Last night, our students and I watched episode 5 of “The Chosen.” One of the beautiful things of this show is they take these glimpses we have of what life with Jesus was like from scripture fill in those words we’ve known and treasured with back stories, character development and dramatic action.
Last night’s episode featured two episodes from the life of Christ – Jesus being lost/found in the Temple as a boy and the turning of water to wine at the Feast of Cana. Both stories are dramatic for a lot of reasons but for today’s feast of Our Lady of the Rosary what was moving was seeing very beautifully portrayed a mother’s love for her son and Jesus’ love for his mother Mary.
Especially how they dramatized this whole scene at Cana in the over the 50 minutes of the episode. The creators made the hosts of the wedding party, the grooms parents, close friends of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So we see Mary there helping the mother of the groom get things just right… Learning of the grooms mother’s fears, worries, concerns – like any parent trying to impress their in-laws and the guests for a party would go through. Then the crisis unfolds: they’ve run out of wine – Mary enlists Jesus to do something. Spoiler alert, he turns ordinary jars of water into an abundance of the finest wine.
Dramatically the episode was incredibly well done and moving. But what was particularly powerful when I first saw the episode, was how the humanness of both Mary and Jesus in a way helped flesh out the beauty of our super natural relationships… first being able to relate with Mary, whom Jesus had entrusted to us as a Mother and then, what Mary always does is bring us to Jesus.
That’s one reason the Rosary is such a powerful prayer – we’re invited to look at Jesus through Mary’s eyes. Yes she is the Immaculate, pure, Virgin Mary – but she is also a very human woman, a loving, caring, selfless, mother. For me, the beauty of this devotion with the repetition of the Hail Mary’s is that it almost provides background noise where I raise different prayers and intentions as I rattle off a list of things on my mind and heart. And just like when I’m talking to my biological mother, some things seemed bigger and more ominous at first, just talking through it, don’t seem as big after. Other things, that maybe are more important that I forgot or slipped my mind, she brings to my attention. Well in the Rosary, Mamma Mary helps us focus our prayer as we rattle through our lives, relationships, worries and praises and then ultimately to be in deeper prayer with her son. Like any good son, Jesus is a Mamma’s boy. He’s not diminished by our talking with Mary. His Father gave us motherhood in the first place – how couldn’t God be glorified in our asking for the prayers, the support, looking to the model of discipleship, wanting the guidance of His most perfect Mother?
May Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us that we will grow in love of her son Jesus.
