A saint in Hollywood?
Just got hold of the latest issue of the magazine my old alma mater in Spain sends me regularly. A feature about a movie actor, now also a producer, immediately got my attention.
First, a magazine that tries to be serious in character would normally not talk about actors and celebrities. Second, though I’ve heard of the story before in a tangential way, I thought it would just have a short shelf life, just a flash in the pan, you know.
In short, the article broke my guiding principles. It deserved to be read. And I did. Now, I feel I was not shortchanged in my effort. But I must confess that my prayers and hopes for a definitive happy ending of the still unfolding story have surged.
Is it possible to have a saint or at least a saint-in-the-making in Hollywood? Let’s try to follow the story of Eduardo Verastegui.
A typical actor who started young in his career at 18 as model and singer in his native Mexico, Eduardo enjoyed all the perks of the notorious industry, with “stains” and “scars” to prove it. But at a certain point as he was preparing for Hollywood, grace touched him and led him to a deep conversion.
At that point of the story, I immediately remembered St. Augustine, that pillar of patristic theology who also had a very colorful life before his conversion. But Eduardo likens himself more with St. Francis of Assissi. Of course, I also saw the similarities.
All these conversion stories remind me that God’s grace can touch and fell us anytime anywhere. It’s no respecter of persons. God can choose anyone to be a special vessel of his divine redemptive will for the world.
Think of St. Paul, to cite just one example. Also consider the apostles. They were a bunch of ordinary people, mostly fishermen, whose personal flaws were more obvious than their virtues.
Yes, God can choose anyone. In fact, he chooses everyone since all of us are called to take part in his life. But he sets aside a few to give them a special mission to carry out his plan that is meant for all of us.
But mind you, God’s grace never takes away our freedom. We can even go to the extent of pitting, stupid but true, our freedom against grace, our will against God’s will. Thus, we can have cases like Judas, who clearly misused the divine privilege given to him.
Still, as the Pope told us sometime ago, the final judgment on Judas can only belong to God. We cannot condemn him definitively. We can only judge him for some of his actions, like his betrayal of Jesus, but the final verdict on his entire life can only come from God.
Back to Eduardo, that path that led to his conversion was in the person of an English professor hired to polish his speech for Hollywood standards. It was a woman by the name of Yasmin who, according to the actor, was so consistently Catholic that every class with her left him deeply stirred spiritually.
God’s grace, of course, works in very mysterious ways. As someone said, God writes straight in crooked lines. Eduardo just felt that though he had “everything” in life, he felt empty inside. He was not at peace. He was not happy. He needed to fill it up urgently.
That’s when he sharply realized he had to change his life drastically. And he did it, in a painful road-to-Damascus process, disappearing from the scene for a while. At one point, he thought he would enter the monastery, but he was advised to stay put in Hollywood and do something about it.
He’s now back there, all fired up and has started to produce films. The first one was “Bella”, about a woman who decided to save her baby from abortion. The pro-life movie won the People’s Choice Award in the Toronto Film Festival. More are coming, all infused with Christian values and packaged like any movie.
Eduardo’s story is still rolling. For sure, he is going to meet all sorts of trials. That’s why, we on our part should realize that since we form one spiritual family called “communion of saints,” we should feel the duty to pray for one another, and especially for Eduardo so he fulfills his mission faithfully.
Hollywood is in dire need of conversion itself!
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
