Comedian Judy Savoy tackles 'Love one another' theme

Judy Savoy

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Montreal

Time and again, comedian Judy Savoy has had to face her greatest fear - the fear of rejection.

She felt abandoned by her father when he turned to drink after a tragic family death and, later in life, her husband left her after 19 years of marriage.

But when Savoy decided to trust God, she received the ability to forgive others and she left bitterness and resentment behind.

The Halifax-based actor and comedian kicked off the Catholic Women's League national convention Aug. 13, addressing the league's 2007-08 theme Love One Another.

Love Jesus

In order to love others, we must first know "the one who is love," Savoy told the gathering of about 600 delegates from across Canada. That means knowing and loving Jesus Christ, she said.

"Christianity is a religion. But first and foremost it is a relationship. . . Perhaps Jesus Christ is not the centre of your life; perhaps God is still distant for you," she said. Even if you already have a deep relationship with Christ or are just awakening to this amazing relationship, "we can all go deeper."

Savoy shared how she grew up in a Catholic Acadian/Irish family in northern New Brunswick, the second oldest of five children, and the second of three girls.

Fear of rejection

One of her biggest fears, she said, was the fear of rejection. When she was 11, her two-year old sister Nancy was struck by a car and killed. She could not comprehend her parents' pain at losing their child. Her father then turned to drink. She felt emotionally abandoned by him.

The way to please him was to get all A's in school.

She found great success in school and in her career but experienced inner emptiness. Though she had grown up Catholic, she read existential philosophers and was not searching for Jesus or for meaning within the faith. Instead, she was searching for love.

Working in television with a budding career as a weather personality and writer/broadcaster for the CBC, she found she was meeting people who had something about them that she wanted. They were Christians.

That made her go into her walk-in closet one day and say, "Jesus, if you're real, I want you."

She said she went outside and the grass seemed greener and the sky seemed bluer, even though she "hadn't smoked anything."

Savoy eventually married a man who became an Anglican minister. But her patterns of trying to earn approval continued. She felt that if she were "not the best at everything then I won't be loved."

Her husband eventually told her he didn't love her anymore and they divorced. She said she hit bottom after this devastating blow and had to choose whether to allow God to lift her up or to "just run away."

She chose to trust God. The first step in her journey was to forgive her husband and the woman he later married.

"Forgiveness is not a suggestion; it's a command," she said. "Because it is a command, God will give you the power to forgive."

The weed of fear

Using a garden metaphor, Savoy talked about how we need to cultivate the soil of our spiritual life and make sure weeds do not choke it out. She said fear is one of the worst weeds and it can come in many forms: fear of rejection, fear of death, fear of life, and "fear of wearing the wrong shoes with that outfit."

"Anger is the child of fear," she said, asking those present at the convention to examine what they are afraid of when they are angry.

Perfect love exists and is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, she said. "If you believe with your head and your heart that he loves you, you will not be afraid."

Savoy returned to the Catholic faith after her divorce. She said she finds in Catholicism a "depth greater than in any other denominations I have experienced."

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