In a play, the actors don\u2019t speak to the audience they way they do to each other. To us, they say, \u201cIs this a dagger I see before me?\u201d and \u201cIt is the east; and Juliet is the damn-fool who is going to get me killed in the last act.\u201d To each other they say, \u201cYou\u2019re in my way,\u201d and \u201cWill you stop upstaging me?\u201d and \u201cWill you stop stepping on my lines?\u201d and \u201cWill you stop stepping on my toes<\/i>?\u201d and \u201cWhere did that<\/i> come from?\u201d As the audience, we don\u2019t really want to know what goes on during rehearsals or backstage. And it\u2019s the cast members\u2019 job to leave those things backstage. <\/p>\n
More than that, the actors have to engage us, to draw us in, to move us to laughter, or tears, or rage, and keep us in our seats until the final curtain.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a similar thing with the Church. As Christians, we\u2019re the actors, and the World is the audience. We\u2019ve got the greatest story ever told, and we need to sell it to everyone beyond the footlights, from the groundlings on the floor to the jaded aesthetes and bored society ladies in the boxes. We need to engage them, and keep them calling for encores.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Pope Francis has been raising eyebrows, hackles, smiles, and who knows what next with his informal, off-the-cuff remarks. I don\u2019t know whether he\u2019s crazy or crazy like a fox or somewhere in between, but he\u2019s undeniably engaged the people in the audience. \u201cBut he\u2019s not telling the whole story! But he left important bits out! People are going to get the wrong idea!\u201d<\/p>\n
This is true. He\u2019s not, he did, and they have. His informal style is going to lead to real problems in some of our parishes. (And already has, from what I\u2019ve heard.)<\/p>\n
But it occurs to me: he\u2019s talking to the audience, not to the actors. For the actors, nothing has changed; and I hope the Director will make that clear Real Soon Now. But also: it\u2019s not the job of a single actor, even the lead, to bring the play to its complete resolution. That takes the work of the entire cast, not to mention the folks running the lights and the guy at the sound board. And that\u2019s you and me. Each of us has our lines, and the audience is listening.<\/p>\n
So get out there and break a leg!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a play, the actors don\u2019t speak to the audience they way they do to each other. To us, they say, \u201cIs this a dagger I see before me?\u201d and \u201cIt is the east; and Juliet is the damn-fool who is going to get me killed in the last act.\u201d To each other they say, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[10,21,39],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-catholic","tag-christianity","tag-evangelization"],"yoast_head":"\n