{"id":1359,"date":"2019-08-16T21:50:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T02:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/?p=1359"},"modified":"2019-08-17T11:54:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T16:54:20","slug":"1359","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/2019\/08\/1359\/","title":{"rendered":"Gleams of light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Thursday night, Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper for an hour-long discussion (it was billed as an interview, but it was more of a two-way discussion). Here\u2019s the full interview:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a_xcFSiK7V8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3RsZU9nBj5i2fLHt9fp_4cHtFIvHaTF9ox9qJ24PxPOofG0I_nHOUoeBk<\/p>\n

Punishment and Gift<\/h5>\n

The talked about a lot of things: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em><\/a>, Donald Trump, Mr. Colbert\u2019s favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien<\/a>. But what got people\u2019s attention, what everyone was talking about Friday morning, was when the conversation turned to grief and loss, specifically, the deaths of Mr. Colbert\u2019s father and two older brothers<\/a> in a plane crash when he was ten. Mr Cooper asked Mr. Colbert about something he said once, about, \u201clearning to \u2018love the thing that I most wish had not happened.'\u201d\u00a0Choking back tears<\/a>, he then said:<\/p>\n

You went on to say, \u201cWhat punishments of God are not gifts?\u201d Do you really believe that?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Colbert replied, after a short pause:<\/p>\n

Yes. It\u2019s a gift to exist and with existence comes suffering. There\u2019s no escaping that.<\/p>\n

What do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people\u2019s loss, which allows you to connect with that other person, which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it\u2019s like to be a human being if it\u2019s true that all humans suffer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Stephen Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I apologize if I presume too much. But I think Mr. Cooper had never before encountered an authentic Catholic talking about grief, suffering, loss, in an authentically Catholic way: that grief, properly understood, leads us to empathy and to deeper love for others.<\/p>\n

It was very beautiful. All the people Mr. Cooper has interviewed, all the stories he\u2019s heard\u2014I\u2019ve never seen him break down like that. And then Mr. Cooper opened up about his own losses: his brother\u2019s suicide, his mother\u2019s death, while Mr. Colbert listened. It was simply astonishing.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, when things seem darkest (and I know it can get a lot darker), we get these gleams of light. First, that Stephen Colbert can speak so openly about his Catholic faith in a way that utterly rejects anti-Gospel, culture war Catholicism. And second, that Anderson Cooper is willing to give him an hour in prime time to do so.<\/p>\n

Think how we could set the whole world on fire, if more Catholics were like Stephen Colbert, and all of us were more like Anderson Cooper.<\/p>\n

(Image author: Montclair Film; source: Flicker<\/a>)<\/h6>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday night, Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper for an hour-long discussion (it was billed as an interview, but it was more of a two-way discussion). Here\u2019s the full interview: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a_xcFSiK7V8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3RsZU9nBj5i2fLHt9fp_4cHtFIvHaTF9ox9qJ24PxPOofG0I_nHOUoeBk Punishment and Gift The talked about a lot of things: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Donald Trump, Mr. Colbert\u2019s favorite author, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3482,"featured_media":1380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,39,69,36],"tags":[192,22,72,189],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appreciations-and-criticisms","category-catholic-church","category-j-r-r-tolkien","category-religion","tag-anderson-cooper","tag-donald-trump","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-stephen-colbert"],"yoast_head":"\nThursday night, Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I think Mr. Cooper had never before encountered an authentic Catholic talking about grief, suffering, loss, in an authentically Catholic way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/2019\/08\/1359\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thursday night, Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I think Mr. Cooper had never before encountered an authentic Catholic talking about grief, suffering, loss, in an authentically Catholic way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/chaosandoldnight\/2019\/08\/1359\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chaos and Old Night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sean.p.dailey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-17T02:50:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-17T16:54:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/974\/2019\/08\/Stephen_Colbert_December_2017.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"592\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sean P. 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