BONUS 18 - Christians

Bonus Conversation — Following Season 2, Episode 8

 Headlines often focus on religious spectacle, but that noise can drown out the deeper meaning of what it means to live as a Christian. In this episode, we take an honest, down-to-earth look at how Catholic life is less about performance and more about pursuing truth through faith, reason, and authentic community. We talk about how faith and science can strengthen each other, why thoughtful questioning is part of belief, and how the call to follow Christ challenges us to love deeply—not to set ourselves apart, but to serve others.

We explore how the Church throughout history has valued learning and discovery—founding schools, nurturing study, and treating reason as a gift from God—while recognizing that knowledge alone isn’t enough without grace and compassion. Inspired by Dante’s imagery, we reflect on how reason can guide us toward faith, and faith can lift reason toward understanding.

Along the way, we discuss how Christians of different traditions work together in shared ministry and service, each bringing unique strengths that enrich the whole. We also touch on what draws many people—especially younger generations—toward deeper faith and meaningful worship today.

True faith isn’t about spectacle or slogans—it’s about self-giving love, lived with humility and hope. If this conversation helps you see faith and reason in a new light, share it with a friend, follow the show, and leave a review so others can join the journey.

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Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, Father Christopher Pujol, Vincent Reilly, Cliff Gorski, John Zylka, Sarah Hartner

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
You're listening to the Catholic Active Podcast.
We discussed the act that Jesusperformed that stunned his
disciples.
Great to be back, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
You don't know us by now, you're never gonna know.

SPEAKER_02 (00:13):
I'm Jordan Waco here with Father Hamilton and Father
Pooil.
Do you have anything to add?

SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
Well, I think today, especially in society and in our
US culture, when you hear theword Christian, uh, I think many
people kind of bristle abackbecause, you know, if you have a
name, right, or a title, peoplecan misuse that.

(00:40):
And so we've seen that done,whether it's politically,
socially, economically.
And so there's a lot oframifications for people who say
that they are Christian, or theydo some other like strange
activities, right?
So I was just watching thisYouTube video of these
Christians down in the south,and they were playing with
snakes and and you know, saying,like, oh, we are the perfect

(01:03):
Christians because the snakeswon't bite us, and so
scripture's fulfilled in ourmidst.
And it's like, no, yes, youmight be Christian, yes, you
might believe in the Lord, andyes, you believe Jesus is God,
but there's a lot more to itthan a show.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18):
I also feel like they do that because it's
entertaining.
You they want people to watchbecause when I see that stuff,
I'm like, oh, I can't wait tosee this person get bit.

SPEAKER_00 (01:26):
But you know, but it pushes people away from you know
wanting to be a part of thiscommunity because it's bizarre.

SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
And one of those connotations that can come with
certain groups of Christianityor people the way that they
purport their Christianity isfor Christianity to really be
opposed to science, opposed toother reason modern things.
So Christianity just becomeslike a negative, an ante to all
these other things.
Whereas rather you have to seeit like in the positive sense.

(01:58):
We're called as Christians,especially as Catholics, that
our faith is neverinfrarational, that we don't use
our reason.
God has given us reason as agreat gift, and so we use that
and we get to a certain pointwhere reason can't continue on
from there, and then there needsto be faith, which is the hope
in things yet to be seen.

(02:19):
Not that it contradicts logic,reason, but we can't see what is
yet to be that has to berevealed to us by God.

SPEAKER_00 (02:26):
And a great image of that is just uh this week, Pope
Leo was at the VaticanObservatory, and you know,
seeing the Holy Father there,looking up into the heavens
through one of these magnificentmic um telescopes that the
church has cared for forcenturies, you know, exploring
the solar system, um, you know,finding so many different

(02:46):
scientific realities.

SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
The scientific method is a is a Catholic
method, and science means tohave knowledge, and so the
church has always been aboutthat knowledge and then leading
to wisdom, right?
Because knowledge is primary,and then wisdom is something
that is is really a gift.

SPEAKER_02 (03:00):
It's just like you know, we talked about the
magician, and magic was reallyjust science that haven't hasn't
been hypothesized yet or writtenout, like in certain areas like
alchemy or these other things,but sometimes they had like
pagan draws towards other ohright, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Stay away from the demonic, Jordan.
How many times do we have totell you?

SPEAKER_01 (03:20):
Another good image of this, and I always love Dante
Alighieri, so I'll bring itback.
You guys will yell at me formentioning the divine comedy.
But nonetheless, make sure youread all three.
His guide, yes, all three, hisguide through the inferno and
then purgatorio is Virgil, thefamous writer of the Aeneid, a
great Roman poet.
He represents reason,rationality.

(03:42):
When he comes to the thresholdof going to then into paradise,
heaven, he no longer has Virgilanymore.
Reason, it gives way toBeatrice, or as we think of
Beatitude, this joy, andBeatrice leads him then through
the rest along with uh some ofthe saints.
And what that shows is that itgives way from reason to faith

(04:06):
eventually to the higher realms.
And so both and together as thechurch has always held.

SPEAKER_00 (04:12):
So when we look at our Christian brothers and
sisters, you know, our hope isthat they do come to the full
union with the church, but youcan also see in their practices
those things that are lacking,right?
Because most of those Christiancommunities have separated from
the Catholic Church.
And um I think it was this yearactually in England for the

(04:35):
first time since theReformation, Catholics are now
outnumbering Anglicans, membersof the Church of England.
And so we see a greatresurgence, I think, with our
young people.

SPEAKER_01 (04:47):
Yeah, but so like with that, it's not just what we
have and other Christiandenominations maybe don't have
in the sacraments or theunderstanding of the
apostolicity of the church, butwe can really be challenged by
other Christian denominations.
Oh, for sure.
I've been especially edified andmoved to work with other
Christian pastors.
Like whenever I was a prisonchaplain, I was there with

(05:07):
others.
I was there with a Jewish rabbithat I worked with and people
from different faithbackgrounds.
So there is a give and takethere and a learning where like
we can still be challenged.
Sometimes Protestant pastors canbe excellent preachers.
They're very, very dynamic inthe way that they preach, yeah,
in their scholarship.
But in a really great way, itcan challenge us to be like,

(05:28):
well, I can't just give a dull,boring sermon.
You know, you think that'sbecause they're like Protestant
is protesting.
Like it's an interesting word tobring up, right?
Because other Christians, otherthan say Orthodox, Orthodox
Catholic is the split thathappened in 1054, but kind of
the East and the West intradition started to grow apart,
and then there was tensionthere.

SPEAKER_00 (05:48):
Both with valid orders, valid sacred Latin and
Greek, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (05:51):
What you start to see is with other Christian
groups, well, their identity isbased upon Catholicism, right?
Or the church.
Yeah.
What are they protesting?
So it's kind of like you have tosaw off the branch that you're
sitting on to then make aprotest against the tree that
you came from.
You know, that's why myself, Istruggled with coming back to

(06:12):
the faith and understanding whyI would be Protestant rather
than being Catholic.
And I always say, too, we holdpeople to a high standard.
You have to go to Mass everyweek, you have to do certain
things, you have to keep thecommandments of the Lord in a
certain way that the churchobliges you to.
I think that's a good thingbecause organizations or just
things that we experience ingeneral, the order of the world,

(06:32):
if you have a high bar standard,that usually means that you're
really holding people tosomething more and expecting
something of them.
And that tends to be true.

SPEAKER_00 (06:42):
And we're not simply a social club or like an elk's,
you know, we're not paying ourdues and, you know, coming in to
the hall, but rather we areliving our lives and giving our
lives for someone greater thanourselves.
And we see this in the earlychurch with these early martyrs
and early Christians who givetheir all for the name of
Christian.

(07:02):
Thanks for listening to theCatholic Accent Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 (07:05):
Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe to
our show.