Theo-drama

 At one time my family and I were involved in community theater in our parish.  At first just my family - my wife, my son and my daughter – just did it.  They were in the Sound of Music.  I didn’t get involved, but when I saw them having so much fun, I said I have to get involved!  Why was I sitting home?  So when the next show came around, I said I have to audition.  The next show was the Wizard of Oz, so I went to the auditions.  I think I sang, “Happy birthday” at my audition, and I landed a role as a munchkin in Munchkinland.  So I got to sing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” and “We’re Off to see the Wizard”.  It was literally a small role, no pun intended, but being in the show I felt like I was part of something much bigger.  

Once I had the theater bug, more parts came as the group did more shows. One time I played the policeman in the musical Annie.  You know when the policeman says to Annie, who is walking with the dog Sandy, “Who’s dog is that?” I probably had about five lines in the whole show that time we did Annie, but it didn’t matter, I was part of something.  My part, whether it be five lines or fifty lines, all helped move the story from one place to another.  Without my part, the story, the drama, would not be complete.

What a great feeling – the reality that I was part of something big, something outside of myself.  I had indeed found my place.  In that, there was so much excitement.  There was excitement as I prepared for the role. There was excitement as I performed, and when it was done, I stepped back from it and said, “Wow!”

So it is true, not just for theater, but for life itself.  Once we realize that we are being called to a bigger story, once we move outside of our own little stories, outside of our own little plans that we obsess with, that we make into huge stories, those ego-dramas… once we get into the bigger story, that’s when life gets exciting!  What is that bigger story?  It is not the ego-dramas that we are wrapped up in.  It is what theologians call the Theo-drama.  It is God’s story.  Remember “Theo” means God.  The great Swiss Theologian Hans von Balthasar used this term, the Theo-drama.  He taught that the spiritual life is not about shaping God to fit into our little stories, but rather it is about God shaping us for the great and exciting roles in his great story.

Today we reflect on Joseph, who displayed great trust in taking his place in the theodrama.  We also reflect on Saint Paul, who calls himself a slave to Christ Jesus.  He doesn’t mean he was forced into slavery by Jesus, but rather he said yes to his part in the greater story.  He put his whole life into the part. For each of us, what is our role in the great Theo-drama?

- The Servant