Robert Harrison is a Stanford-based radio personality who hosts a weekly program, "Entitled Opinions," on the life of the mind. Some recent guests on "Entitled Opinions" have been famous intellectuals and leaders, including Rene Girard and Google’s Vinton Cerf.
Yesterday, December 2, Harrison’s guest was Matthew Farley, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic who teaches high school in San Francisco. Matt and I were novices together, and were at one point both chaplains in the Los Angeles prison system: one day I overheard him confounding a prisoner by asking why the "good thief" at Jesus’ side at the cross, St. Dismas, was allowed entrance into heaven fully two days before the Harrowing of Hell. Harrison’s audience, composed largely of secular humanists, was hopefully more enlightened by Matt’s high-falutin’ prose (and poetry!) than that befuddled prisoner, who mostly just wanted to call his girlfriend on Matt’s phone.
You can listen to the show here. Look to the left-hand sidebar (who uses .html frames anymore, btw?) for "Matt Farley on the Jesuit Order." You can download or play the show from there, and if you scroll down, you’ll find this bit of original verse from Matt:
Relearn the bone.
Thump the gourd of the unknown.
Starch yourself in hoary robes, and
Roll away the stone.
Jim Keane, SJ
