We love "The Chosen" because you can't have a relationship with an ancient painting hanging on a museum wall. Dallas Jenkins and crew merit our highest regard for going after this with faith-filled, heartfelt conviction. Thanks to them, we were drawn into the heart-rendering encounter of Mary Magdalene with Jesus Christ. And the Woman at the Well. And the disciples around the fire talking about how their lives have changed. (S2E3) Beautiful. Poignant. Moving.
In a word, we love the accessibility.
In a word, we love the accessibility.
THAT SAID, my struggle is with an overall portrayal that too often hoists shallow and silly (contemporary) sensibilities upon a culture that had much greater depth. Contemplation. Self-mastery. Countenances that exuded holy. Not as in holy card, but as in whole. Not splintered. Or scattered. What's at stake is witness to a kind of natural, fully-human acumen for which souls of this generation were made. And for which they are pining.
For example, after John the Baptist (who could double as a younger Radagast from "The Hobbit") chastises his Divine Cousin for not getting in the game (GO), they return to camp just in time for Jesus to deliver a possessed man. At which point John raises his fist as if cheering a game-winning basket: "Yeaaaah!" (GO) Add pretty much any scene involving the Galilean Praetor Quintus who is too skit-like comical to take seriously, particularly when he meets Jesus: "Jesus of Nazareth, we finally meet... shouldn't you be crazy looking, wild hair, and animal skins?" (GO) Throw in "Gun Display" Peter tromping around like "Hans & Franz" and sometimes it really feels like SNL.
[It must be noted: There are some consistently impressive performances. Setting aside moments of overly contemporized directing and scripting, Jonathan Roumie as Jesus exudes an authentic, deeply warm, caring, intentional, wise, and sometimes even that appropriate above all Christ-like presence.]
WHAT'S IMPORTANT in this consideration is not simply the value of accessibility, but what is really being made accessible. Note the importance of real. No matter how much we may like cotton candy, or feel it is nutritional, handing a kid cotton candy does not really make nutrition accessible. The extent to which we're offering a less than real portrait of Jesus is the degree to which we run the risk of cultivating a relationship with our image of Jesus; with our emotions in the Name of Jesus. We remain impoverished. We languish. We miss out on the fulfillment that comes only by way of really encountering Him. As He really Is.
Now let's acknowledge two important things here. First, God has anointed artists throughout the ages to reach into this human landscape, capture our immortal souls with wonder and grandeur, and direct us back to Himself. Second, short of the Beatific Vision, all artistic depictions are just that: depictions. Representations. Signs. Pointing. The best of which do help us open our interior horizon to God, facilitating authentic intimacy, but such exists quite apart from the sign itself.
Now let's acknowledge two important things here. First, God has anointed artists throughout the ages to reach into this human landscape, capture our immortal souls with wonder and grandeur, and direct us back to Himself. Second, short of the Beatific Vision, all artistic depictions are just that: depictions. Representations. Signs. Pointing. The best of which do help us open our interior horizon to God, facilitating authentic intimacy, but such exists quite apart from the sign itself.
SO A BIG QUESTION: On this side of things how might we encounter His Real Presence? Has God provided for us to do so? In an interview, Jenkins offers something consequential in speaking about "The Chosen": "There's a ton of content that isn't actually, directly from Scripture." (GO) Say it isn't so! One might expect this from a Catholic, but from a non-Catholic? How can you accept any portrait about Christ that is off-roading from sola scriptura! Oh, cognitive dissonance!
Not to fret. Nowhere in Scripture does it say "Revelation is limited to Scripture alone." Sola scriptura is non-scriptural. In fact, at the end of his Gospel, John states that a world full of bookshelves could not contain all Jesus said and did. (John 21:25) Summary: "the Gospel" is much greater than what is contained in the written Word. "The Chosen" rightly begs that question. Take a big logical, historical, biblical step towards the truth of Catholicism:
If we believe in the authority of the Word (as all Christians must), we must believe in the authority of the Body that gave us that Word, which is none other than "the church, the pillar and foundation of truth." (1 Tim. 3:15)
LET'S HAVE THE DESIRE, COURAGE AND INTEGRITY to recognize and receive how God has made Himself most accessible: "Verily, verily I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53) That "verily, verily" should alert us that Jesus wasn't playing games. "No life." This is quintessentially important. And straight-forward. To the point of allowing unbelievers to leave him without offering some metaphorical explanation. (Note the passage: John 6:66)
God desires to be so much more accessible than a great television series. Or a good cup of java with even the most inspiring, thought-provoking, impactful music and message on any given Sunday. If we regard what was undisputed for the first fifteen centuries of our church (God didn't change His mind), what every single saint understood about the Eucharist (GO), we'd be enraptured by God's ultimate accessibility: In every Mass Jesus Christ really takes on flesh and blood, we are really present at His one, Holy Sacrifice at Calvary, and we can really become one with Him. And in Him, with all The Chosen. In the most intimate way.
Not depictions. For real. The difference between these two ought to inform our awareness of Jesus Christ. Who He really is.
THE FOUR VOLUME SERIES on the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich beautifully fill out the life and person of Jesus Christ, in between the "greatest hits" moments we know from Scripture. Under often brutal Roman occupation, these highly religious believers were a culture forged by the Psalms. Ever reverberating in their hearts. Connecting them to God through very difficult circumstances involving much trial and tribulation. Without all our modern hyperactivity and addiction to sensory immediacy, these spiritual forbearers had much greater contemplation. Depth. Appreciation of silence. Stillness. Rhythm. Mystery. Wonder.
Such dispositions and countenances merit more than our observation and admiration, but our emulation.
JESUS and EARLY CHRISTIANS, who they really were, in their core, beyond culture, ought to cut through our rather saccharinated culture. Summoning us to what authentic holiness is. What we're called to be. Tabernacles made for the indwelling Spirit. Alive. Present. Dynamic, but ordered. By Him. Exhibited by many saints we knew in this life. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. St. John Paul II. So many pursuing the same in our world. Including, I must say, innumerable brothers and sisters who, though not Catholic, are pursuing God with all their hearts.
NOW THOSE WHO KNOW US WELL know that, along with Jonathan Roumie, we're Catholic. That means so much more than religious or ritual observance. Our deepest call and desire is to pursue relationship at the heart of ritual. At the heart of religion. And it strikes me how beautifully non-Catholics give witness to this truly Catholic way of life far greater than many who profess Catholicism! Because that's what Jesus desires. From the beginning, such flows from His Side through His Sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist. And, if truly received, overflows into our manifestation of God's Presence in a living praise and worship. Praying with, for and over one another. Being instruments of His healing. Transformation. Revival. Building the Kingdom.
Along these lines, shout out to our son, Seph Schlueter, and Damascus Worship. He's newly signed with Sony/Provident. Appropriate for this reflection, listen to a beautiful new Eucharistic song sung with Matt Maher on Hallow, "Pangue Lingua."
MY SUMMARY: When Evangelicals discover their Catholic roots, and Catholics rediscover their evangelical wings, we will truly be one Church claiming this world for the Kingdom and lifting it to Heaven.
LORD JESUS CHRIST, Your high priestly prayer, that we may be truly One, let It be in and through me! (John 17)
MY SUMMARY: When Evangelicals discover their Catholic roots, and Catholics rediscover their evangelical wings, we will truly be one Church claiming this world for the Kingdom and lifting it to Heaven.
LORD JESUS CHRIST, Your high priestly prayer, that we may be truly One, let It be in and through me! (John 17)
