A few weeks ago I had a wonderful experience in the theatre. I went over to Broadway to see a revival of Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town.” The distinguished playwright Edward Albee claimed that “Our Town” was the best American play ever written. I would not argue with him.
The play is set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire. On the surface, the play is about the inhabitants of Grover’s Corner, but it is really about what it means to be human.
In one scene, a young girl is telling her brother about a letter that a friend of hers, Jane Crofut, received from her minister.
The letter was addressed in the following way: “Jane Crofut, The Crofut Farm, Grover’s Corner, Sutton County, New Hampshire, United States of America, Continent of North America, Western Hemisphere, the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, the Mind of God.”
Immediately, the question of our relationship with God is raised, and the view dramatized in Wilder’s play is absolutely beautiful.
The letter to Jane Crofut in the play could be addressed to each of us. We are the beloved of God.
I saw “Our Town” on All Souls Day. I think the celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day are examples of Catholicism at its best.
That weekend, on All Saints Day, billions of saints were being honored and prayed to by billions of Catholics worldwide.
Every saint is being prayed to: the Blessed Mother, Saint Joseph, Saint Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, and the countless saints who have not been officially canonized.
Billions of prayers are being offered to them by Catholics around the world. I find that awesome, even mind-boggling. Talk about Catholicism being a religion that offers a cosmic vision of reality and the human person!
Catholicism calls us to accept the most profound view of the human person, a view unequaled by any philosophy. No philosopher could have created this vision. Only God could create it.
The two feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day are like a prayer explosion! Reflecting on the two feasts, we are reminded that Catholicism calls us to broaden and deepen our vision of salvation and redemption. I think it was James Joyce who said, “Catholicism means here comes everybody!”
At one point in Wilder’s play, a character becomes aware that we frequently do not appreciate the presence of other people in our lives, even people in our own families.
Realizing this, she becomes very upset. She sees clearly and deeply that other people can be tremendous blessings in our lives and that we frequently don’t appreciate the presence of those people.
She asks the character identified as the stage manager, who is a kind of stand-in for God, “Does any person appreciate living every moment?” His response is, “Maybe the saints and the poets. They do a little.”
I have seen the film “Our Town” several times, and a few years ago, I saw a production that starred Paul Newman as the stage manager.
This time, I think I appreciated the play in a new way. Perhaps the spiritual dimension was more obvious to me. I don’t think I was reading into meanings that weren’t really there.
Rather, I felt I was discovering spiritual themes that I had not noticed in previous viewings of Wilder’s classic. I know Albee’s statement about “Our Town” does not seem to me to be an exaggeration.
At St. John’s University, I teach honors students a course titled “Introduction to the Philosophy of Person.” More than 2,000 years ago, Plato presented his philosophy in Dialogues, which were like short stories or mini-plays. I think stories are a wonderful way of helping students appreciate the importance of philosophy.
I wish I could take my classes to Broadway to see this latest production of “Our Town.” It would be easy to relate some of Wilder’s wonderful insights with what I am trying to accomplish with students in the honors courses.
I can’t do that, but I do what I think is the next best thing. I show them two feature films that I think are masterpieces. The films dramatize some of the philosophical insights that the students and I think about and discuss in class.
As I write these reflections, I am wondering if I can persuade The Drama Club at St. John’s to perform the play in the future.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.
