https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=wCt8aHut5z0
I guess one thing that is the problem of modernity and ergo postmodernity is that trying to find that glue between multiple different narratives. Is there one narrative structure, an epic structure that can facilitate the constellation and conflict and then the harmonization and resolution of all these different identities and all these different histories and all these different traditions that respects and upholds them all but somehow converges them on a greater good? In one respect, Christianity did that for the West, but can it do that for everything? Can it keep on getting wider and wider and wider without collapsing in this completely equal plane, right, as far as the pyramid structure? Well, I think in terms of story, I think the story of Christ, he can’t beat it. He just can’t beat that story in terms of its capacity to reconcile as Christians, especially when you go to church, for example, especially in a traditional church, you really have to understand that the priest is the representative of Christ for you, let’s say. He manifests Christ to you, but he’s also the one who’s operating the sacrifice in the Holy of Holies. And so he is both the killer of Christ and also manifesting Christ. And so he is this image of, he is showing us the mystery of Christianity and how this notion that the killer and the victim can be reunited in a way that it is totally possible. And you see it in the story of Christianity, St. Paul is a version of that. You see in the story of St. Paul, how it’s one image of how the persecutor joined with his victim and then created something amazing and became a light to the Gentiles because he was able to unite those two identities together. And what’s the key that facilitates the redemption of the victor and the, I guess, the salvation of the victim from that bind? What’s the key concept or the core of that change? Well, the idea is self-sacrifice. That’s the key. That’s the key. The idea is instead of doing it in others, you do it in yourself. And then if you do that, then you become a healing mechanism for the world. That’s what I think anyways. It always, I always pondered the fact that in the book of Acts, you have Paul holding the cloaks of the stoners of Stephen and the heavens open and Stephen seeing the Lord and all of that. Guess who doesn’t appear to Paul at that moment? But Paul goes on this rampage, hunting and killing the followers of Jesus. And then it’s on the road to Damascus. And I would imagine the families of the victims of Paul between Stephen and the road to Damascus saying to God, now, would it have been so hard to strike him there next to Stephen? You could have done it all in one trip. Okay. But no, you wait. And but that’s not, you know, that’s intentional. And I think that’s exactly what Jonathan said in terms of Paul had to manifest the killer and the tyrant and the colonizer before he could manifest Christ. Soterios Johnson Could we, could we push this a little further and ask if, if the left needs to, I’m speaking in American terms, if the less left needs to manifest Antifa before they can manifest, you know, their, their utopia, do they have to go on a burning pillaging rampage before they get to a point where they can actually do what they’re proposing? I think it’s, I think it’s possible that this needs to happen. I always quote the same quote from Christ, which is, you know, scandal must happen, but woe to those by whom it happened. I think that it’s possible that we need to go through this in order to come out on the other side. But I, I don’t justify the acts of those that are doing it. And I don’t think that I don’t think the same even with St. Paul, I wouldn’t say that St. Paul was right in doing what he was doing. I’m not saying, but, but I can admit that for him to have become what he became, he had to go through that. Okay. And Ananias, so, you know, the drama gets played out. So of course, why did God have to strike him blind and then call one of his potential victims and say, go find Paul on Straight Street and pray for him. And Ananias says, you’re asking the lamb to minister to the lion? And, and then the words of the spirit to Ananias are key. I will show him how much he has to suffer. And so that suffering of Paul is, and that ongoing suffering, you know, the thorn in the flesh and the whole story of Paul, it’s all in there. So there’s no, there’s no cap, there’s no, I guess, release from suffering then that that’s kind of a, there’s an embracing of it. And then a constellation of that suffering into the mechanisms of what drove Paul through the rest of his life then. Well, for sure in Christianity, you know, and I say this as a full hypocrite, like a total hypocrite when I say this, but I mean, for sure in Christianity, there is the idea that it, we don’t, it’s not that we are absolved of suffering, but it’s that suffering can be transformed into glory, that suffering can be a portal to something which is, which makes, which transcends. And it’s not to say that suffering in itself is good and not like a masochist or something, but it’s mostly to understand that it’s the transformation of suffering into meaning. It’s a good way to say it, which is kind of the glorification of suffering. Yeah. And nowhere, right in the Lord’s Prayer, we’re invited to ask for that we not suffer, deliver us from evil, do not lead us into the time of testing. Nowhere in Christianity are we told to seek suffering in and of itself, but we’re always told it is inevitable, it will come. And when it comes, this is how, you know, this is how you go into it.