“You Know Him?”

January 18, 2023 

Fr. John Riccardo 

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”’ And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” - MARK 5:24-34

This scene was depicted in a most extraordinary manner in a recent episode of The Chosen. As with all of the episodes of this series, the writers use their imaginations to fill in the pieces that the Holy Spirit opted not to inspire the sacred authors to include in their Gospel accounts. I know there are some who don’t care for this “creative license.” I know others who see The Chosen as something like “St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises on screen.” We in ACTS XXIX fall into the latter category. 

St. Ignatius encourages the retreatant to employ his imagination when praying with the various Gospel passages that serve as the fodder for the hours of meditation that go on each day while on retreat. For example, when praying with the passage of the annunciation, the retreatant is told to ask the Holy Spirit — who was there and who lives in us by virtue of our baptism — to take us to that house on that very real day in Nazareth. Using our imagination and senses, we are encouraged to put ourselves into the scene in Luke 1:26-38. We are to imagine what that simple place would have looked like, the smells coming out of the rustic kitchen, the sounds of the various people both in and out of the house. And, of course, most of all, to see that young Jewish girl, Mary, going about her day just like any other day. Then — suddenly — an angel (!) appears, addresses her by the incredible title of “Full of grace,” and announces to her God’s plan for her life. We are encouraged to imagine what this looked like, how Mary would have felt like, how she would have reacted, what she was thinking, and more. Obviously, to do these things, we are going to go beyond what is recorded in the Scriptures, but not contrary to what’s there of course. It’s like asking the Spirit to show us a “home movie” that will speak to us as God knows we need to be spoken to.

This, we think, is what watching The Chosen is like. Is it taking liberties? Of course. Are they contrary to Scripture? We don’t think so. Do they portray various scenes or characters differently than how some of us have seen them in our prayer? Sure. But so often they help us enter into the scenes ever-more deeply.

Such was the case, we felt, with the scene from Mark 5 recently depicted. And especially one element of that scene. The woman with the hemorrhage had already been introduced in the episode before, but now we see two of the Apostles, Thaddeus and Nathaniel, come across her away from the town and out in the wilderness. They notice a trail of blood and follow it until they come across her tent. At first, they think she’s dead, due to the copious amounts of blood on the ground. But she awakens and begins to talk with them. They ask if she needs a doctor, and she tells them, “No doctors!” She’s wasted all her money on them for years and has only gotten worse. Nathaniel and Thaddeus then begin to discuss among themselves whether or not they should involve Jesus, about whom she has heard. She gets wind of who they are talking about, sits up more attentively and asks the line that has been haunting us since we first heard it.

“You know him?”

It’s a cry from her heart, a cry of holy jealousy, of longing. It’s as if she says, “Wait! You two have met him? You walk with him? You’ve seen him heal? Heard him preach? Had your lives changed because of him? You are his friends? You know him? I want to know him too!”

When was the last time someone asked me that? When was the last time someone asked you that?

How often do we encounter people hurting in all the ways that we hurt and we share with them that we know Someone who can do something for them? How often are people jealous because of our faith?

O, Holy Spirit, help us in these trying, difficult, challenging, confusing and all so often discouraging days, to let our faith shine forth. Help us to have Jesus always on our lips. Use us to provoke a holy jealousy, that many, many more may come to know Jesus and be rescued from the nightmare that is life apart from Him.