Conversation with
Conversation with Fr John Bayer
A few days ago I was privileged to have a thorough and (for me) very rewarding conversation with Fr John Bayer, a monk of Dallas, about various aspects of Christian and monastic life, and about what it means to be a Christian in today’s tension-filled world.
What’s the meaning of ‘vocation’? Does it make sense to speak of ‘sublimating’ desire? Is contemplation an endeavour reserved for the select few? How to be in the world but not of it? These are some of the questions we touched on.
Fr John asked me how I understand my pontifical ministry, knowing that I like to point to the root meaning of the word, which has to do with the building of bridges.
The great exemplar of pontifical ministry, I find, is the great St Justin, who was trained as a pagan philosopher. He became a Christian, but didn’t forget what it was like to be a pagan philosopher. He remembered that had enthused him and provoked him before he had faith. He was sensitive to the enthusiasm, the search and the scepticism to be found in his contemporaries. And he was sensitive to the amount of beauty and sense to be found in what they carried, in their aspirations. So he developed this extraordinary image, which has become structural to the Christian imagination, of the Word-sown-abroad. Wherever the Logos sprouts, he is prepared to recognise it as a reflection of the incarnational mystery.
You can watch the whole conversation here.
