Each year, the eighth grade class at my Catholic elementary school put on an end-of-the-school-year-musical to showcase their talents and give them a moment in the spotlight before becoming smaller fish in a much bigger pond. Over the years, there had been a number of memorable shows including: The Music Man, Oklahoma, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and The Sound of Music. However, when our turn came along in 1986, our teacher announced that we would be doing Jesus Christ Superstar. None of us were happy about it. We had religion class everyday. We attended Mass at least once a week. We prayed the rosary on Fridays and honored Saint Feast Days throughout the year. The last thing we wanted to do was some religious play that emphasized a story we knew all too well. We were rebels and we wanted to do something different that would allow us to break out of our collective shells.
Then we heard the music. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s controversial rock opera was like nothing we’d ever experienced before. Full of hard rock guitar riffs, Robert Plant-style wails and catchy lyrics, it is the show that turned the theater world upside down and set the stage for Godspell, Hamilton and a host of other shows that sought to give history a fresh perspective in addition to a funky backbeat. Needless to say, we fell in love with it and were determined to give it our all.
For the first time, John’s gospel made sense to me. The show put the narrative into words I could understand and help me relate to the passion story in a new way. I felt a strange sympathy to Judas’s plight. I saw the humanity of Jesus begging for His life in the Garden and shook my head at how clueless the apostles could be at times. One of my favorite songs in the show is “This Jesus Must Die” in which the high priests plot to kill off Jesus out of fear that he could upstage their position and usurp their authority. The song takes today’s gospel and flips it on its ear as the Sanhedrin vacillates between ignoring Jesus, jailing Him or trying to get him executed:
“How do we deal with this Jesus mania? How do we deal with a carpenter king? Where do we start with a man who is bigger than John was when John did his baptism thing?”
I’m sure my mother thought I had lost my mind when she caught her 13-year-old dancing around the house and warbling lyrics such as, “Fools, you have no perception! The stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high! We must crush him completely, so like John before him, this Jesus must die!”
“Julie, do you have to sing that song with such…enthusiasm?” she asked.
“But mom, it’s soooooo good!” I told her. “These guys…the high priests…they don’t know what to make of Jesus. They don’t know if he’s the Messiah or not, but they know he’s different and he’s making an impression on the people and that makes them nervous so they hatch this whole plot because they are scared…”
“Yes, Julie…I know the story,” she replied, shaking her head.
Discovering Jesus Christ Superstar was one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my young life. Told through the “devil’s music” of rock and roll, it grabbed hold of me and became my prayer. When my faith wavered, I only had to put on “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and let my feelings out. When I was angry with God, I could challenge Him to show me just a little of his omnipresent brain through the lyrics of “Gethsemane” and when I made the wrong choices or turned my back on Him, I could stand before Him pleading not to be “Damned For All Time.”
To this day, Jesus Christ Superstar is my favorite musical and whenever I hear those familiar riffs, I can’t help singing along. I find a part of myself in every character, Jesus, Mary, Judas and even those holy men who felt threatened by a “scripture-thumping hack from Galilee.”
Today’s readings for Mass: EZ 37: 21-28; JER 31:10, 11-12ABCD,13; JN 11:45-56
