Dear Friends, last summer at the NAPA Institute in California, we had a panel discussion on being Catholic in Hollywood. On the panel were two actors and a priest who served in Hollywood at Family Theater Productions. The actors were David Henrie, a committed, intelligent young Catholic who starred in the Wizards of Waverly Place, and Jonathan Roumie, who is now starring as Jesus in the ground-breaking show, “The Chosen.”
When the host asked what it was like to serve in Hollywood as a Catholic and a priest, I mentioned that I had encountered three Jesuses in Hollywood: First was Jim Caviezel, who starred in the Passion of the Christ. He was 33 at the time and his initials were JC which meant to him that Providence had chosen him for the role of a lifetime. They had Mass every day on the set in Italy and Jim is unabashed about his devotion to the faith, to Jesus, Mary and to praying the Rosary daily.
Jonathan is the second Jesus I met in Hollywood, a humble, devout man of talent and integrity. He too prays the Rosary at least daily and shares the Rosary on his Instagram account.
But the third Jesus I met in Hollywood is the one we encounter in every Eucharist, in adoration. He is the one John encountered for the first time when he leapt in his mother’s womb at the approach of Jesus, newly conceived in Mary’s womb; the one John the Baptist pointed out to us as the Lamb of God.
There are only three individuals whose birth the Church celebrates each year: Jesus, our Lord, God and Savior, Mary, conceived without sin in her mother’s womb, and John the Baptist. The Cure of Ars, Saint John Vianney, says of all the saints and angels, certainly Mary is the most holy and revered, but after her comes John the Baptist, who humbly acknowledged that he was not worthy to undo the sandal strap of Jesus.
Think about how this greatest of all the prophets was so on fire with the truth of Jesus that he confronted the proud, murderous king Herod and his adulterous Queen Herodias with the truth of their hypocrisy and sins.
He is the one who paves the way for us today to recognize the real, genuine Jesus in the Eucharist, in the Church, in the people we will meet beyond the Church today.
Every time we begin our day with a simple prayer called Morning Offering, every time we pause to say grace before meals, every time we bless our children as they go off to school or work, as they return home or are put to bed in the evening, we are encountering the real Jesus.
And now here in the Eucharist he comes among us to light within us the same fire that consumed John the Baptist. Amen.
Father Wilfred J. Raymond, C.S.C. (Father Willy), a native of Old Town, Maine, is the eighth of 12 children. He joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1964 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1971. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stonehill College in 1967 and a master’s in Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 1971. He served in ministry at Stonehill College (1979-1992), Holy Cross leadership (1994-2000), National Director of Family Theater Productions, Hollywood (2000-2014), and President of Holy Cross Family Ministries (2014-2022). In addition to English, he is conversant in French and Spanish. He remains a diehard fan of the Boston Red Sox, even though he has served as Chaplain for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
