Robaird O’Cearbhaill
Hong Kong Correspondent
Famous US comic TV show host, Stephen Colbert, is dedicated to being Catholic: “I am here to know God, love God and serve God,” he said in an interview with New York Times magazine. He is also a Sunday School religious teacher for children for first communion classes.
Colvert’s zeal comes from his mother’s upbringing. He was the last of her eleven children. “She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain — it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”
These comments, in the same interview, were about Colbert’s reaction to an air crash tragedy where two closest brothers and his father died, when he was 10.
“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so,” he said.
However Colbert said the tragedy overcame him at University but he finally got over it. “Belated grieving is what it was, and it lasted till I got out of college,” he said, and added, “my mother was instrumental.”
That influence Colbert warmed to in tribute after her death. “She knew more than her share of tragedy. But her love for her family and her faith in God somehow gave her the strength not only to go on but to love life without bitterness and instill in all of us a gratitude for every day we have together.” And he added: “She was fun.”
Yes “fun” was there in Colbert’s upbringing in a lively loving household and that’s where his humor began. His brothers, especially one, were jokers, so he had to compete for laughs with them, too. Their mother had a beneficial effect, too, in their play. She was trained to be an actress and encouraged singing and dancing at home.
Colbert enjoyed theater and inspired him. As he put it: “You’d be crazy not to take that as a hint. It’s the only thing you work hard at.”
Despite aiming for serious acting, he joined a comedy drama group when his forte arrived, via the successful Colbert Report show.
His fake news show not only spoofed hard right wing, absurd individuals, but his riches.
“But if we’re just concentrating on the poor, helping the poor, that leaves the rich out — guys like me! … We need more help. The poor shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. A camel can get through the eye of a needle more than a rich man can get into heaven. I need help more than a poor person does.”
Colbert even used his irony when testifying to Congress over sensitive illegal, agricultural immigrant workers: “the obvious answer is for all of us to stop eating fruits and vegetables.” (Photo: CBS Studios)
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