There is so much to say about this story! Two episodes clearly will not exhaust the topic. In the first part, we offered what the story wasn't about. In this second part, we offer the positive side, about several readings of the story that show what it is about.
We use the lenses of the four senses of Scripture, which we've podcasted on before (https://ouroutpost.simplecast.com/episodes/25), to approach the story. We packed a lot into this one. Sorry about that. It might be worth listening to more than once. That sounds presumptuous of me, I know, but I think I'll listen to it more than once, and I recorded it.
And as a reminder, this podcast is for Catholic disciples wrestling to be missionary-minded in their ordinary, everyday lives. We're recording this two-parter because, 1. as missionary disciples, we will likely come across people with very different readings on this story, and should be able to talk to them intelligibly, and 2. there's a lot in this for us to take to prayer, which is great, because all apostolic work is an overflow of our interior lives.
We also plug our marriage workshop (twice, if I recall rightly), which is going on on a Facebook group near you (https://www.facebook.com/groups/gruberworkshop/ ). Feel free to ask to join (it's pitched for married couples, but the underlying principles are still good for single people and any team-related activities).
We left some things unsaid. One that I feel especially bad about I'll just tell you here in the description: we talk about Cain and Abel in the episode, and I throw out the parallel language from Genesis 3:16 and Genesis 4:7, which I think is fascinating but was losing Crystal on. I meant to go on and talk about how one way to read Cain and Abel is that after Cain's initial sacrifice was not acceptable, his solution was to sacrifice Abel-- this isn't to defend Cain, but really to make it worse, since it only served to distance him from God even more. It's like when my two-year-old is doing something he oughtn't, and we tell him no, so he goes over and does something even worse (noteably, that's how we went from milk-spilling to maple-syrup-spilling a few days ago...). The offering of the acceptable one, though, is a precursor to the story of Abraham and Isaac, as well as a precursor to Christ.
The other thing I left out was an allusion to Gene Wolfe's duology, The Wizard/Knight. In it, a knight loves a fae queen so much, that he would literally do anything to be with her. However, in order for her to be willing to be with him, he has to refrain from anything that would dishonor himself. So there's both a reckless abandonment to be with the one he loves, tempered by the need to still be fit to be in her presence. It's a fascinating story told over two volumes (soon to be released in one volume), and I think gets at the heart of our desire to be with what we hold as the ultimate good, and the limits of that desire such that we act in such a way that is consistent with being with that ultimate good. I think it's an interesting light to read Abraham in, and am sad that we didn't get to it in the podcast.
As we're figuring out technology, I'd be open to doing more on our Facebook group. We could even occasionally do Facebook lives to address questions or elaborate on topics. Check out the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/awordfromouroutpost/
And feel free to subscribe to this podcast as well as share it with others. Our goal is to produce faithful, formative, and conversation-starting content for Catholic disciples of Jesus who are wrestling to be missionary-minded in their normal, everyday lives-- so if that applies to you or a friend of yours, we're hoping to serve you as best as we're able!
As always,
