Until The Mask Sticks

In Ancient Greece, actors of the Theater were called hypocrites. That was the technical term and not necessarily a judgment on the actors' moral character. One important element of Ancient Greek theater, and one that is still important for our actors today, was masks for the actors to wear. The actors did not go on stage without a mask, and they were supposed to disappear behind the mask into the role, so that audiences would identify a character more with the mask than with the actor portraying the character, not unlike how Mexican Luchadores are known more for their masked personas than for the actual person they are underneath the mask. To sum up, in Ancient Greece, hypocrites would put on masks for the sole aim of transforming into the character embodied by the mask. The reason that I bring all of this up is because so often in life, but especially in our journey to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ, we feel like frauds and hypocrites. We try to be kind, and then we get lazy or frustrated or selfish or hungry and we walk by on the other side or try not to make eye contact with someone we know but for whom we just don't have the energy right now. We try to forgive but then those feelings of resentment bubble up again and we dredge everything back up because we're still really angry. We try to tell the truth but then we screw up and we can't face the disappointment and so we cover things up. What is the point of trying to be good? What's the point of putting on the mask of being a good disciple of Christ when we just know that everyone will be able to tell right away that we're just some hypocrite in a mask? It's ok if the mask doesn't fit right away, or we can't really see or hear out of it that well, and we keep stumbling and tripping over everything and making complete fools out of ourselves. If we keep being hypocrites, if we keep pretending to have faith and be happy to serve and to love unconditionally, if we keep trying to fake it until we make it, if we keep wearing the mask until the mask sticks, then we just might wake up one day and discover that we are no longer pretending. It's like Alma says, if you don't have it in you to believe, then try wanting to believe, and then let that desire grow in you until you actually believe. If we don't have it in us to be perfect, then we can at least have the desire to be perfect, and we can pretend to be happy and hopeful and hungry to actually be a good person and a devoted disciple and a selfless sacrificer of our time and talents and energies. It is enough for now. Someday we will have made it and we no longer need to fake it. Someday we will no longer wear the mask of a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but we will simply be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. I hope that we will all have the humility and the courage to be hypocrites for as long as it is necessary for us to actually be perfect, even as Christ and our Father in Heaven are perfect.