Catholic Priests React to "The Chosen"

no offense to other i think jesus stories or movies but i find the acting to be actually competent in this one and a lot of times they're they're okay i don't you know want to be mean a lot of religion movies are like yeah jesus please tell me what to do [Applause] [Music] g'day mates my name's father casey and i'm father patrick and this is a pond friar review patrick we have an excellent episode today i think the best of episodes oh my gosh last week we talked about music videos which was fun and terrifying and today we're going to go more of the comforting route we're talking about jesus i love jesus jesus so have you heard of the television show i guess it's not television have you heard of the show the chosen i've heard about it but i've never seen it yes it is the first of its kind it is an episodic show about jesus so it has episodes and it has multiple seasons so all these documentaries there are lots of recreations of the gospel and they're just a two three-hour thing and one of the problems with that is the climax is always the crucifixion which is great right but there are so many other stories to be told and so imagine what you could do with eight episodes all an hour long over seven seasons telling jesus his life oh the depth of relationships the consolations the healings it would be incredible yes so one season has been released for entirely free on youtube anyone can watch it it's gotten millions and millions of hits it might be over a billion i don't know very popular in many countries being translated to all different languages and so i have three clips for you just three little clips to get a feel for what we're doing here sounds great so this first clip is the calling of matthew by jesus we live in the same world matthew next besides what else are you gonna do with a mind like yours [Applause] look at that eye contact a little bit turns around i love that matthew's kind of behind the gate he's hidden he's protected he's got the guards he lives a very very different life than the rest of them he's a real creep matthew oh he's the chief tax collector yes so that means he cheated people and taught other cheaters how to cheat so the poor who were maybe not as wise about weights and things like that people trying to get their fruits sold or whatever it would be he just showed the cheaters how to cheat those people that's a creep yeah not good and so jesus turns around to talk to him matthew what oh man matthews [Music] yes follow me hmm can you think of any more powerful words to hear from jesus follow me you are an instant called on it like what am i going to do what am i going to do what am i going to do i mean look at that face i know i know it's perfect face me yes you yeah and peter wait a minute whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa want me to join you keep moving street treats here do you have any idea what this guy's a street preacher do you have any idea what this guy's done that's what peter says makes perfect sense first of all he's jesus so yes but second of all do i have any idea yeah it's a valid question yeah and i think it's one we hear throughout the gospel at least implicitly but they make it very explicit here like we hear it with the uh the woman who sins but here peter is the one a disciples they're always asking him what are you doing yeah what are you doing no no no no stop i love that they had the roman soldier reach for his uh sword oh man you know because we don't really get that sense throughout the gospels but i'm sure he faced a lot of danger you're coming preaching some ways against the kingdom not directly but against the values of the kingdom people are going to be angry and not just at the end of the gospel i'm sure he faced violent acts all throughout yeah the soldier probably thought it might be a testosterone fight you know a lot of guy with guy and guy stuff either becomes hey buddy how you doing or hey let me talk to you and it's going to be testosterone it might give an insight into matthew's life too yeah he probably had a lot of enemies which is why he's got a roman soldier you ought to have a lot of enemies creep do you even know him yes just like that listen i said what what are you doing where do you think you're going guys let me go look how fancy he looks too you have money quintus protects you no jew lives as good as you you're gonna throw it all away so the guard knows jesus well i'm not sure if he knows him but he knows what he's giving up i don't get it i don't get it jesus line's great here too you didn't get it when i chose you right now you didn't get it when i chose you i'm not a tax collector get used to different get used to different oh beautiful i'm glad we passed by your booth today matthew yes this is awesome shall we the non-verbal celebration you will regret this matthew what's the tablet for i grabbed it without thinking you can put it back no i'll keep it you may yet find use for it a little symbolism there man we're going to write things down it's called the gospel of matthew thank you yeah there's a lot of little subtle things like that throughout where they le i think there's one with thomas where um he's delivering the wine to the wedding of cana and he keeps worrying that he brought the wrong amounts like little subtle things like that they put throughout that's cool where are we going party i'm not welcome at dinner parties well that's not going to be a problem tonight you're the host another i think great subtle point i'm not welcome at dinner parties you imagine the exclusion he felt he was the one of power he was the one of authority and yet he was among the people on the fringes in the same way or i guess in a different way but in the same feeling that the other people had really interesting perspective yeah uh and i think that's really captures who jesus was the one going to the lost and the broken even the rich are sometimes lost and broken oh my oh that's awesomely perfect so first scene calling matthew what do you think love it love it it's got all the nuances of the gospel that make it relevant and fascinating and i love how it's upside down everything goes upside down he walks by and all of a sudden everything's upside down the guy all set goes to not being said at all and then the guard you know the guy's like what are you doing yeah oh yeah no offense to other i think jesus stories or movies but i find the acting to be actually competent in this one and a lot of times they're they're okay i don't you know want to be mean a lot of religion movies are like yeah jesus please tell me what to do yeah you pointed out the kind of facial things the subtle things the non-verbal things incredible very realistic very very realistic all right so our second scene here is jesus now healing the leper very important for the gospels not to spoil this beautiful day or anything huh come on [Music] yeah these people were justifiably feared it's a leper stay back cover your mouth don't breathe don't come any closer i love watching the disciples who we would think is all like good guys and really welcoming and loving pulling a knife on a guy and just saying like they're terrified his very presence is life or death yeah you catch that you're going down mm-hmm i mean your nose falls off your ears fall off your toes fall off right but you're gonna live this life for as long as you live where you're just sick and people don't like you and you're not welcome you don't want anything to do with that wickedly contagious they used to make them wear a bell yeah unclean they just have to go through uncling ding ding unclean and not only that but just the ritual impurity that you're not no longer welcome in the temple you're no longer seen as loved by god because those who are loved by god are blessed with money and rich and uh safety can you imagine being told you may not come to church again yeah you may not enter the church again yeah you're not welcome you're not clean enough god doesn't like you clearly you don't have blessings it's okay john it's okay here we go upside down again get used to different [Music] please please please don't turn the wish from me i won't lord if you are willing you can make me clean i'll leave you until i submit to you if you're willing my sister she was a servant that the wedding she told me what you can do i know you can heal me if you're willing [Music] i am willing [Music] yeah i think it's uh it's always an interesting thing in the gospel for me with the healing of the blind man the different story but jesus asks what do you ask of me and i think you know it's for us it's like well duh he's blind jesus why are you asking this but sometimes i think he wants people to verbalize it themselves to say i mean this for me is of course jesus is willing but are you willing to accept it are you willing to be healed are you willing to then change your life because of it very authentic very real very straight up it's it's just amazing you can sense the desperation in this man too yeah and you can imagine why he asked are you willing because i imagine most teachers weren't you imagine how many times this man was said no to how many times he was kicked out this is his last chance before you know he just gives up on life he's got this glimmer of hope i've heard this man my sister told me about you at the wedding you performed great miracles maybe this guy can help me you know serving the homeless and so many times in places uh they have such an a raw sense of uh today god will provide for me and they just have total hope in it and you can see that in this man absolutely beautiful lens flare and lights and just a beautiful cinematography too and disciples [Music] we're going to defcon 2. i almost prefer the faith in jesus before the healing because when you get the healing then you get faith in the healing sure everybody wants healing it's no longer about him yeah i mean that's an interesting thing about miracles and people always ask why doesn't god perform miracles like he used to and my answer often is because we don't need them anymore what's the point of miracles but to give faith and if you already have faith then these things can be somewhat of a distraction sometimes i sometimes wonder if god isn't saying if you could keep the focus on me i'd provide the healing um but i know he has seen the circus of healing yeah and then trying to i think prove god scientifically sometimes you see these kind of weird history channel things or discovery channel where it's like we found this bone and we're going to test the dna and i don't i think it takes away faith and it puts it in science then the raw faith he had kneeling down before the lord is better than the faith he has in him after he's healed it's just better and as awful as that sounds and i don't want to put anybody in the state of you should stay in your sin or you should stay in your your illness because it's a more pure life but it is it just is i've had some tough times in my life and when you have less and less or little little or the rug is pulled out from under you it's then that your life with him is the most pure because it's all you have right that's all you have that point right there his desperation was the strongest he will ever fight for jesus i think you're right and that's not to say that he won't do great things afterwards and can't live maybe a more understanding with more understanding of what has happened and it can have more depth but in terms of that raw desperation what an awful paradox yeah what an awful paradox that by giving us miracles we in some ways lose our faith a little bit it's this weird thing yeah of course it's not all the time yeah and obviously we've seen some of the disciples being called they have greater faith because of it or at least have their faith materialized and i think that's important you can't just believe something you've got to do something so maybe that's what it does it calls us to action yeah thank you [Music] [Laughter] the guys in the background are having real trouble think about their emotional swing right now they went from fear to shock to now absolute bliss who the heck is this guy i mean you look at their giant smiles now i knew it what guy what can i ever do do not say anything to anyone you don't seek your own order please just tell me this one thing but what do i tell people show yourself to the priest let them inspect you and see that you are cleansed make the proper offering in the temple as moses commanded and go on your way the institution of the church he so confirmed the reality and the beauty and the goodness of church right there was an extra tunic [Laughter] that's one of you just one just one just one that's enough like whatever you say it's powerful this is well done yeah it really is how symbolic here of giving the clothes uh that's they probably wouldn't have done before so now this man has new life he's cleansed not only in skin but maybe in outward appearance it also gives the opportunity for the disciples to show their welcomeness their charity um there's a whole lot going on put on the clothing of christ yup you're a new person green is definitely your color not too shabby i love the humanity of that just a little joke tell no one not likely yeah well i mean that's the story of uh mark's gospel he's gonna be a black mouth over and over in mark's gospel jesus says now go and tell nobody and then it immediately says but he went and told everyone yeah and it's this idea i think we see in mark's gospel that the gospel the good news can't be suppressed no matter how hard you try to keep it secret it's gonna find a way and here comes the circus right and so that's why we get that imagery of the seed all the time in the gospel of mark is the seed is going to grow and we don't know how or why but it's gunny you can't stop it very powerful so now we have our final scene for this episode and i think it is the most powerful for me partially because i've experienced this to some extent i think it's powerful because i never even really imagined this and so this is testimony this is i think the best and potentially the worst of this series because it's very imaginative it's not biblical at all but you can see how this could be real we'll get to it so this is after simon has been called which is a great scene it's just too long we can't look at it he goes and talks to his wife so he is just caught all the fish this is peter yeah uh honey eden we need to talk so i hear what have you heard nothing that makes sense last night you told me to do it let's continue with that wise lady okay so this is his wife now he's just been called by jesus just had his faith confirmed he's been called to follow jesus and now he's got to go talk to his wife um and all that must mean for her i mean oh and he's just rationalizing himself it's just happened 20 minutes ago you know meeting the messiah being called is he humble before her let's see so i worked for hours last night and i couldn't even catch one fish the entire night and then andrew and the boys showed up thank you for that by the way and none of us could catch one fish the entire night it was horrible and this morning we finally gave up and we went to shore but there was this teacher on shore and andrew knew who he was but i'll talk about that later he told me to cast one more time which made no sense but i did it anyway because of the way he rolled his eyes he looked at me and then so many fish showed up they were pouring into the boat so many kept coming that zebedee ended up filling both of our boats enough to pay off the whole debt i eh what um what it's hard to rationalize what's supernatural yeah exactly i like the little thing in there enough to pay off the debt you don't know what that necessarily means i don't know if he's got a backstory don't know if he is desperate himself i imagine fishermen had difficult lives sure clearly not profiteering at this point no i got a debt going i would i love to throw in a little side point here i love that he's kind of jacked i love he's got muscles because he's a fisherman right like he's going to be working hard and often in these movies they're kind of just like dinky normal men but like this man is clearly a working-class man that struggled through life sure he's got to row that boat yep why don't you seem happy well this is hard to explain more than what you just did no it's like the story of elijah and alicia there's a little catch here honey yes alicia was playing with 12 yoke of oxen when elijah the prophet just walked up and threw his cloak over him right a calling to follow him and i love this i almost never see this is a recognition of the old testament stories that would have informed them what they're looking for sure and you almost never get this in these stories where they have an entire world view that is completely different from ours they know elijah and elisha they know all the things that are foretold and so to be able to tell someone else who doesn't know jesus it's like that old testament story that's the whole point that they're in the story this is consistent with our culture right so hey you remember that guy back then he's just like that without delay lasher slaughtered the oxen burned the plow and left everything behind yes the teacher andrew told me but i didn't believe him at first he's in the sign i heard his eyes impossible that's a monster jump i saw it with my own eyes he made boat fulls of fish appear out of nowhere and the words he spoke the one john told andrew was the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world it was him and then and then he called me to follow him and andrew james and john to go where he goes and and to learn from him and he said that i wouldn't be a fisherman anymore but then i would catch people inside of he's just kind of like going crazy right now like all the words are spilling out there's excitement and fear and joy everything all at once and she being a good woman is putting all the pieces together and it's not adding up look look at that face yeah there's too much to handle it's perfect it's the perfect face instead i don't even know what that means but i'm sure what i saw he's the one we've been waiting for all our lives and i want to quit fishing and leave the sea behind to go i know [Music] i want to quit fishing and follow him which means for her i want to quit you hmm you ever had that experience in your life are you feeling called and having to quit someone oh yes both of us stated before we entered both of us had very serious relationships before we entered total pain to do that i know what it's like to be peter right now to be at one point overjoyed and excited for what is ahead for you but then also devastated for having to tell someone what is not ahead for them and what you miss yeah what you miss i mean they i'm sure they have a beautiful relationship they're clearly talking in a way that shows me that they do well talking together it's got to be a a real teamwork to live there debt working she's making wine he's catching fish look at the size of the jugs there's all sorts of real hard work going on there together this parting will be an extraordinary pain yeah and it's not necessarily implied that he leaves her forever and even in the gospel it doesn't say that you know he never saw his wife ever again but it does definitely mean it seems like a day-to-day relationship is going to be very different yeah because i think in this one it's kind of implied he's going to go away for a couple months he doesn't quite understand what's going on but either way something has fundamentally changed yeah so how does she react well i i my hope is that of course that she says um let's work this out you help me understand i'll help you understand we'll gradually get through this we will be faithful and we'll do it together all right well let's see what happens i know i know it makes no sense and i knew it would make you upset all i can tell you is that this is that oh why would i be upset you know he always makes impetuous choices he always does things spur of the moment jumps out of the boat naked i got a million of those on peter she's probably going again i'm not gonna deal with you in this crazy old way again not when it means this much no i love that he even had that little line i don't even know what i'm saying and it's kind of like uh on the mountain at the transfiguration so peter didn't know what he was saying yeah but she doesn't react this way she just says why would you think i'm upset really come here come here oh no that's just the best really this is [Laughter] this is the best ever hmm of course he chose you hmm of course he chose you this is the man i married this is what i've always seen in you um my goodness she's like mom and wife in the same package you know that's not creepy but i understand what you're saying [Laughter] i don't know why he did i tried to tell him i'm a sinful man everyone is sinful i don't know what this means i don't know yet how i'm going to provide i don't care about that why are you crying because someone finally sees you what i've always seen you know what i will travel sometimes i don't want you to feel abandoned you have to go with him how could i feel abandoned i feel safe oh whoever wrote this nailed it how could i feel abandoned i feel saved it's so consistent with everything i've been taught yeah and i could understand i mean this is the perfect wonderful reaction i could understand if she was angry right because she has every reason to go off like a good jewish woman would right you got to be kidding me she has the reason you're you're leaving me yeah but she can see the bigger picture which is let's not lose this small little thing for the fact that the savior has come and i think that's what she's focusing on you know what you know what really clues me in on this she must be extremely prayerful she must have the predisposition for the waiting of the savior she must just be that empty vessel waiting for him to come and she sees it in his eyes like he saw it in jesus's eyes well i mean if you're married to peter you're probably also really patient too oh gosh what a nut job i love peter he is one of my favorite saints and it's because of his kind of hard-headedness and yeah like you said jumping off the boat instead of just waiting for it to dock yep he feels in the moment so we've seen three scenes now we've seen just small little clippets the um the end of the season only gets you know a few minutes into the gospel i mean we really don't go far we're trying i think they said six or seven seasons maybe it's gonna go a long way first initial thoughts here extraordinary well done riveting uh of course i have a predisposition of interest and i've been around the block with these words sure and i love the inferences i think the inferences are valid sometimes they're stupid and wrong this doesn't come across like that to me at all it's very human i think that's why it's it's relatable even though it might be taking some liberties and it does take some liberties you can relate to it because it touches us on a human level best thing about it it's still always always all about him yes it's he's the only one he yeah without him there's nothing it's it's uh stepping on grapes without him which is coincidental that you say that because jesus is actually not the focal point of this series at least in the first season it's all about the background and it's all about this kind of guy we've heard about and i'm sure he'll take more of a focal point as it goes on but this is all about learning who peter is and nicodemus and mary and some of these other things and how they're affected by this guy oh you can't deny what you've shown me even if he wasn't even in the scene it's all about him exactly exactly and i think that's the power of it is he doesn't even have to be there to change the world he is oh perfect and what a great image then for after the resurrection where he's literally not there he's there in spirits but he's not physically there and yet you would be moved by these people right because they're not building their own kingdom they're not after anything ulterior they're filled with something you can't explain i'm really drawn into this right now and what i'm praying for is that somehow or other all the folks that once they encounter him demonstrate radical amounts of humility and self-sacrifice because you know sometimes religious movements make you better make you above make you sought after you know i worry about you with all of your wonderful uh ministry that you'll stay this way like i can't believe he took me and picked me and that humility that's for me the real fruit of the kingdom of heaven that it's a love and humility if it starts being anything else from anything else about anything else i got real suspicions i think it's false yeah jesus is my source of power that now i can do what i want name it you name it there's a whole list it's the misinterpretation of the philippians quote i can do all things through christ who strengthens me except it's not about all things that i want to do it's that i can do all things that he wants me to do that there's nothing that is outside of his control exactly and i think we misinterpret that sometimes that i have my own world and now i'm gonna get like the special jesus juice that will make me strong let me use him yes that is not uh what our gospel is about and that's not what this captures this captures a transformation a conversion yeah what i love most about being franciscan is we're humiliated on a regular basis you know there's no chance too many of us getting up there we walk around in funny clothes and take some of the worst jobs around oh the questions we get sometimes we're like mike road dirty jobs in the church some bishops have a hard time with us because they don't like the fact that we we hold on to folks everybody else is discarded they struggle with our appreciation of human beings in their sexuality in their immigration issues in their poverty yeah and they're being underrepresented one of my most uh challenging uh realities in ministry is how long suffering the black community is in the united states and i can't i can't stand it anymore i just have to be about it so and you've done great ministry with that for the last 15 years it's uh hardly called great it's something and it's on the way and we'll keep going following him but there's no shortage of humility yes when you do these things so not too much worry about us becoming proud i love uh i think even just the title of this the chosen you know it's not called jesus it's not called the savior it's not called messiah in that way it's you know it's all about him but it's not about him it's about all those who are affected by him which i think is more effective for us because we are the chosen yeah in some ways this is our story just like we related to that last passage i imagine if you watch these because of the humanity because the raw emotion you'll be able to say this is 2000 years ago in palestine that's completely different from me and yet that's me that's i've been healed like that i've been called oh no i'm chosen uh what does that mean yeah and you are chosen you are chosen oh no what does that mean what does that mean yeah it means that you are to follow jesus and something that i talk a lot about when people ask me to come to parishes we talk about discernment and people always going to say well what is my purpose in life what has god called me to be and we always frame that in kind of what do i want to do when i grow up and i guess that's that's a practical example of that yes but i think it's much more practical for the day to day to say wake up every morning and say how am i going to follow jesus today do you see him looking in your eyes do you allow this sort of thing and you're quiet do you see him just looking at you like he did at matthew yeah oh it's everything to do that and then take your skills too right he brings his book with him i think you'll find use for that you know i think we have this image sometimes that we follow jesus we have to be a completely different person throw away our whole old lives yes we need to throw away our sin we need to throw away some of the bad things but god gave you gifts for a reason yeah it's to transform them for his purposes he's called fisherman if you're a dj maybe and you become a friar you know maybe continue doing that we had a great block party here in macon georgia lit up a can yep so overall i've seen just a few episodes i plan to watch the whole thing when it comes out and just really fantastic i think it would be appropriate now just for a minute or so to offer some caution with this because i do have some concerns okay so one concern i have i think with all uh jesus movies or depictions is that it does take a lot of intellectual license it does take artistic license it requires you to fill in the blanks that's not in scripture because really when you read scripture it seems very long when you have to read it all but there are very little details of he looked this way or he was wearing this or they felt this and so movies like this have to fill it in and because of that we might remember things we might believe in things as dogmatic that are not in fact dogmatic for example in this show nicodemus is a main character right so he's got this tiny little section in the gospel of john in here he's one of the main characters with a whole backstory with all these emotions and drives the plot that didn't happen that's not to say it's bad but it does offer us a caution to say let's not put our entire faith in this one person's writing that this is an aid this is not a replacement of the gospel yeah let me confirm for you that historical critical method is extremely important and must be in the other hand as you experience the art of the world absolutely yeah and i do think i love media and i love you know we have a podcast about it brother tito and i we talk about these things we did one episode on uh the depictions of the exodus story and some of them are really fantastic they give sight to things that you couldn't even imagine you're like wow that's probably what it was like but other things are really really awful like just the ridley scott version nobody needs to see that it paints a very different picture so that would be one concern i would have just have a critical eye i would recommend you're gonna watch the chosen read the gospel first and be able to say hey what what decisions are they being made here what symbols are being brought out i think that could make this a very fruitful experience and that extra work will keep you true absolutely any other thoughts that you have based on just these things or just in general watching jesus movies i like how authentic it is to the time and the place the the nuances of face and body language without words are are such an addition that makes a big difference for me i love it and anything i can do to spend more time with this story will help me live out that story that my soul might magnify the lord yeah and it seems to have gotten pretty good reviews across the board there are some people have small issues as i had and i think that's fair but it did consult a mormon an evangelical and a catholic priest and so there is a lot of input in here the creators come from an evangelical point of view so let that be known that it's not a catholic production and it definitely highlights evangelical theology sometimes but they were very cautious to make sure that it wasn't just my church making this and so catholics have been very supportive of this i think they did a good job yeah and nothing's perfect listen what's okay yeah no i don't think we want to throw the baby out the bathwater but we want to be critical with this you know what what is the perspective what is just because it's about jesus doesn't mean it has the best motives and so we want to ask creator why did you make this what's your purpose and i think that's good i hope the purpose here what it seems is they're chosen and so are you which is why we called it the chosen it's you then amazing isn't that amazing it's just amazing father patrick would you like to close us in prayer today sure thank you lord for being you thank you for coming uh thank you father for sending him when we didn't deserve it you're freely given unmerited favor that grace that you bestow on us in christ thank you for the holy spirit which i feel so powerfully in this program and in this depiction of jesus and the followers of jesus and i ask you to help us especially this advent season be drawn even more into the life of christ and into one another's response help us to look past what we think of conventional sinners and see that everybody deep down has a quest for truth and love and to be healed and grant us your salvation we ask this through christ our lord amen we thank you for watching this week if you'd like to watch the chosen you can find it on youtube the chosen we'll try to put a link up here to give them credit for that wonderful production hope you'll check it out and we hope that you will recognize that you are the chosen i can't wait for more can't wait for more maybe we'll do a follow-up episode when season two comes out sounds great see you next week you

Channel: Upon Friar Review

Views: 851,228

Keywords: React, Catholic, Christian, priests, Franciscans, trending, popular, Church, The Chosen, Jesus, Christ, Christianity, Fr. Casey, Fr. Patrick, OFM, religious

Id: WEqbvWX2FmA

Length: 37min 25sec (2245 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020