Friday we went to APT for our last show of the season -- Romeo and Juliet. It's not one of the plays I like, but it was being produced by one of my favorite directors there, so we organized a small group of homeschoolers to attend a school matinee.
It was the best play we saw this season! The first act was hilarious. No stuffy romance here, but all the silly fun of giggling at infatuated teenagers.
The thing that got me was the tragedy of the second act. I think the message I'm supposed to get from the show is about feuds and grudges and fighting. But instead, I kept wondering what would've happened if the pastor had been a faithful father-confessor.
Confessors must not only pronounce forgiveness to the penitent, but must also honor the seal of the confessional. This means not only that they "don't tell," but also that it is as though they never heard the confession themselves -- Jesus did. The priest in the story refused to "let God be God"; he wanted to interfere with circumstances. He wanted to settle the family feuds. He wanted to arrange temporal peace in their city. And so he took matters into his own hands. And it didn't turn out very well, did it?
Of course, there wouldn't have been much of a story if the priest had told the kids to honor their parents, if he'd refused to marry them against their parents' wishes, if he hadn't suggested the whole feigned-suicide thing. I guess stories always need a bad guy. But maybe Tybalt and Mercutio weren't the real bad guys here.
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