Understudies

Dec 23

During my junior year of high school, we performed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I played one of Joseph’s lesser-known brothers, Gad. My entire role consisted of announcing my name, “Gad!”

This year at St. Francis de Sales School, the spring musical is once again Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I’m excited to see the show, but even more excited to find out who will play Gad. After auditions last week, I ran into the director and asked, “So, who’s going to be Gad?” He smiled and replied, “I don’t know yet, but I’m posting you as his understudy.”

Of course, he was joking. Still, understudies take on a serious responsibility in theater. They fulfill a role in the event that the original actor cannot perform. No matter what happens, the show must go on!

As I enter this Christmas celebration, I find myself thinking about the role of understudies. While understudies are essential on the stage, God does not cast understudies in the world. I don’t believe God had understudies for Mary or Joseph. When God thinks of us, God doesn’t plan a replacement. Blessed Louis Brisson captured this truth when he said, “Every individual represents something great.”

In many ways, this is a relief. We are never asked to play someone else’s role. Yet there is also a weight that comes with this truth. I often catch myself joking when asked to help, “Can’t someone else do it?” Nope, we don’t have understudies.

And yet, St. Francis de Sales reminds us that our holiness is found precisely where we are placed. We are invited, right here, to live out our holiness. This is not someone else’s holiness, but our own. As St. Francis tells us, we are rarely called to do great things; rather, we are called to do small things with great love.

This is the quiet mystery of Christmas. God enters the world not through understudies, but through real people, in real places, with real responsibilities. In our ordinary lives, God calls us by name without substitute or replacement. We are asked simply to remain, be faithful, and do the small things entrusted to us with great love.

God is with us.

May God be Praised!