Timestamps:
00:00 – 02:37 = Intro
02:38 – 12:24 = Topic Introduction and Context (Kicking the Bucket List)
12:25 – 20:17 = Bucket Lists and various perspectives.
20:18 – 21:20 = Church built of Bones of Monks?
21:21 – 23:30 = Bucket List and its relation to after life.
23:31 – 30:12 = Some Solutions to having the best Bucket List.
30:13 – 34:03 = Truth Beauty and Goodness.
34:04 – 34:31 = Closing.
Welcome back to Season 4!
Padre and Bishop Mark Edwards were sitting down recently for a dinner at the Cathedral and he brought up a podcast episode of ‘When Church stops working featuring Andrew Root’ Podcast . On this particular episode the hosts brought up the notion of the bucket list. Bishop proposed that this would be a good episode for Living Fullness to do! So Bishop, this one is for you!
- The podcasters reference a film called The Bucket List.
And indeed from this film the idea of the bucket list was brought into the culture.
- Is part of the idea of a bucket list purely that the world has gotten smaller or rather more accessible AND we’re hyper aware of what is out there and what other people are able to access, and we desire to experience things that other people seem to experience.
- ‘In some ways, human life becomes a stacking of experiences and there doesn’t need to be a coherence to that… life doesn’t need a narrative… it’s about checking off a box’ ‘it becomes a shopping list… things to consume’.
- This has become part of the ‘supermarket mentality’ with which present western culture has become so obsessed. I can have what I want and that will make me happy.
- This actually reminds me of something JPII in Pastores Dabo Vobis: Prisoners of the fleeting moment, they seek to “consume” the strongest and most gratifying individual experiences at the level of immediate emotions and sensations, inevitably finding themselves indifferent and “paralyzed” as it were when they come face to face with the summons to embark upon a life project which includes a spiritual and religious dimension and a commitment to solidarity.
- I think the Bucket List mentality works to reinforce this notion of consumption of the strongest and most gratifying experiences in an attempt to substitute an isolated experience for meaning and purpose which calls to communion and sacrifice.
‘Modern man’s way of coping with his finitude’ (When the Church Stops Working) – there’s a sense that a bucket list is about the belief that human life ends at death and you want to clock up as much as possible on a checklist before that ‘time’ runs out – but that outlook is not a Christian one, because we know full well life does not end at death, but in Christ.
It also seems to be a way of trying to avoid the reality of death.
Clocking up experiences becomes a way of, as the podcasters stated, dealing with death without actually dealing with it.
‘Death generally is not something we’re ready to deal with as a culture, rather we seek to push the reality off to the side to indulge in a disconnected experience, as though that disconnected experience enables us to deal with death. ‘
‘There’s nothing inherently Christian about it’
This is not a way for ‘momento mori’ (remembering our death)….We should reevalutate and consider what is the call for our life?
- What can be fostered in your life?
- How can you be more fruitful?
- How can you build community an healthy relationships?
- How can you foster hospitality?
Remember this life is temporal….the next life is eternal.
- Think beyond what we feel we may miss out on, and consider what experiences will God be sad that we missed out on once we face Him – what He wanted for us?
Have the end goal – how to become a saint? Then create a ‘vision board for that’ and start from there.
Solutions:
- Change your idea of a bucket list from the places, or things you want to do, to the kind of person you want to be, and the experiences we need to have in order to help us grow into that person
- It can’t be fixed – Bucket lists tend to be set in stone – make it malleable and flexible because when you create a bucket list that has a goal in mind about your life as a whole, AND you let God take full reign, he’ll need space freely move to bring you to live to the full.
- Focus on relational goals and aims – relationships with others, with God, and relationship with your own body, mind and soul (personal healing).
- If you’re thinking ‘they’ve gone overboard, having a bucket list isn’t that big of a deal! So what if I have certain experiences that I want to experience in this life on this earth, maybe it’s just about joy, or peace, or exhilaration?
There’s nothing wrong with wanting joy, peace and even excitement in this life – but are the things on your bucket list the only way you’ll experience those things and IF they’re not – why do you NEED those experiences? Why can’t you be content with that joy and peace and excitement in life in other ways?
- I think in our sensationalised world we can easily get trapped in the expectations of the types of ‘feelings’ we ‘ought’ to experience in life to be fulfilled/successful/ a good Christian/worthwhile/valuable/etc.
We have a Patreon video to talk about what we have been up to on our break.
Plus check out
‘When Church stops working featuring Andrew Root’ Podcast
TBG
Stina – New season, new life – Babies
Padre – Bishop Mark Edwards
If you enjoy our Show Notes, you can listen to our Living Fullness Podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, directly from our website or watch our guest interviews on YouTube! Also check out our social media pages Living Fullness Podcast on Instagram , the closed Facebook group for links and discussions, and Virtue Ministry on Facebook and Instagram.