An Audience of One (dedicated to Fr. Paul Vuturo)

What if you threw a party and only one person came? What if  only one friend attended your big stage or movie premiere or you waited hours before your debut CD sold a single copy? How would you feel? ...

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I remember in my high school years being part of a stage musical production: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (no, Deacon Michel did not sing or dance, I moved props). Anyway, there were so many rehearsals, and preparations made over the months before that we were (or at least I was) anxious as the big day approached: what if no one came? or just a few or only one ? It would be devastating, especially to emotionally fragile teenagers (yes, Deacon Michel was a teenager once). This memory came flooding back after all these years as Fr. Paul spoke of his role as a pastor, especially in the context of coordinationg various minitries. He said it's like being a conductor in an symphony; he has to know all the parts, bring them together and harmonize them so that it produces something beautiful for the audience. Now here's the clincher: he said we were all performing before an audience of one: - God.

Thanks for that insight and so many more Fr. Paul!

As a deacon I interact with a lot of people in a variety of settings: Mass, baptisms, weddings, wake services, classes, etc. Being employed I interact with co-workers and clients, being a husband, father, sibling and relative I interact with family, and I intereact with my dear friends. In all this I'm sharing life, love, hopes, dreams, disappointment, fears and anxieties; the length, height and width of human experience. This does not make me unique for in fact we all do as part of this grand cosmic drama we call life. And we do all this before an audience of one: - God.

I remember on opening night of our concert performance, constantly peeping from behind the curtains to see the hall filling up and the sense of relief that came over me. I remember the performance of a lifetime and the roar of the appreciative audience's applause. The reward of all our hard work.

When my life's work, our life's work, is over and the final curtain falls I hope to hear for me and for you, shouts of 'bravo', 'well done!' Thunderous applause from the audience of One.