Grazie, Signore

Recently my good friend Rosalie posted on her blog an insightful reading of the movie Amadeus where she draws a parallel to how the Holy Spirit works in us. I wrote a comment on Rosalie's excellent post, and then between the two of us, we realized it was a bit long for a comment. So here it will live and breathe on its own, expanded for my own blog post, but please do read her original post (and watch the clip she includes at the end which sums up the heart of the film).

I was a sophomore in high school when Amadeus (the film) came out. I went to see it with my Mom at the Elmira 1-2-3, and we both became huge admirers of the film and Mozart in general. I'd grown up listening to classical music, but now I had a much more personal connection with this particular composer. I even wrote a bad teenage poem to Mozart! (No, you may not read it.) It was a spiritual connection, to be sure, and remains so. I pray for him and ask him to pray for me, as odd as it may sound.

What strikes me now in re-watching this film (which I did just a couple of years ago) is that the character of Salieri is actually the focus of the film, not Mozart. That said, I will interrupt myself to clarify that the nature of that relationship and the characters themselves were fictionalized by the writer, Peter Shaffer. He played with conspiracy theories surrounding Mozart's untimely death and came up with a terrific story about a contentious colleagueship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri in the musical court at Vienna. What that relationship was in real life, or the circumstances surrounding Herr Mozart's death are unknown. But reflecting on the characters in the film... 

Salieri's lack of humility in his refusal to accept what God gave him - seemingly mediocre talent compared to Mozart's - and his bitter envy was all grounded in the worldly realm. How much more good Salieri could have done if he had used his gifts for others instead of for himself; for fame, social acceptance, and status. His choice was to turn away from what God was calling him to (whatever that could or might have been), and in seeking after his own self, he viewed Mozart as his enemy. This led him down the road to perdition, as they say, as he purposefully pushed Mozart's mental, emotional, and physical limits which precipitated his death. 

The double tragedy of the film lies in Mozart's death, but also the consignment of Salieri to hell on earth (living in a mental asylum and trying to take his own life). He couldn't possibly rival Mozart's genius, but he COULD have been a saint, which is much more important than being a (for the times) rock star personality in the music world. What a loss! It was Salieri who committed himself to a life of mediocrity, not God. The life he COULD have lived, accepting all things and asking God to reveal his true vocation, he chose not to live. He tried to follow the rules, but his heart did not belong to God. It belonged to himself.

That is the shame of it, and even more so that it describes the lives of millions of people throughout time who choose the same thing. What a loss! Talent is a gift from God, of course, but it's not about "how much" talent we have but what we do with it in the service of God's Kingdom that truly matters. That's the difference between being a true saint - grateful for our gifts and humble in using them for others - and being a "patron saint of mediocrity" full of self-pity that leads to hell on earth, if not actual hell in separation from God in eternity.