Polycarp's Paradigm

Jesus speaks about the Church, her sacramental life, and the necessity of following his commands. In this episode we explore different Bible verses from the Gospels that every Catholic should know when in dialogue with others.

The suffering of Christ begins in this chapter with the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is struck by soldiers, denied by Peter, and condemned as a heretic.

There are specific Bible verses I believe every Catholic should know when speaking with non-Catholics. Going over these verses allows us to see the Scriptural roots of our faith. We begin in this episode with the Old Testament.

If you only believe in that which you can see, taste, touch, smell, or test under a microscope, then how do you begin to grapple with invisible realities like concepts, math, abstractions, etc. If these dimensions are real, then what is their cause? There must be a Prime Thinker, namely God.

Ought all Christians to become Catholic? Most Christians think of Christian unity as a good thing, but oftentimes due to having a differing view of the nature of the Church, they have conflicting views as to what unity looks like. In this episode we explore my essay from "Essays in the Deep" on the necessity for all Christians to be visibly unified in the Catholic Church.

On the eve of Christ's Passion, Jesus prayed to the Heavenly Father for his disciples, "that they may all be one… so that the world may believe that you have sent me"(Jn 17:21 RSV-2CE). What kind of unity is Jesus praying for and why? Is this unity only an invisible bond between believers, or is it something more, something both invisible and visible?

This is my favorite essay from my new book, "Essays in the Deep," which can be found on Amazon.com. In it we discover what true reform is and why the Protestant Reformation was really a revolt against the Church Christ established, the Catholic Church.

Jesus consoles his disciples by reassuring them that it is better for him to leave so the Spirit can come to them who will guide them into all truth. Oftentimes we think of this individually, rather than collectively for the Church. Pat and I unpack this passage and much more in John 16.

Christ is clearly portrayed as divine in the latest written Gospel, the Gospel of John, but what about the earlier Gospels? Did the early Christians just have hallucinations of a bodily resurrection and then make the man Jesus into a divine being? Or did the resurrection actually happen and Christ was shown to be divine from the beginning?

Eric's new book: "Essays in the Deep"

We must abide in Christ as a branch remains on the vine, or else we will not bear fruit and be cut off. How do we abide in Christ?