Note to teachers: you may discern it best to show the video, open it up for general responses: thoughts?

Reactions? Questions? And then discuss these points. I also encourage you to watch the video before
class, read these scripture passages, and share with the students what is on your heart.

We are starting with Episode 4 as the preceding three episodes move slower and are not the easiest to start
with, but we will come back to them in time.

1. MATERIALS
a. The Chosen Season 1 Episode 4
b. Bible (preferably RSVCE)
c. Youcat/Catechism (for reference, even if only for the teacher)
d. Episode 4 Character Worksheet
e. Image of Divine Mercy with the inscription, Jesus, I Trust in You

2. Please be sure to make these points before (or after, if discerned best) watching this
episode:

a. FICTION: While watching the show, it is important to keep in mind that while
this series is highly based on Scripture, it is still FICTION. That means that while
these stories and most of the script can be found in scripture, the director and the
actors have taken ARTISTIC LIBERTY to “fill in the gaps” with educated guesses
on what likely happened or was said between the lines of the actual Scriptures.

b. SPECULATION: This kind of thought and prayer is nothing new for the Church!
She has always had a branch of theology called Speculative Theology, that is,
based on what Scripture has already revealed to us about what Jesus actually
said and did, as well as from the Tradition of the Church, we can speculate
(prayerfully make our best educated guess) what more he said and did. The
Church has a great treasury of speculation from 2000 years of saints, so there is
room in our prayer to ponder what they have speculated, but also to use our
imaginations in prayer, as well! We have to be careful here, though, because we
always must specify “this is speculation” so as not to confuse ourselves or others
with actual Scripture. An important thing to remember is we may always (and
should!) ask the Holy Spirit to guide our prayer, and that we can ask St. Peter or
St. John or Mary (and most certainly, Jesus!) to guide us through the Scriptures!

c. BASED ON A TRUE STORY: To help describe this: many movies and books
today are “based on a true story”. That means that the basic story line actually
happened, but the little details that either weren’t recorded or remembered are

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 “filled in” by the directors based on the research they’ve done to make the best
possible guess. We can be certain that Mary said more than the 4 sentences which
are recorded in Scripture, and that Jesus had countless conversations, went to the
bathroom, slept, ate breakfast, and worked many more miracles outside of what
is recorded in Scripture. In Fact, St. John even says,
i. 25 But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to
be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would
be written. John 21:25

d. SUPPORTED BY RESEARCH – a priest, a rabbi, and a biblical scholar are

consulted for each episode of the Chosen, and the man who plays Jesus, Jonathan
Roumi, is a devout Catholic. The producer is protestant, so this is why it is
important to look at these videos through a Catholic perspective.

e. KNOW YOUR SCRIPTURE: want to know exactly what is in the Bible and what
stories/dialogue is not? Here’s a challenge and a surefire way to know: READ
THE GOSPELS! This is a great invitation to dive deeper and get to know Our
Lord better, and therefore be able to love Him more deeply and authentically
each day.

f. BIBLICAL GENRE: The Bible is full of different genres: poetry (Psalms, Song of
Songs), historical (Kings, Chronicles), letters (Romans, Corinthians), and ancient
biographies (the Gospels). This makes a difference in how we read these different
texts. It is important to note that the Gospels follow the genre of ancient
biography. This structure is not necessarily chronological, but rather each other
may switch the order of some events in order to make a certain emphasis. That is
why some of the same stories happen in different order (or do not appear at all)
in some of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all had different
personalities and writing styles (or grammatical abilities: Mark’s original Greek
had pretty bad grammar…so there is hope for us who weren’t very good in
English class…ha!), as well as different audiences (Luke was writing for the
Gentiles, Matthew for the Jews), which made their emphases and what they did
or didn’t include different.

2. INTRODUCE THE CHARACTERS

a. We are starting with Episode 4, so it is important to introduce the characters who
appear, as they are introduced in previous episodes.
b. Please print out the handout so that the students can reference this paper while
they watch the episode. It may be better to allow them to watch the episode first
before explaining all of these notes so they don’t get bored or overwhelmed
before even getting to watch!
i. Jesus
ii. Simon Peter

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 iii. Roman – the Romans were occupying and ruling over the peoples of
Palestine at this time, including the Jews. They did allow the Jewish
people some freedom to practice their religion and have some authorities
and even a justice system (the Sanhedrin), but they were subject to obey
the laws of the Roman government.
iv. Zebedee – the father of James and John
v. St. John the Baptist – he is spoken of in this episode and makes a brief
appearance
vi. Matthew – Jewish tax collector, shunned by his native Jewish people
because he has betrayed them by working for the Romans, collecting
taxes for the Romans. They were typically rich and not really accepted by
either the Romans or the Jews, and were known for sometimes taking
advantage of their fellow Jews for their own personal gain
1. This is the Matthew that wrote the Gospel of Matthew! (see him
writing in this episode!!)
vii. James and John – sons of Zebedee (John will later write the Gospel of
John and 1,2,3, John and Revelation)
viii. Nicodemus – a Pharisee, a Jewish religious leader
ix. Another Pharisee
x. Eden – the wife of St. Peter. Yes, Peter was married!
1. Matthew 8:14: “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his
mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.”
2. If he had a mother-in-law, he had to have had a wife!
3. Here is an example of speculation and artistic liberty: nothing is
recorded about Peter’s wife in the Scriptures. We do not know her
name or even whether or not she was alive when Jesus called
Simon Peter. However, this is the speculation of the director.
xi. Andrew – brother of Simon Peter, originally a follower of John the Baptist

3. SCRIPTURE FOR THIS EPISODE: (it is important to have the students read these
passages from the bible so they get accustomed to its structure and become comfortable
“finding their way around” in the Holy Scriptures.)

a. John 1:19-28 – John the Baptist

b. John 1:35-42 – Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist, and he rushes to tell
his brother Simon Peter that they have found the Messiah, and later brings him
to Jesus. In the film, we see the effect of Andrew’s first encounter: it is so obvious
that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah; he is almost silly and awkward with his
excitement!

c. Matthew 4:18-22 – (remember that this is an eye witness account; we see

Matthew actually sitting there spying with his little book!) Jesus calls Simon,

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 Andrew, James and John. According to the directors speculation, Matthew was
assigned to take notes on for the Romans spying on Simon, which later
developed into this account in the Gospel he wrote!

d. Luke 5:11 - This is the most detailed description of Jesus’ call of the four men
and the miraculous catch of fish. If you’re only able to cover one passage,
please pick this one.

4. LIFE APPLICATION

a. Trusting ourselves rather than God.

i. Simon got himself into deep trouble; because he was so behind on taxes,
he took the matter into his own hands and made a dangerous deal with
the Romans, putting himself and his family at risk. Instead of turning to
God for help, he wanted to do everything himself. His wife pointed out
that he hadn’t been praying for a long time and that this neglect of God
and prayer had gotten him into this trouble. He was doubtful of his
brother Andrew’s joy at finding the Messiah; his doubt of God blinded
him from sharing Andrew’s HOPE in the Messiah. How far did his trust
in himself get him? Trusting ourselves and not God gets us nowhere, and
sometimes into a great deal of trouble. It can also blind us to the help
others are trying to give!
ii. Give an example of a time when you trusted in yourself and not God.
What happened?
iii. Who trusted God in this episode? (Eden, Andrew). What was the result of
their trust?
iv. Give an example of a time you surrendered your trust to God; what
happened?

b. Humilty – Simon was not very humble in his decision to do everything on his
own. We are not omnipotent (all power-full), but God is! He can do anything and
knows all things, so why don’t we turn to Him for all things? PRIDE – this is a
temptation that we can be like God, that we know everything (or at least, better
than others and/or God) and can do everything ourselves. Eden was not too
proud to ask for help, and Simon at last did accept this help from his family and
friends. Not only should we ask God for help, but we should not be afraid to ask
our friends and family (or even strangers!) to help us when we need it. We also
must be ready to help those in need when they ask, or to offer our help when the
need arises.
i. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man! Simon is seeing part of what He is
before God; he is not God and cannot do everything himself.

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 1. John 15: 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me,
and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing.
2. Phil 4:13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

ii. This is an important step in confession: I messed up! I need forgiveness! I

need a savior! However; this is not the most important point, which is
that we are beloved sons and daughters, in need of forgiveness, yes, but
deeply loved by God. And so here comes the invitation: FOLLOW ME!

c. Trust in God – Show an image of the Divine Mercy. This is a great reminder and
a great prayer for us! Whenever we feel the temptation to do everything on our
own (or when we have recognized, “Oops, I am trusting in myself!!”), we can
just take a deep breath and say, “Jesus, I Trust in You”, and maybe even repeat
this several times! This is a great little way to keep ourselves focused on the
reality of who we are in the eyes of God. We are NOT God, we are fragile
humans, but we are also BELOVED sons and daughters of God, and He is always
at the ready to help us when we ask! But we have to ask; He never forces us to do
anything. Jesus, I trust in You, and NOT in myself!
i. NOTE: Jesus will not always solve our problems with a miracle; it is
important to remember that! However, He will always answer our prayers
in the way He sees fit. And while that might not be with some miraculous
catch of fish or some other amazing sign, He is answering in the way that
is best for us.
ii. Also, even the help of friends/family is never going to be enough for us
(they weren’t able to catch enough fish, either), but we are always going to
need God’s help, and not just when things are going badly. A continual
surrender of trust in God, in good and bad, is what will bring us peace and
joy in life: Our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us!

d. Vocation
i. What is happening in this story? Jesus calls his first disciples. What does
this mean?
ii. What happened before Jesus called these disciples?
1. Fishing
2. Simon was trying to do everything on their own
iii. What happened after He called them?
1. They FOLLWED him.
2. They left their nets (physical possesions, their livelihood)
3. They left their father (their loved ones)
4. They left their nets immediately!
iv. Here we have VOCATION!

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 1. God has a plan for everyone! This is an invitation; it is not forced.
But the gift of faith makes following a JOY!
2. Supporting others’ vocations: I just LOVE this line of Zebedee:
“You just got called by the one who we have been praying for our
whole lives and you’re asking what Mom will say when you miss
supper?” Are you crazy! This is amazing!! GO! FOLLOW! His joy
is amazing. If only we could all be so supportive of our own
vocation and those we love.
3. Now, most of us are not called to leave everything and everyone
behind to follow Christ, but each vocation does entail sacrifice:
leaving possessions, loved ones, dreams or career, etc. Discuss what
sacrifices are necessary in each state of life:
a. Priestly
b. Marriage
c. religious life
d. consecrated lay life
e. missionary life
f. single life
i. (more will have to be said about these at a different
time, but its good to at least mention them!)

v. Universal Call to Holiness

a. Everyone is called to holiness; everyone is called to be a
saint! God desires this for everyone! And look at this crazy
group of people He is choosing to follow him! A fisherman
who uses questionable ways to pay his taxes, a betraying tax
collector who suffers with mental disability, a former
prostitute…these are all sinners and strugglers who by the
grace of God, by following Jesus (and as well will see,
stumbling along the way), become GREAT SAINTS!