN 3
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
GREGG
If you're thinking, “gosh that last part sounds like crucifixion imagery”, good job reading ahead; if you're *not* thinking “gosh that last part sounds like crucifixion imagery”, perhaps It would be helpful if I reminded you that the bronze serpent Moses had lifted up in the wilderness was lifted up in a pole, and that anyone who looked at it, according to Numbers 21, was cured and saved from the “firey serpents” that were plaguing the grumbly Israelites at the time.
Interestingly, at least to me, the dominant symbol of healthcare worldwide is another serpent on a pole, which more cautious scholars don't necessarily connect with Moses’ bronze serpent as it's definitely a symbol of the Greek god Aesculapius so not a Hebrew slash Jewish thing directly, but still, serpents on poles associated with medicine has to be a relatively limited field. And yet, not as limited as you might think, as there is apparently a shocking amount of controversy over whether to use one serpent or two on a pole to symbolize healthcare.
But let’s get back to John 3, which doesn't assign any speaking lines to Jesus, though the next few verses are, like John's prologue, a reflection that's proven *quite* influential in the history of Christianity, especially John 3:16, which reads:
JOHN 3
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
GREGG
The next verse hammers the same sort of anti-gnostic point we saw in the prologue:
JOHN 3
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
GREGG
So yay world! It's not all bad. Though it is pretty bad.
Let's hear the rest of John's reflection without further interruption:
JOHN 3
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
GREGG
The chapter finishes with a heavy emphasis on John the Baptist, during which John says “He must become greater; I must become less.”
So we'll take that and run with it, keeping John as a side character and chasing the sayings of the Savior into chapter 4, another classic scene, this time it's the Samaritan woman at the well. The parenthetical thoughts you'll hear early on are part of John's account:
JOHN 4
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
GREGG
We've spoken about Samaritans before, though it was during my daily show experiment, specifically in the context of Samaritans Deacon Philip baptized in Acts 8. In case you missed that, in a nutshell the Samaritans are traditionally descendents of the ten “lost” tribes left behind when Assyria invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel, though the fact that they're generally called the “lost” tribes gives an indication of how that tradition is generally received outside the community. The mountain the Samaritan woman is referencing Is Mount Gerizim, in Samaritan tradition the holiest place on earth and the proper site of worship, never mind that Jerusalem Temple business. So, yes, there are some similarities and some differences between Samaritans and Jews. Oh, speaking of Jews, next time you're talking to a Christian antisemite, remind them that here we have Jesus saying, and I quote, “salvation is from the Jews”.
Also note that the woman lied to Jesus and also had five husbands before her current non-husband partner, which is probably not something Jesus approved of. And yet, no reproach is recorded. Because you don't have to be hammering people's faults all day, every day.
Of course, we did stop at an odd point, with Jesus telling the woman–who Eastern Churches know as Saint Photine and consider not only a martyr but Equal to the Apostles, a level of veneration I genuinely wasn’t expecting-anyways we left with Jesus telling the future Saint Photine He is the Messiah, and then I just cut things off. Why? Well, because my bible considered that the end of the section, but of course that just begs the question still. The reason we don't see her direct reply is the Apostles show up and interrupt things. Let's continue where we left off:
JOHN 4
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
GREGG
Interesting the specific call out for what they didn't ask, perhaps John wants to draw attention to how Jesus was bucking normal expectations here but the disciples were used to it. Anyways,
JOHN 4
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
GREGG
One aspect of this section is it has confirmation that my Sayings of the Savior series will always be incomplete, which isn’t a surprise, presumably Jesus said lots of things that weren’t recorded, in fact John basically says as much towards the end of his Gospel. Perhaps he hit the Samaritans with more of his patented harvest metaphors. Whatever it was, he spent two days at it.
After that, Jesus went on a healing spree with miracles I covered in 0.20, including one on the Sabbath that got him into trouble with the local Jewish leaders. Here's the aftermath of that starting in Chapter 5 Verse 16:
JOHN 5
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
GREGG
Jesus has a very lengthy response to this pushback, and it's another one that helped solidify Christian theology, so brace yourselves:
JOHN 5
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.
33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
GREGG
The next chapter, chapter 6, opens with a couple extra familiar miracles- feeding the five thousand and walking on water- and then gets real. Like, really real. Like, prepping for some Eucharistic mysteries level real. And the Eucharistic theme is touched off by folks from the five thousand looking for more bread. When they pursue him across the lake, he gives them a big old talk about what Catholics are happy to identify as the Eucharist, which we'll obviously be talking more about as we go.
JOHN 6
“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
GREGG
It's worth noting how controversially this is landing. Let's continue:
JOHN 6
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
GREGG
Controversial for sure, but Jesus certainly shows no indication of a willingness to change analogy–or clarify that he's speaking metaphorically. So believers in the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist are perfectly willing to note that he must indeed be being literal here when he says this next part:
JOHN 6
“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum”
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
GREGG
After letting many of his followers walk over this whole bread is flesh and you must eat it business, and given passages like this and the Last Supper it's no wonder most Christians are big on the Eucharist, anyways, after that, Jesus turns to the Twelve:
JOHN 6
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
GREGG
It’s always nice to see Peter stepping up, and it's always fun to queue up the boos when Judas Isacriot gets a mention .
In the next section, chapter seven now, we see Jesus interacting with folks in the Feast of Booths aka the Festival of Tabernacles aka Sukkot. The scene naturally starts with Jesus declaring that he will do no such thing.
JOHN 7
“My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
GREGG
Wait, didn't I promise Jesus at the Festival? What gives? Well, read on!
JOHN 7
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
GREGG
The rest of the chapter is devoted to describing various responses to this preaching, from believing Jesus and accepting Him as the Messiah to wanting to execute him. Here Nicodemus pops up, perhaps unsurprisingly recommending the authorities hear Jesus out.
Chapter 8 starts out with something of a tense scene, with Jesus effectively being given power of life and death over a woman who had been caught in adultery–no mention of the man. This woman, like many others, is unnamed in the text. The most common tradition in my experience is to associate her with Mary Magdalene, but that seems to miss the mark on several accounts, not least that John seems to like spelling out connections like that like when we saw Nicodemus pop up again last chapter when he was not only called Nicodemus but also described as “Nicodemus who had gone to Jesus earlier”, which is pretty straightforward. Also, Mary Magdalene's reputation as a reformed prostitute–apparently first popularized by none other than Pope Gregory the Great–doesn't have much of a leg to stand on unless you confuse her with the other Mary of Martha and Mary fame.
Anyways, Mary Magdalene or not–probably not–but Mary Magdalene or not, the woman's life is in Jesus’ hands:
JOHN 8
“3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.””
GREGG
First off, note the presence of a call to repentance here, because my point earlier was not that it should never happen, but that it does not have to happen every time.
This is also the only time we see Jesus writing, which I honestly probably wouldn't be pointing out if it weren't for the fact that we have no idea what he wrote. Like none. You tell me if you have ideas, Popeularhistory@gmail.com.
One surprising bit about this passage is that apparently most Scripture scholars argue that it's a later addition, not an original part of the Gospel of John. An early addition, mind you, but an addition nonetheless. From the whole Pope-colored glasses perspective it doesn't matter, the canon of Scripture is settled and this passage is part of it. As we've discussed before, from a Catholic perspective the human authorship is theologically irrelevant.
Of course, the number one use for this passage in Catholic water-cooler circles is a mariology joke:
“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”... *rock whizzes by*- mom!
*drum sting*
In verse 12, the scene shifts abruptly, possibly due to the later addition scenario I mentioned a minute ago. Let's pick back up without any gap, and see yet another passage of John's Gospel at pains to explain Christology, which just in case I haven’t said it already is the mainstream Christian theological understanding of Christ. Anyways:JOHN 8
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
GREGG
It's interesting to see Jesus referencing court here, or at least the temple courts, because I’ve got to say there’s no way the argument He's giving would hold up in court. I probably would be pretty skeptical myself if I were one of the Pharisees here. Then again, I definitely get the sense that He's not primarily talking for *their* benefit here.
Anyways, let's continue:
JOHN 8
21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
GREGG
This is the high water mark for this group following Jesus. It goes very far downhill as we continue, and understandably as Jesus has some hard things to say. You might also detect some feelings Jesus has about His own fate:
JOHN 8
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
GREGG
Only after being called children of the devil do the Pharisees turn on Jesus here. Some might argue that they were never on his side to begin with, because that's how some similar accounts play out elsewhere in the Gospels, but there’s no hint of that here, in fact quite the opposite, remember partway through this section John had noted that some of the Jews were starting to believe in Him and Jesus began speaking to them in particular. This is heavy stuff. Anyways:
JOHN 8
48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
GREGG
So in the end, let it never be said that Jesus was unwilling to antagonize.
Chapter 9 opens with a miracle, and the entire chapter is devoted to the fallout from that miracle. It was the case of a man who had been blind since birth, and we did cover the miracle itself and its immediate aftermath in our miracles series--now that we're making sure we hit all the sayings of the Savior it's time to cover a later portion of the chapter, after the Pharisees conduct an investigation that does not go well for the healed man. We're picking up in Verse 35:
JOHN 9
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
GREGG
The next chapter opens with one of the closest things John has to a parable, and it's a big one: The Good Shepherd.
JOHN 10
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
GREGG
The image of the Shepherd is all over Christianity. Priests are called pastors, bishops carry a shepherd’s crook, and archbishops’ pallia are made from the wool of lambs from Tre Fontane Abbey in Rome. Of course some overtones of the imagery predate Christ's parable, with the blood of the passover lamb marking Jewish door lentils since the Exodus. More on the Lamb of God soon.
Later in the chapter, Jesus gets asked a pretty blunt question, and gives a pretty blunt answer:
JOHN 10
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.
GREGG
And, like last chapter, this declaration is not well received:
JOHN 10
31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.
GREGG
All right, I need to address how I can possibly have hope for everyone when Jesus is walking around calling many of the people he interacts with children of the devil, as he did in chapter 7, and specifically not his sheep, as he does here. It’s one thing to hope for universal salvation in the face of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John's been hitting different. And yet in John 12:32 we'll hear Jesus say “I will draw all people to myself”. How do we get there from here?
Well, ultimately, from a Christian perspective, the same way we get anywhere: by the grace of God. Not only at a higher level–the ”draw all people to myself” business is framed as being part of the Crucifixion–but also at a more intimate and personal level.
Yes, I am suggesting that calling folks children of the devil is intimate and personal. When my children mess up, I parent them by clearly pointing out what they've done that's wrong and contrasting it to what they should be doing. It's not the warmest, fuzziest part of parenting, but it's an important part of parenting. I submit to you that Jesus is doing the same here.
Of course in the end you may well not agree with me. That's to be expected. As long as you're getting something out of listening to all this, and presumably you are since you're a good chunk of the way through episode whatever, carry on.
Let’s get back to John’s narrative.
“If you do not believe me, believe the works”, Jesus said, and the next section, Chapter 11, is dominated by one of Jesus’ most famous works, the resurrection of Lazarus. Of course we covered that among the miracles, and the Savior is silent outside of that portion, so on to Chapter 12, the anointing at Bethany. Those of you that listened to the daily show and Cardinal Numbers will recall the use I got out of the Martha/Mary dynamic, and I'm not the only one to use this Gospel scene as a parable. Let's go ahead and take it from the top, where it clearly ties in to the resurrection from the previous chapter:
JOHN 12
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
GREGG
Judas, Judas. Get yourself together, man. And so we set the stage for one of the most badly applied sayings of the Savior, see if you can spot it:
JOHN 12
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
GREGG
The interpretation I'm referring to is the idea that because there will always be poor people we should do nothing to help those in poverty. Thankfully, that's straightforwardly rebutted by the beatitudes and by every parable that shows acts of compassion for the least among us as the way to love Christ. This section is, however, a reminder that the “sell the Vatican, feed the world” position is also wrong, not only economically–you'd feed the world for a day and then what–but spiritually as well. We're a physical people, the more our senses are engaged the more fully we can participate in liturgy. And yet for someone who has an allergy to incense, incense isn't going to help them worship, and for someone who has baggage associated with one style or another, they may be served more effectively by another approach. One of the most controversial things you'll hear me say is that there are multiple right answers as far as liturgy goes. Worship is made to draw people to Christ, and people are coming from different places. As long as it's within bounds according to the Church, God can and will supply what is lacking. And sorry for getting into a “what kind of Mass is best” discussion here, that's decidedly looking into the future, but this passage features prominently in such discussions, and you all know I like teasing things before they properly emerge, so yes, get hype for 0.31: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
John 12 continues with that standard sign that we're coming towards the end of Jesus’ time on earth, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus doesn't say anything in John's account, but it's a significant scene, so let's check out John's version:
JOHN 12
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
GREGG
The most particular feature is that last bit, with the frustrated Pharisees still getting a spotlight even among the triumph. John's account is really very interested in that conflict.
The next section opens with a surprisingly long message chain:
JOHN 12
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
GREGG
Jesus is a bit less direct about predicting his death in John than He was in the synoptics, calling it his “glorification”, but it's definitely still there, with the talk of seeds dying to spread growth. You get the sense that it's not really His first choice with His own description of His troubled soul, something that parallels Luke 22:42, Jesus’ prayer in the garden at Gethsemane, pretty closely. And, yet while we will discuss that scene and that prayer, we actually haven't gotten to it yet, as Luke has it as part of his overall Passion narrative, a passion narrative being something discussing Jesus’ finale of life, patior being a Latin term meaning to suffer, or to endure. By my counting, and folks vary, we're not *quite* to John's passion narrative yet, but the overlap is a sign that we're really very close.
Then, God the Father, apparently, speaks, in a first for John’s Gospel as John skipped the voice-from-heaven part of Jesus’ baptism:
JOHN 12
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
GREGG
That is a bit fascinating. Basically, those who don't believe Jesus are there for prophesy purposes. I'm reminded of Pharaoh in the Exodus narrative, who the text clearly presents as willing to let Moses go until God intervenes and hardens his heart, again and again. You've got to wonder how that impacts culpability.
Let's continue:
JOHN 12
42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
GREGG
Let's hear that piece of hope again: “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
It certainly could have been God's plan for Jesus to come as judge without an offer of redemption for any. But it wasn't. It certainly could have been God's plan for Jesus to come as judge without an offer of redemption for all. But it wasn't.
Ok. I *was* tempted to cut things off right there, especially since the next chapter has John's account, such as it is, of the Last Supper, which definitely fits into the Passion Narrative in my book. But Jesus isn't going to be arrested until Chapter 18, and he's an absolute chatterbox until then, so forgive my inconsistencies, but I'm going to treat the next five chapters here under Sayings of the Savior, since that’s largely what they are. That'll take us a bit deeper into Jesus’ last days than we've gone before, but that reality is much less obvious in John than it would have been with the synoptics. Ready?
We start with John 13:6. It's the beginning of the Last Supper, though you'd hardly know it as the actual meal is second fiddle and, surprisingly for the Gospel writer that brought us the Bread of Life discourse in John 6, there's no “this is my body/this is my blood” business in John’s telling. But like I mentioned, Jesus *does* have a lot of other stuff to say here, and it starts with footwashing. Peter takes some convincing:
JOHN 13
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
GREGG
Washing someone’s feet was and I think it's fair enough to say still is an act that puts the washer below the one being washed, both figuratively and literally, hence Peter's objection that Christ should not wash his feet. But when Christ insisted, Peter was all in, because, I don't know if you've noticed this, no matter which Gospel we look at, Peter was not a man of half measures.
The fact that the footwashing scene is traditionally recreated at Holy Thursday masses- that's the Thursday before Easter and I'll talk church calendar eventually I promise– the fact that the footwashing scene is traditionally recreated at Holy Thursday masses has implications from high to low, high where Pope Francis has taken to washing the feet of prisoners and women, and take a guess as to which has been more controversial. Going to the local and lower end of things, I definitely remember picking Holy Thursday of all days as a day to show my friend who was curious what mass was like, winding up a bit mortified when it came to be footwashing time. He took it in stride and I noted that it's not normally that weird, though I suppose I'm saying that about an event that fundamentally can be described as having human sacrifice at its core, so I suppose it is always *that* weird..
Anyways, Jesus then starts talking about a betrayal, and the disciples are pretty interested to hear who that might be, though the only explanation I can think of for them not being able to work it out despite Jesus’ sufficiently clear and only very slightly indirect explanation is divine interference somehow signal-blocking their reasoning because the Crucifixion is something that basically needs to happen.
Here we go:
JOHN 13
18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
GREGG
After Judas leaves, Peter once again tries for extra credit, and is shut down:
John 13
31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
GREGG
No points for correctly predicting whether Jesus’ prophesy there will prove correct. We'll be revisiting this bit more than once, as Jesus’ prediction and Peter's denials are both listed in all four Gospels.
But Jesus quickly bounces off that bit of a downer note into something more uplifting. In the NIV, the beginning of John 14 is titled “Jesus comforts his disciples”. Let's hear it:
JOHN 14
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
GREGG
Well apparently they don't know the way, or at least don’t know that they know the way:
JOHN 14
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
GREGG
Philip might have something of a death wish here, given that traditionally seeing the Father is fatal. Of course that didn’t stop Moses from making the request, and indeed getting to see the Father's backside, something Philip would have known. And Jesus was fond of saying “ask and you shall receive”, He does so in every Gospel. Well, ok, He hasn't said it in John yet but He's going to. So how does he respond to Philip?
With more Christology, of course!
JOHN 14
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
GREGG
Then Judas has a question. And John is at pains to stress this is *not* Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple also named Judas, who understandably usually goes by Jude or even Jude Thaddeus to avoid confusion after the events of this long night.
JOHN 14
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.”
GREGG
You can see why that last bit, “Come now; let us leave” made for a suitable transition between chapters 14 and 15, but it really sums up the Gospel of John in a nutshell that I am confident no one reading it has a real idea where Jesus is proposing they head out from or where they are going. It's not even clear they actually follow His suggestion, He just starts talking again:
JOHN 15
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
GREGG
Lovely, lovely love, but then things take a bit of a turn:
JOHN 15
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
GREGG
As you may have noticed, the Gospel of John isn't just an important factor in Christology as I've already mentioned, but pneumatology–the study of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost--as well. Don't worry, you don't need to remember what pneumatology is, as I had to look up the term myself. Discussions about the Spirit do have a role in theology and early Church councils, but the active back and forth is nothing compared to Christology.
Anyways, on to chapter 16, which carries on with the general theme of preparing the disciples for a future without Christ among them. It’s generally not a great situation.
JOHN 16
16 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
GREGG
In the latter part of the chapter, the disciples have some clarifying questions, which then lead to some silver lining:
JOHN 16
16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
GREGG
The seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel covers a number of prayers that will be Jesus’ last before the Passion kicks off properly in the next chapter with his arrest in the garden.
Consistent with his narrative so far and all the other gospels, John presents Jesus as quite aware of what's coming. Unlike in the other Gospels, Jesus does not seem to struggle with His fate, though there was that bit way back in chapter 12 where He had mentioned His soul was troubled. But even then He knew and accepted His difficult calling, just as He does in every account. After praying for the success of his mission, he prays for the disciples, and then, movingly, for his future followers as a whole–ut unum sint–that they may be one.
JOHN 17
17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
GREGG
The rest of John takes us into and through Christ's passion proper, so I'll be going through it and the other passion accounts in the coming episodes as we parse all that. In the meantime, you've officially heard every blessed saying of the Savior present in the Gospel of John–and indeed in all the Gospels–except of course for the ones you haven't heard yet. Very qualified celebration is in order, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, because I've decided we might as well lean into the enormity with one more episode in the Sayings of the Savior series. Next episode will not be introducing any new Sayings of the Savior, but it *will* be recapping general themes we saw in Christ's words, as well as covering all the various little things I had meant to touch on by this point but hadn't gotten around to, due to flow, time, or whatever else. See you next month for 0.21i: Sayings of the Savior Part IX, What's One More?
This was a long one, so I'm going to skip Saint or Aint, which means if you don't know what that is you've got another chance, just give a listen to the last few minutes of last episode and get your prediction ready for the end of next episode. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
Monday Sep 30, 2024
Monday Sep 30, 2024
IMAGEServus Tuus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKS Bell sound:https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/church-bells-17005/
USCCB Angelus prayer link:https://www.usccb.org/prayers/angelusLatin text is the Vulgate of John 1:1-14:https://web.archive.org/web/20090201105716/http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Biblia_Sacra_Vulgata_(Stuttgartensia)/Ioannes
The English translation is the Douay-Rheims version (also John 1:1-14, of course):
https://biblehub.com/drbc/john/1.htm
1:06
In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum.Hoc erat in principio apud Deum.Omnia per ipsum facta sunt: et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est:in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum:et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Ioannes.Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine,ut omnes crederent per illum.Non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine.Erat lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.In mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus estet mundus eum non cognovit.In propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt.Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri,his, qui credunt in nomine eius:qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri,sed ex Deo nati sunt.ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST,et habitavit in nobis:et vidimus gloriam eius, gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre,plenum gratiae et veritatis.
3:01
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made:
in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men;
and the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the Light,
that all men might believe through him.
He was not the Light, but was to give testimony of the Light.
That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God,
to them that believe in His Name,
who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH,
and dwelt among us:
and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
Tuesday Oct 01, 2024
An unscripted personal update, and then a quick chat about two Cardinals whose discussion is overdue. Who will advance?:Cardinal STURLA episode (10/4/2023):https://popeularhistory.podbean.com/e/daniel-fernando-cardinal-sturla-berhout-daniel-sturla-sdb/ Cardinal CLEEMIS (Thottumkal) episode (10/8/2023)https://popeularhistory.podbean.com/e/isaac-cardinal-thottumkal-baselios-cardinal-cleemis-elevated-nov-2012/
Friday Oct 04, 2024
Friday Oct 04, 2024
LINKSIntelligent Speech Conference (code POPEULAR):www.intelligentspeechonline.com The Holy Org Chart:
https://podcastaddict.com/the-popeular-history-podcast/episode/168461488 History in the Bible books link (they’re all out now!):https://www.historyinthebible.com/books.html
Catchism:https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
TRANSCRIPTHey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I will be speaking at the Intelligent Speech conference in a few months. The conference will be taking place online on February 8th, 2025 and if you act now, you’ll get the early bird price of $20, but we also do have a special offer for listeners of this podcast! When you buy your ticket, enter the promo code “POPEULAR” at checkout, that’s popular but with an“e” for the pope pun, to receive an extra 10% off the already discounted ticket price– that’s a great deal for all the content! So go to intelligentspeechonline.com to get your tickets today!
Welcome to the Popeular History Podcast: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg and this is episode 0.21i: Sayings of the Savior Part IX: What's One More?
All of these aught episodes are made to let us build our Pope-colored glasses so we can use the same lenses when we look at history together. If you're lost, start at the beginning!
Today, as promised, we wrap up our Sayings of the Savior series with some general takeaways and a roundup of topics I had originally planned to cover in previous episodes or as part of Sayings of the Savior but didn't get around to. You can think of this episode as a grab bag or a pit stop or whatever you like. Either way, no new Sayings of the Savior, just some new and possibly overdue takeaways from everything we've discussed so far.
First off, and this one is well overdue, there's the basic question of what an APOSTLE is. In Eastern Churches the word is often used more loosely, but in the West, which our Pope-Colored glasses tend to treat as default because frankly that's what the Popes have tended to do, the word Apostle refers to the Twelve Apostles, that early core group of followers of Jesus. The broader term for a follower of Jesus in his life is a DISCIPLE and sometimes it's still used for Christians today, like saying we're all called to be disciples, but if someone says “the disciples”, they mean a member of that first generation, folks who knew Jesus personally and who followed Him. If you want to know more than a hundred other terms for different roles and such within the Catholic Church, I came out with a Holy Org Chart episode last year that’s linked in the show notes, and I named off all the apostles and their aliases early on on 0.20, which I'm not linking because I reference other worldbuilding episodes too often to give them that treatment but if you want them all together that's one of the things you can find on the custom playlists available at popEularhistory.com.
In a nutshell, the purpose of all the Gospel teachings we've been covering has been to teach us how to live rightly, and of course to make us *want* to live rightly, because knowing and doing are two different things. The process by which we develop and carry out a desire to live rightly is called CONVERSION, and the general code that can indicate what it is to live rightly is the MORAL LAW, or you could even simply call it the GOSPEL. Of course Jesus gave us the super summary version of what we should be doing with his two great commandments-love God and your neighbor, but of course you know Catholicism is a big fan of standardizing things and making lists, so let's go through some of the lists relevant to the ECONOMY OF SALVATION, that is, to God's plan for how the universe is going to work out ok. The economy of salvation, that master plan, is also sometimes called the DIVINE ECONOMY.
First list, the three Theological Virtues, namely Faith, Hope, and Charity. With a list of only three I'll be able to get away with offering some specific definitions as well, but just know that not all of the lists are so short. When you get a definition straight from the Bible it’s worth using, so I'll use Saint Paul's definition of faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb 11:1). Meanwhile, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I believe I’ve already introduced but just in case know that it's a big guide to Catholicism that I use to help build my framework, anyways the Catechism defines hope as the theological virtue by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to attain it. Also when I say “the Catechism” I mean the universal one published under Pope John Paul II. Absolutely there has been more than one over the years but when folks simply say “the catechism”, that’s the one they mean. And to put my cards on the table, it is my intention to give some airtime to every term the Catechism covers in its glossary in my worldbuilding episodes. Anyways, more on grace later, for now know that in Catholic lingo, the last theological virtue of charity isn't a handout, instead it’s a form of love. Specifically, the Catechism defines “Charity” as “The theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.” In other words, charity is the key to fulfilling the Great Commandments and by extension morality in general.
The next list I should introduce you to as we take a big look at Catholic moral teaching is the Cardinal Virtues, namely Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. The Cardinal Virtues are fantastic tools for living a moral life. Prudence is what helps you determine the right thing to do in any given situation, justice is the firm resolve to act rightly in the interests of those that are not yourself, no matter the obstacles, fortitude is the grit and determination to carry on with the prudentially determined just path come what may, and temperance helps in that process by helping to keep you balanced in your approach, regulating the will and your passions, passions being on our list for further discussion shortly, in fact we might as well talk about the principal passions, since they do keep coming up when talking moral theology in a Catholic context.
You won't be too far off the mark if you think of the passions as emotions, but if you think of the term passive that will be especially helpful. They are forces that influence us as we go about our business. The simplest passion is love, which draws us to what we perceive as good, in contrast to hate, which repels us from what we perceive as bad. Related to these are desire and fear respectively, which are more about the act of being compelled or repelled, that moving sort of energy between us and what we love or hate. If we receive what we love, the relevant passion is joy, while if we encounter what we hate, we may face either sadness, if we are resigned, or anger, if we actively reject it, believing we can somehow get through what we hate to some loved good beyond. Ultimately the Church sees the passions as morally neutral: it is not good to love something if the thing that is loved is bad, meanwhile it is bad to hate something that is good. But if you love what is good and hate what is bad, that's good. I probably could have summarized that more clearly but in the end what matters most is how you respond to your passions than what your initial passions are. Feelings are natural and to be expected, what you are called to control is how you respond to those feelings.
When it comes to those responses, those concrete actions, the Catholic Church draws especially from the Beatitudes we covered in the Sermon on the Mount as inspiration for labeling not one but two sets of seven works of mercy: The Corporal Works of Mercy and the Spiritual Works of Mercy. By the way, taken collectively, the lessons from the Gospels can be called the Law of the Gospel.
Now, I hope you don’t mind, but we're doing three lists of the extra special number seven today, and if I go into detail on each one we'll be dragging out what I was hoping to have be sort of a quick sort of pallet cleanser of an episode. So instead I'll simply list, the acts are fairly intuitive from their names anyways in these simple moral imperatives.
The corporal works of mercy, which we have on index cards around our home by way of reminder, are:
Feed the hungry.
Give water to the thirsty.
Clothe the naked.
Shelter the homeless.
Visit the sick.
Visit the imprisoned.
Bury the dead.
Meanwhile, the spiritual works of mercy are:
Instruct the ignorant.
Counsel the doubtful.
Admonish the sinners.
Bear patiently those who wrong us.
Forgive offenses.
Comfort the afflicted.
Pray for the living and the dead.
The third promised list of seven is the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as in, what you can expect from the action of the Spirit in your heart. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are:
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude
Knowledge
Piety
and Fear of the Lord.
And ok, Fear Of the Lord isn't as straightforward a concept as the others. Basically, it's the awareness that God is much more than you, putting things into perspective.
In the end, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to use these gifts and fruits and even passions to build these virtues and live a moral life. We cannot do that without God's help, which is where grace comes in, something we'll be circling back to more than once. That's because as discussed in Episode 0.1, we've all got the effects of Original Sin impacting us and our world, including concupiscence, which is a particular problem impacting our passions, inclining us towards sin–even after baptism wipes away original sin itself that particular effect of the fall remains, though the sacraments do lessen concupiscence in us, helping draw us to VIRTUE--moral choices--over VICE–immoral choices.
No one lives in isolation, time and again Jesus frames our salvation as a matter of how we interact with those around us, especially the less fortunate. Given this context, it’s no surprise that racism is among the glossary terms in the Catechism, being defined as “unjust discrimination on the basis of a persons's race; a violation of human dignity, and a sin against justice.”
In a similar camp, the catechism's glossary covers three two-word concepts that start with “social” and are the sort of things where you might appreciate a trigger warning if you're the type that hates trigger warnings; namely “social sin”, “social justice”, and “social teaching”.
“Social sin” is listed as “the effect of sin over time, which can affect society and its institutions to create “structures of sin,”. If rampant generational inequality doesn't fall under this, I don't know what does.
“Social justice”, meanwhile, is something the Catechism defines as “the respect for the human person and the rights which flow from human dignity and guarantee it. Society must provide the conditions that allow people to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and vocation.”
Finally, the Catechism of the Catholic Church lists “social teaching” as “the teaching (social doctrine) of the Church on the truth of revelation about human dignity, human solidarity, and the principles of justice and peace; the moral judgments about economic and social matters required by such truth and about the demands of justice and peace.”
Of course, not all communities are so sweeping, and sometimes small actions can have the biggest impact of all. To this end, keep in mind your responsibility to those around you. One particular issue to avoid, and yes, you got me, I'm shoehorning another glossary term in here, is detraction, the “disclosure of another's faults and sins, without an objectively valid reason, to persons who did not know about them, thus causing unjust injury to that person's reputation”.
If you're doing good and avoiding evil, and firing on all cylinders with everything, know that you're doing so with God's help, but of course you already know that, because you have humility, right? Humility of course being defined as “the virtue by which a Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good.” Anyways, with God’s help, you stand a chance of reaching Beatitude, that is, the blessings of heaven. In fact, with God’s help, should you choose to accept it, it’s guaranteed.
So, there we have it. From the beatitudes to Beatitude in a nutshell, and I even got some definitional errands done along the way. Plus, even better, we've got time for Saint or Aint today!
SAINT OR AINT
At the end of the episode on Luke I gave a brief bio and your job was to determine whether they were a real early missionary saint or not, inspired by all the saints stories that sprang up over the years in connection with The Seventy disciples Jesus sent out in Luke.
Answers ready?
Garius Stephanus: AINT A SAINT, those that didn't clock the name might be feeling a little silly, but that’s alright, that one was of course a slightly embellished edition of a quick hagiography summoned by the phenomenal Garry Stevens of the History in the Bible podcast, who was kind enough to be our anniversary guest last year.
Garry's actually wrapped up his show which is bittersweet. Bitter because, well, Garry's wrapped up his show, sweet because he's begun turning h is show into a series of books! The fourth book is out now, linked in the show notes , and the first three books are promised to follow, and yeah, you heard that right, he’s doing that in that order.
For the next round, we have a bit of a seafaring saint who definitely went to Turkey, Greece, and Malta and who may have gone to Spain, but that wasn't the end because he was traditionally martyred in Rome. He's traditionally depicted carrying a sword and a book, though sometimes pansies leave off the sword. You'll get your answers in the next worldbuilding episode next month, which, unbelievably, will not be another Sayings of the Savior episode, but instead starting out a whole new mystery of the rosary: the Transfiguration. So tune in next month for 0.22 Eye Has Not Seen.
Thank you for listening, God bless you all!
Thanks, Joe!
Saturday Oct 05, 2024
Saturday Oct 05, 2024
Quinn is from Nobelesse Oblige!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nobelesse-oblige/id1637021887 I mentioned Pope Predictor on X (formerly Twitter)https://x.com/pope_predictor?lang=en
Links to the relevant episodes:
AVELINE (7/5/24)LANGLOIS (7/12/24)KAMBANDA (7/19/24)
HÖLLERICH (7/26/24)
LACROIX (8/3/24)GOH SENG CHYE (8/10/24)TAGLE (8/17/24)GRECH (8/24/24)RIBAT (8/31/24)
WOELKI (9/7/24)ZUPPI (9/14/24)PAROLIN (9/21/24)12 enter, 2 remain…
Update: Cardinal Lacroix is back to active duty after an investigation by André Denis, retired Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, and investigation which Denis says should be considered incomplete due to Lacroix's refusal to participate. This information *was* included in the Lacroix episode, but as mentioned in the recording, this was actually recorded before the episodes due to production schedules, so we didn't have the info at the time this was recorded but I figured I might as well update things here.Link to Vatican coverage of Lacroix update:https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-05/investigation-finds-no-misconduct-by-cardinal-lacroix.html
Friday Oct 11, 2024
Friday Oct 11, 2024
LINKSVatican News coverage of announcement:https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-10/pope-francis-announces-consistory-for-creation-of-new-cardinals.htmlCrux coverage of the announcement:https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2024/10/pope-gives-nods-to-peripheries-and-pals-in-naming-21-new-cardinals
TRANSCRIPT
Hey folks it’s Gregg, bringing some Cardinews you’ve probably been expecting if you’re interested enough in Catholic stuff to be listening to this. At his Sunday Angelus this week, Pope Francis announced that he would be creating a new batch of Cardinals on December 8th. I haven’t worked out exactly how I’ll be covering them schedule-wise, what with the added wild card of my new job (yay), but I do plan to introduce them all to you sooner rather than later and the fact that we just had a First Judgment capping off the most recent batch of existing Cardinals actually makes things pretty convenient, timing-wise.
Let’s take a moment to briefly outline the new Cardinals, and then I’ll leave you all in suspense for Sunday, or Saturday, or whenever it is I do Cardinal Numbers releases at this point. Probably Sundays now with my new work schedule.
Describing the new Cardinals as a whole, Pope Francis noted that “their origin reflects the universality of the Church, that continues to announce God’s merciful love to all people.”
First up, we have future Cardinal Angelo ACERBI, a 99 year old Italian and former Apostolic Nuncio. He’s almost certainly the oldest Cardinal at elevation in church history, beating Pope Francis’ strong initial bid of the 98 year old Cardinal Capovilla back in 2014. Veteran Vaticanologist John Allen, Jr. already beat me to telling the joke that came to my mind in guessing that Pope Francis would round up a 100 year old guy in a future consistory just to really make a point.Next we have future Cardinal 74 year old Peruvian Archbishop Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO, and by the way, if my pronunciation is off on this, well I’m doing my best to follow Pope Francis, because I figure he’s probably got it relatively close. No pressure on him of course, it’s not like this is probably the most important announcement of these cardinal’s lives and they would prefer to hear their names said correctly.
After that, we have 72 year old Argentinian Archbishop Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC who, as a Vincentian, is the first but not last on the list from a religious order.After that, we have 68 year old Ecuadorian Archbishop Luis Gerardo CABRERA HERRERA, which is a fun name to say. He’ll actually be 69 when the consistory rolls around, and he’s a Franciscan.
After that we have future Cardinal Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB a 67 year old Chilean Archbishop, and yeah, there’s a fair amount of names on this list from South America.But then we start a brief Asian swing, with 65 year old Japanese Archbishop Tarcisio Isao KIKUCHI, a Verbite, who will actually be 66 when the consistory actually rolls around.Next, we finish that brief Asian tour with 65 year old Philippine bishop Pablo Virgilio SIONGCO DAVID, who apparently goes by the charming nickname “Ambo”.Then there’s 68 year old Serbian Archbishop Ladislav NEMET another Verbite, that is the Society of the Divine Word by the way, I don’t think we’ve come across them before, but we’ll certainly be talking about them more after today.Then there’s the 64 year old Brazilian Archbishop, Jaime SPENGLER the second Franciscan on the list.From Africa, we have a 63 year old Archbishop from the Ivory Coast by the name of Ignace BESSI DOGBO, at least that’s how Pope Francis pronounced it, although to me it looks like DOGBOAlso representing the continent of Africa we have Jean-Paul VESCO, a 62 year old who was born in Lyon, France, who’s serving as an archbishop in Algeria. He’s a Dominican.
After that we have a 62 year old Indonesian bishop by the name of Paskalis Bruno SYUKUR, the third Franciscan on our list,And we’re not quite done with Franciscans, because the next name on the list of that of a Conventual Franciscan, a 61 year old Belgian prelate by the name of Dominique Joseph MATHIEU, who, believe it or not, is actually serving as an archbishop of the Islamic Republic of Iran.After that we’ve got a couple of Italians, first up the 57 year old Archbishop of Turn, Roberto REPOLE,Followed by the new Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, 53 year old bishop Baldassare REINA, who will be 54 by the time of the consistory in December.Next on the list, closer to home for many of us though there are no Americans on the list, we have a 53 year old Archbishop of Toronto, Canada, future Cardinal Francis LEO.Next we have the Coadjutor Archpriest of the Papal Basilica Mary Major, Bishop Rolandas MAKRICKAS a 52 year old from Lithuania.And then, perhaps tying the gentleman representing Iran for the most surprising, we have 44 year old Mykola BYCHOK, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Redemptorist who is heading the Eparchy of Saint Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians, so he’s representing Australia, though obviously there’s multinational ties there. His appointment basically indirectly confirms that Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who we’ve talked about before, will not be getting a red had under Pope Francis. Shevchuk, for his part, has been pretty diplomatic about it, expressing his cordial appreciation to Pope Francis. And I want to note again that Bychok is 44, he was born in the 80s. That’s weird. I was born in the 80s. You’ve gotta go back over 50 years to find someone who was younger at their elevation to the cardinalate than he’s gonna be.The remaining names on the list are all priests, not bishops, at least at this time. First, future Cardinal Timothy Peter Joseph RADCLIFFE, a 79 year old British Dominican who Pope Francis described simply as a “theologian” in his announcement, which will be interesting because based on his previous statements, he will probably be the most pro LGBT person in the College of Cardinals until Pope Francis gets around to nominating Fr James Martin. I kid, I kid. Seriously though, we will get into it, he’s got some surprising views on that front.After that, there’s a 59 year old Italian priest named Fabio BAGGIO who’s currently the Under Secretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, who also happens to be a Scalibrinian, rounding up our representatives from the religious orders.The last name on the list is the 51 year old Indian priest who has been helping plan Pope Francis’ trips, George Jacob KOOVAKAD, who belongs to the Syro-Malabar Rite.Altogether, 11 of the 21, that is, most of them, are from religious orders, with lots of Franciscans, and notable, Pope Francis is tripling the number of Verbite Cardinals in history. There was one other before, who was elevated shortly after World War II and died in the 60s.17 out of the 21 future Cardinals are under the age of 70, and there’s certainly a huge age range with a 55 year gap between Bychok and Acerbi. As usual, most of the names are from the Latin Rite, but keep in mind in addition to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bychok, Koovakad hails from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church which now has two Cardinals, notably not including their new Major Archbishop who came onto the scene last year. That’s enough for today, I’ll see you all this weekend. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
Sunday Oct 13, 2024
Sunday Oct 13, 2024
IMAGEJames Bradley, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKSAngelo ACERBI on Catholic-Hierarchy.org
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bacerbi.html
Angelo ACERBI on Gcatholic.org
https://gcatholic.org/p/6760
2024 Aleteia profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI
https://aleteia.org/2024/10/09/oldest-cardinal-ever-named-will-support-pope-with-prayer
2024 Vatican News profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/cardinal-elect-acerbi-appointment-diplomats.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1FkcEQXPlQQ0GisXPW3tDuVtGdsweDpgAMqxjBpHFijrWKH1SVwoJAxJI_aem_aNoXJ7ogQxgNqyZKZWwfGA CathNews New Zealand's profile of Cardinal-Elect ACERBI:https://cathnews.co.nz/2024/10/07/former-nz-nuncio-angelo-acerbi-appointed-a-cardinal/
TRANSCRIPT
Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. As part of our march to the Kingdom Come part, the years keep rolling on and the Holy Father keeps adding new Cardinals to… well I’d normally say to fill vacancies, but the reality this is the first time possibly in history where technically the College is already over capacity but here comes Pope Francis adding more new Cardinals anyways. Don’t get too worked up about that, it’s not a sudden departure as JPII and Benedict both went over the same theoretical limit. The Papacy is an absolute monarchy so constitutions are more like guidelines, though I’m still very curious what it will look like if there’s ever a need for a conclave when the College is over capacity, something that seems all the more likely as Pope Francis continues to treat the maximum as a minimum and keeps hid apparent preference for having a consistory every year– the only full year he’s skipped in his pontificate was 2021 due to COVID.
But enough about the generalities, we’ve got 21 new Cardinals to cover and only a couple months to do so! To be clear, for the sake of my sanity as I continue to juggle my various responsibilities, I’ve decided I’m *not* planning to cover all the new Cardinals in time for the consistory on December 8th, at least not on the main feed. I *do* have it down as a stretch goal for my Patreon supporters, getting them all the new cardinals in a more timely fashion but everyone will get the same content eventually. It’s just going to take 21 weeks to cover the 21 new Cardinals on the main feed, and it’ll be faster for my Patreon folks as a thank-you for the support without actually putting content behind a paywall- just a mild time delay. Fair enough? Look, if you’re in a pinch and can’t afford a Patreon subscription just write in and ask, I’m a softie and I’ve been there before, no sweat, I’ll get you a link to whichever episode you like when it’s ready, free. Again, you’d be getting it eventually anyway, so really you don’t even need to do that, just have some patience.
Alright, enough admin, let’s get talking about the first Cardinal-Elect on Pope Francis’ list, and let’s start at the beginning, nearly a hundred years ago.
Angelo Acerbi was born on September 23rd 1925 in Sesta Godano, part of the province of La Spezia in the Liguria region of Italy, basically due north–ok and a smidge east–of Corsica. Historically, the area was for many years part of the Republic of Genoa, but, look, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi is old but he’s not *that* old. He is old enough though that he grew up under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist dictatorship and may just remember some adult’s reaction to the Lateran Treaty, but probably not, he was three at the time and that’s a lot of geopolitical awareness to ask of a toddler. Then again, this is a future diplomat we’re talking about here.
In any event, the most likely answer for what Angelo was doing as he came of age in Mussolini’s Italy is “going to school”, in particular going to seminary, as he was ordained by the age of 22, becoming a priest for the Diocese of… well, somewhere. He seems to have been near the border of two dioceses, La Spezia and Pontremoli. Vatican News lists Pontremoli, so we’ll go with that, you’d think they’d know. Part of what makes it not as clear as you’d think is he wasn’t serving in the diocese for long. In 1956, about 8 years after his ordination, Fr Acerbi entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See, which was expanding outward now that it was no longer dominated by Italian politics, at least not quite so much. Of course, to be clear, part of that domination had been voluntary, part of what made Mussolini successful was his partners in the Church.
Probably the biggest question of the 20th century Papacy is the extent to which Pius XII was one of those partners, and we’ll certainly be looking at that eventually, but for today’s purposes Acerbi’s overlap with the Pope of the Second World War is a brief couple years before Pius was succeeded by John XXIII of Second Vatican Council fame. I don’t have any stories of Father Acerbi and the Council, certainly he was aware of it, but he doesn’t seem to have been there, which makes sense as he wasn’t a bishop yet and his diplomatic work would have been ongoing throughout. His early diplomatic portfolio included relations with Colombia, Brazil, France, Japan, and Portugal. It’s possible his work in Colombia and Portugal overlapped with Papal trips there- Paul VI had kicked off the modern era of Papal travel in 1964 when he visited the Holy Land, the first Papal trip outside Italy since the time of Napoleon. Certainly Father Acerbi and Paul VI at least got together in 1974, when His Holiness appointed Father Acerbi as Pro-Nuncio to New Zealand and personally consecrated him Titular Archbishop of Zella, which as near as I can tell is an oasis in the middle of Libya. As a reminder, titular dioceses have no function, it’s just a way of giving an official jurisdiction to a bishop whose responsibilities won’t actually include running a diocese. Oh, and if you’re wondering, a Pro-Nuncio is actually one step *below* a regular Nuncio. It’s a step above an Apostolic Delegate, which, well, he also became one of those at the same time. Not to New Zealand, but to the Pacific Ocean. Realistically of course, “the Pacific Ocean” is referring to a number of Pacific Island nations, many of which have their own nunciatures these days, though I still like to think of it as managing the Holy See’s relations with Poseidon, God of the Sea.
The fifth Pope now-Archbishop Acerbi served was Pope Saint John Paul II, careful counters might wonder who the fourth Pope was but of course since they’re careful counters they’re probably already aware of the implied existence of John Paul the Second’s immediate predecessor, John Paul I. But JPI didn’t get up to much in his 33 days as Supreme Pontiff,
Which is why we’ve already blown past him so I can tell you that JPII made Archbishop Acerbi his Nuncio to Colombia in 1979, full-on Nuncio this time, and with him revisiting an area he had worked previously, keeping in mind Columbia was a possible overlap between Acerbi and Paul VI given Paul VI’s trip and Acerbi’s early work there.
Acerbi’s decade-plus as Nuncio to Colombia overlaps with some serious drug and cartel times we’ll look at more if he makes it to the next round. A particularly memorable stretch would have been the six weeks he spent as a hostage to Socialist guerrillas from that country’s 19th of April movement.
In 1990, Aberbi was made Nuncio to Hungary, making him first on the restored diplomatic scene there after the fall of the Iron Curtain–Hungary hadn’t had a nuncio since 1945. He continued on i
n that role for seven years, simultaneously serving as Nuncio to Moldova starting in 1994, the same year Moldova adopted their current constitution.
From 97 to 2001, Archbishop Acerbi served in his presumably final diplomatic post, as the Nuncio to the Netherlands. I say presumably because, of course, Pope Francis is giving him a new role in a couple months, so who knows? Maybe he will be asked to step back into another nunciature. Then again, Cardinal-Elect Acerbi himself has already thrown cold water on that idea, noting that he expects to support Pope Francis, quote, “with prayer, as I do not see how else I can contribute given my old age”. Which, I mean, fair enough, he’s 99.
But we’re not quite done with our overview, because from 2001 to 2015, Archbishop Acerbi served as the Prelate of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, a name which of course needs some unpacking– the Knights of Malta for short, they’re a military religious order that originally was meant to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land and wound up running Rhodes and Malta after the crusades, Rhodes until the Turks kicked them out and Malta until Napoleon kicked them out, at which point they moved to Rome. They’re more about ceremony and charitable stuff than military stuff these days, and we actually came across them during our Patreon special on Cardinal Burke with Fry from Pontifacts if you need another reason to join Patreon. Don’t worry, Cardinal Burke and the Knights of Malta will be popping up on the main feed again in due course. Anyways, as Prelate for the Order, the octogenarian Archbishop Acerbi’s job was to oversee the priests of the Order, making sure they were doing their priest things right. The end of his tenure overlapped with the beginning of the aforementioned Cardinal Burke’s time as their Cardinal-Patron by the way, if you were wondering about that.
Archbishop Acerbi retired from that role a few months before his 90th birthday, and hadn’t been making many headlines since, most recently residing at the Casa Santa Marta on the Vatican grounds, which if that name rings a bell, yes, Pope Francis lives in Room 201 there. And it was Pope Francis who put Archbishop Acerbi back into the headlines last week, when he dropped his name at his weekly Angelus last Sunday, which apparently the Acerbi was listening to, since he said that’s how he found out about it. His reaction to the news has been as diplomatic as you might expect, refusing to make it about himself personally, quote:
"I believe the Pope wanted to give a sign of appreciation and recognition for the service that many old and new nuncios, as well as the staff of the nunciatures, are providing around the world"
As he is already over the maximum voting age of 80, Cardinal-Elect Angelo Acerbi will not be able to vote in future conclaves, though traditionally older Cardinals do participate in the preliminary gatherings and discussions that take place during the sede vacante period before the opening of the conclave itself.
Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers next week. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
Sunday Oct 27, 2024
Sunday Oct 27, 2024
IMAGEUriel jesusfb, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKSCarlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bcasmat.html
Carlos CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO on Gcatholic.org:
https://gcatholic.org/p/62393
2019 Official Biographical Summary of Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO (Italian):
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/01/25/190125a.html
2021 Catholic News Agency feature on Archbishop CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248671/lima-archbishop-proposes-replacing-priests-with-laity-as-pastors
2024 Pillar Catholic coverage including Cardinal-Elect CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO:
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/who-are-latin-americas-new-cardinals
Cruxnow coverage of Catacos community situation:
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2024/04/peru-farmers-meet-lima-archbishop-amid-dispute-with-catholic-group
NOTE: Free Adobe Podcast AI was used to help clean up some of the audio on this episode, as my setup and voice were both struggling this recording session but the show must go on. https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance# TRANSCRIPT
GREGG: Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. Today we’re looking at our second bishop from the list of new Cardinals Pope Francis will be officially elevating on December 7th 2024, the vigil of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, because apparently the schedule was already too full for the 8th itself, despite that being the originally announced date of the consistory. Thankfully, through the magic of vigils, it’s still falling on the same important feast day, but it’s a glimpse into how closely guarded such things are until they are announced that the apparent scheduling conflict wasn’t caught earlier. Anyways…
Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO was born on February 28th 1950 in Lima, Peru. He’s *our* first Cardinal from Peru, though of course that’s not to be confused with being *the* first Cardinal from Peru. Not counting Carlos, there have been five Cardinals who were born in Peru, most of then, like Carlos, hailing from Lima specifically, including two who both happen to turn 80 this year, freeing up spots for more Peruvian electors in the college. Attentive listeners may also recall the case of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who, though originally from Chicago, spent much of his career in Peru before being called to Rome.
But enough about Peru’s other Cardinals, let’s get back to young Carlos, our Cardinal of the day. By 1968, he was 18 and studying at the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences at the San Marcos Higher National University of Lima, eventually obtaining a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, graduating in 1973. You may have noticed that that’s not a seminary, but don’t worry, Carlos rectified that with his next move, entering the Santo Toribio di Mogrovejo major seminary of the archdiocese of Lima. Soon enough he was sent to the Gregorian in Rome, getting a degree in philosophy in 1979 and one in theology in 1983. Finally, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Lima in 1984 at the relatively advanced age of 34.
Carrying on at the Gregorian, Father Castillo followed up with a licentiate and then a doctorate in 1987 before returning to Peru for decades of pastoral work at various parishes and posts. Accompanying his pastoral work, Father Castillo served as assessor of the National Union of Catholic Students as well as lecturing in theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. That last role brings some real spice to the conversation, as one bit that his Vatican bio just happens to leave off is the part where Father Castillo was suspended by the then-Archbishop of Lima Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani in 2013 due to vague “allegations of heterodoxy” and slightly more specific “attacks on the ecclesiastical hierarchy”, that is, the bishops.BENJAMIN JACOBS: Mein Gott! What a twist!GREGG Yes indeed, cohost Ben from Wittenberg to Westphalia. It’s funny you’ve been silent the last, oh I don’t know, forty odd episodes, but I appreciate you giving a good reaction there Just when I really needed my cohost to step up. Anyways, I should say, Archbishop Cipriani *tried* to suspend him, but the University didn’t enforce the ban, so Castillo kept teaching. I’msure there’s more to this story, especially because six years later Archbishop Cipriani was helping consecrate Father Castillo as his successor as Archbishop of Lima. *That* was *probably* awkward.
We get a bit more insight on what now-Archbishop Castillo’s “heterodoxy” may have looked like with some quotes from 2019, his first year as Archbishop: for example when he acknowledged “abortion is the destruction of a life” but indicated that “people should reflect and decide freely” rather than having legal bans and interference from the Church, which is definitely an eyebrow-raising take coming from a Catholic Archbishop. The old “attacks on the ecclesiastical hierarchy” charge might also be clarified when we see that he was also then calling for the Vatican to give him permission to quote “appoint families, couples or groups of spouses or lay older people to lead parishes.” You know, stuff generally very much reserved for priests.
One aspect of Archbishop Castillo’s tenure that definitely made it onto Pope Francis’ radar is his engagement with the Catacaos peasant farming community from Piura in the north of the country. You see, in a nutshell, developers are trying to seize control of their lands and drive them off. And when I say “their lands”, I mean like this farming community was established in 1578, so we’re talking many generations. Unfortunately from what I can tell they may not have full proper legal title for the land, which any lawyer will tell you is bad news.
One of the groups attempting to take over the land is a Catholic group known as the Saint John the Baptist Civil Association, which could not be happy with the Archbishop posing for photos with a delegation from Catacaos, although that would have been a drop in the ocean compared with a video message from Pope Francis to Catacaos, in which the Holy Father said “I know what happened to you.” and “Defend your land, don’t let it be stolen”, a deeply personal level of involvement in what comes across as a fairly tangential crisis for the Pope to be getting involved in, but then again it’s disadvantaged folk--unabashedly his favorite demographic–in his old stomping grounds of Latin America. In any event, clearly Pope Francis *did* choose to get briefly involved to personally show his support for the Catacaos traditional farmers, alongside their more local ally, Archbishop Castillo. Whether this all put Archbishop Castillo on Pope Francis’ red hat radar is an open question–it did go down earlier this year, so I’d say you can make a case for it, though I think a stronger case can be made for two other Peruvian Cardinals turning 80 and the Archbishopric of Lima being the most prominent see in the country.
Now, after I wrote my first draft of this, I went back and made a note that I should talk about Fr. Gustavo Guitérrez (whose name I am obviously botching here). Then, Fr. Guitérrez died. Now, I’m not saying I killed Fr. Guitérrez–the man was 96–but I’m taking it as a sign that rather than shoehorn in him and liberation theology here, I should do something more to mark the occasion. So, allow me a few month’s time for research, as I definitely didn’t have anything going, but sometime next year I’ll be posting a special episode on Gustavo Gutiérrez and Liberation Theology on the main Popeular History feed. That’ll also mark the last time I check off an episode from the original original request list, back in 2016 or so when I told my friends I was planning a Popeular podcast and asked for topic suggestions. I’m not saying I crossed everything else off the list, but I *am* saying I’ve lost track of the list and can’t recall what else was on it to keep checking things off. It’s a very special kind of milestone. In any event, when you eventually do hear that special, just recall that Cardinal CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO, was, like many others, influenced by Fr. Gutiérrez, a fellow cleric from Lima.
After he is officially elevated on December 7th, Carlos Gustavo Cardinal CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO will be eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2030.
Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be more Cardinal Numbers… well actually, later today, since this episode got put on hold last week due to my voice being a mess so we’re doing a double header today. Anyways, thank you for listening, God bless you all! And thanks, Joe!
Sunday Oct 27, 2024
Sunday Oct 27, 2024
IMAGEVida Católica Mundial, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsLINKSVicente BOKALIC IGLIC on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbokalic.html
Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC on Gcatholic.org:
https://gcatholic.org/p/33395
2010 Vatican Biographical Summary of Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC (Italian)):
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2010/03/15/0147/00347.html
2010 Vincentian newsletter with Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC bio:
https://cmglobal.org/en/files/2018/06/VT-2010-01-01-ENG-G.G.GAY_.pdf
1911 Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Congregation of Priests of the Mission (often called the Vincentians or Lazarites), “CM”:
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10357a.htm
2024 Vincentian Family Office coverage of
Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC’s appointment as Primate of Argentina:
https://famvin.org/en/2024/07/25/pope-francis-appoints-monsignor-bokalic-iglic-cm-as-primate-of-argentina/ NOTE: Free Adobe Podcast AI was used to help clean up some of the audio on this episode, as my setup and voice were both struggling this recording session but the show must go on. https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance# TRANSCRIPT
Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come. Today we’re looking at our third bishop from the list of new Cardinals Pope Francis will be officially elevating on December 7th 2024, and you probably heard my spiel ab out the date change last episode, so let’s dive on in.
Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC was born on June 11th, 1952 in Lanús, Argentina, the city immediately south of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, right across the Matanza River if my modest cartography has served me well.
In 1970, young Vicente signed up with the Congregation of the Mission, aka the Lazarites, also AKA the Vincentians. He’s our first Vincentian here on the show, but he won’t be the last, and honestly I’ve already written a bit of history for the Vincentians I’ve filed with the other gentlemen that I think I’ll just leave in place there for future fun. If you happen to be a listener from the distant future and you happen to go listen to Cardinal Sauraphiel’s episode next because you’re a big fan of them and it’s important to you that you hear my history of the Vincentians like now, but when you go there you hear something about how I had had a history of the Vicnentians in his episode but decided to skip it since Cardinal Bokalic Iglic wound up coming first and therefore the history is in his episode, well, that will give you some hints about how the sausage is made here–that is to say, badly,–and I will fix the error that came from me not double checking my own decisions. If that or anything else weird happens, just write in and I’ll fix it.
While we’re well clear of todays’ real meat and potatoes, I might as well mention that young Vincente is going to be our *third* cardinal from Argentina, though you’d be forgiven for forgetting our first two because they’re from the 2023 batch and that was a relative while ago at this point. But that fact does help underscore the reality that it would not be too wild to consider accusing Pope Francis of somewhat favoring his native land in his more recent consistories. Then again even with about a fifth of the new Cardinals coming from South America as a whole, the reality is even that larger than usual rate of representation comes shy of their share of the global Catholic population–if you’re wondering, over one in four Catholics alive today live in South America.
Anyways let’s get back to Vincente, who was ordained a priest–Father Bokalic–for the Vincentians in April of 1978, not long before his 26th birthday. He initially worked in a classic one-two combo post for young priests, directing youth ministry and vocations for the order. By 1981 he was Parochial Vicar of the parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, assuming I’m translating Nuestra Señora de la Medalla Milagrosa correctly, or at least better than I pronounced it. I don’t always name parishes, so just know I’m doing that for a reason here. Starting in 1983, he began to serve the local Vincentian Seminary, first as formator–more vocation coordinating–and bursar–moneyman–and then as its head starting in 1987. In 1991, ten years after his first start there, Fr. Bokaglic returned to minister at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for a few years before recalling he belonged to a religious order with “Mission” in its name and apparently made a bit of an effort to travel beyond the neighborhoods of the capital, instead going to the outskirts of Argentina’s *second* largest city, Cordoba. I’m sure it wasn’t actually like he went from New York to LA even though I’m strongly implying that for comedic effect, either way for what it’s worth his official title was “Missionary” at this point. By ‘97 he was doing another stint as the Superior of a Vincentian seminary, this time in San Miguel, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, which may or may not be the same seminary he was running previously. Look, I’m working with what I have here.
From 2000 to 2003, he served as a missionary and a parish priest in the Diocese of Goya in the northeast of the country, but it was December 2003 when he really hit the medium leagues, becoming Provincial Superior for the Vincentians in Argentina. As a reminder, you can roughly think of a province as a given religious order’s equivalent of a diocese, though provincial superior is not a specially consecrated role, unless I missed something, which is always possible. And frankly, generalities are dangerous in the world of religious orders, because while there are patterns, there are also differences from one order to next among the dozens of major religious orders worldwide. For example, the Vincentians describe Fr. Bokaglic’s role here as “Visitor” rather than “Provincial Superior”, which is the term the Vatican used for the same stint.
In any event, in December 2009, Father Bokalic returned once again to the parish of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which is where he was when Pope Benedict dialed his white phone and named him Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires and Titular Bishop of Summa in Algeria. Naturally, the actual episcopal consecration was handled by the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, one Jorge Mario Bergoglio–the future Pope Francis.
A few years later, in his first year as Pope, Pope Francis transferred Bishop Bokalic to the Diocese of Santiago del Estero, which may have had some interest for nerds well versed in the ecclesiastical history of Argentina but not much beyond that until earlier this year, when it became apparent that Pope Francis or at least someone in his circle a nerd well versed in the ecclesiastical history of Argentina because he promoted Santiago del Estero to an archdiocese and officially named now-Archbishop Bokalic Primate of Argentina. The history nerd connection here is that the primate of a country is traditionally the head of the oldest diocese in a country. In this case, yes, Santiago del Estero is at least arguably the oldest Diocese headquartered in Argentina, but that point is indeed arguable because it had ceased to exist for many years after its 1570 founding, vanishing from the late 17th century until its reconstitution apparently under a new name in 1910. That journey is definitely on the list of things I’ll be exploring if Archbishop Bokalic makes it to the next round, along with the surprise of Pope Francis formally establishing a new primatial see in his native country, when, well, that’s not something I would have expected Pope Francis to do, though he does like to surprise people. Of course with the promotion to Archbishop and new Primatial title already in place by the time he was announced as a new Cardinal, the actual inclusion of Bokalic on the list of new Cardinals was significantly less surprising than it might otherwise have been.
One bit of flavor that came through several of my sources was Cardinal Bokalic’s closeness to the poor. I didn’t get the sort of specific examples I like to share, but it was a pretty consistent observation, so there’s a bit of flavor for you.
Anyways, after he is officially elevated on December 7th, Vicente Cardinal BOKALIC IGLIC will be eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2032.
Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and there will be another one of the new Cardinals next week. Thank you for listening, God bless you all, and thanks, Joe!