- Feb 5, 2002
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Early in the hit series “The Chosen,” an entire episode is devoted to Jesus befriending and teaching a small band of young children. I felt like I was watching Jesus hone the craft of his teaching with his first students, who were open to and accepting of him, who listened to and appreciated him, who clearly grew to love him. It was like an extended, imaginative commentary on two verses of Matthew’s Gospel: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (18:3-4). We might imagine Jesus’ later teaching arising from a memory of his first school, preceding his public ministry, when these children came to him.
I was edified by this episode, and we started watching “The Chosen” as a family.
The struggle of creation
In the year before watching “The Chosen,” I had spent nine months engaging in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, with the guidance of a spiritual director. Much of the work of the Spiritual Exercises concerns constructing and imagining the mysteries of salvation, from one Gospel scene to another. It is hard work. Every day, for nine months, I experienced highs and lows in this prayer regimen, with days of ease where the scenes would be vivid and other days of trial where everything was hard. Regardless of the day, I always wrote one page in a journal (never more, never less) based on my time in prayer. When I later looked back at those pages, some days of trial inexplicably contained the greatest insights.
What had been created in prayer was not simply a vision but also (in a way that is difficult to explain) a way of understanding, remembering and willing each particular mystery in my own mind and heart. Even months removed from the days of dwelling with a given mystery in prayer, I could still see and feel it when I went back to read the journal pages from those days, or simply by recollecting the event. That was true of all the mysteries until I watched “The Chosen’s” portrayal of one of those same events: the wedding at Cana.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
I was edified by this episode, and we started watching “The Chosen” as a family.
The struggle of creation
In the year before watching “The Chosen,” I had spent nine months engaging in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, with the guidance of a spiritual director. Much of the work of the Spiritual Exercises concerns constructing and imagining the mysteries of salvation, from one Gospel scene to another. It is hard work. Every day, for nine months, I experienced highs and lows in this prayer regimen, with days of ease where the scenes would be vivid and other days of trial where everything was hard. Regardless of the day, I always wrote one page in a journal (never more, never less) based on my time in prayer. When I later looked back at those pages, some days of trial inexplicably contained the greatest insights.
What had been created in prayer was not simply a vision but also (in a way that is difficult to explain) a way of understanding, remembering and willing each particular mystery in my own mind and heart. Even months removed from the days of dwelling with a given mystery in prayer, I could still see and feel it when I went back to read the journal pages from those days, or simply by recollecting the event. That was true of all the mysteries until I watched “The Chosen’s” portrayal of one of those same events: the wedding at Cana.
Continued below.
Why I stopped watching 'The Chosen'
While the streaming show “The Chosen” has become a massive hit that is beloved by viewers around the world, Leonard DeLorenzo, a theology professor at Notre Dame, writes that he had to stop watching for one key reason.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Jesuits and those who cling to their self-created images are probably most in need of a different perspective. This strikes me as a really great example of the problems which often attend that sort of spirituality.
