Well, we made it.
It’s that time of year to dye our eggs and prepare a new strategy on how to become pacquing champion of our families.
But, this week before Easter is more important than all of that.
This week, known in the Church, as Holy Week, began on Sunday when we recalled Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
On Sunday, after I heard the news about LSU’s Kyren Lacy, who was found dead in Houston, I began reflecting on a sense of hero worship. We often elevate sports stars and other so-called celebrities to hero status. Sure, they can hit a baseball a long way or run really fast with a football, but they are flawed human beings just like us and deal with much of the same anxieties and worries as we do. We and these so-called heroes are in need of the one true Hero.
Jesus is that Hero because he conquered the greatest enemy of all, which is death.
As for me, I first think of superheroes who wear capes when I hear “hero.” Superman was faster than a speeding bullet and was able to leap tall buildings. Batman was able to save Gotham against the forces of The Riddler, The Joker, The Penguin, and Catwoman. Jesus is greater than that because He saves us from the greatest villains of all, sin and death.
Superman comes about to protect truth, justice, and the American Way, while Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Batman is summoned by the Batlight, Jesus is the light of the world.
While Superman and Batman and other superheroes wear capes, Jesus only wears a simple tunic. However, before He performs His mighty deed, He is stripped. Jesus does not fly into town or enter into town in the Batmobile. He rides into town on a simple donkey.
Like Batman and Superman, there are many programs dealing with the life of Jesus. One of them is out now, and it is The Chosen.
This streaming program, that began as a crowd-funded project, portrays the Gospels through the eyes of Jesus’ followers. I first heard of it about four years ago when the priest at St. Aloysius in Baton Rouge mentioned it during his homily on Holy Saturday. I started watching it soon after and got hooked.
I am a self-proclaimed Bible nerd who has a great affinity for the Gospel of John. That is one reason why I enjoy The Chosen so much. It shows stories only found in John’s Gospel, such as the wedding at Cana and the woman at the well, which can be seen in Season One.
Season Five of The Chosen, which focuses on the week we are in now, came out in theaters at the end of March. It happened to come out during the same weekend as our retreat in Grand Coteau. After I left the retreat house, I drove to Lafayette to watch the first part of the season. It was a way of continuing some of the themes from the retreat.
I went on to watch the next two parts of the season in theaters, and my inner Bible nerd was fired up. I don’t want to give too much away, but the season quotes the Last Supper Discourse almost word for word.
Now, I get all the criticisms of the show that it adds to scripture and all that. One drawback, for me, is the time line is a little off. Again, I’m a Bible nerd. But, the Gospels really aren’t written in a historical sequence anyway. One other drawback is the show did not depict the Bread of Life Discourse, but, in one of those distorted time lines, an episode in Season Four ends with Peter making his great declaration that comes at end of John 6 and is appropriate for us to consider as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ Paschal Mystery.
“As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.’” (John 6:66-69)
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.