Meet Thom Sesma
THOM SESMA is a New York-based actor who has appeared in TV (Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, Jessica Jones), Broadway (The Lion King, Miss Saigon) and more. www.ThomSesma.com.
From Thom:
I live in New York. I’ve been very blessed to have worked continually in my chosen profession - my vocation - since I arrived here in 1983, working primarily in the theater, with numerous forays in television and film. I’m a proud member of Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA. When COVID-19 shut down the theatre in NYC, I was appearing in UNKNOWN SOLDIER, a new musical at Playwrights Horizons, and like every other entertainment industry professional, I am patiently waiting for our business to re-open sometime in 2021.
You can see more information at www.ThomSesma.com.
I don’t so much identify as an actor who’s a Roman Catholic but rather as a Roman Catholic who’s an actor. I spent much of my adult life away from the faith of childhood, like most people I know, on a sincere spiritual search for a personal god-figure who could and would justify how I was choosing to live my life. As I became more and more aware that those choices weren’t working at all, and that my grasp of real spirituality was very tenuous at best, I found myself pulled back to the Church by a yearning that I still can’t explain. What a really needed was to have my ego and my moral and spiritual relativity challenged but something truly greater than myself. And from the moment I returned, I found that my life very shortly began to fall into right order. It doesn’t mean that things were easy, or were without pain or confusion. But through it all, I found it was simpler, and better, and that my peace truly rested in God’s will.
It remains important for me now to identify first as a Catholic in order to remain right sized, because of all that time spent putting something else - another god, or my career, or relationships, or anything and everything - first. Calling myself Catholic first of all also ups my game, as it were: it’s possible - especially in such a secular industry where Catholicism is often looked at beneath a raised eyebrow - that I could be the only Catholic a colleague might meet on any given day, or week, or month or even a year. And if that’s the case, I’d better be the best example of the Gospel in action that I can be. That’s not only for them, that’s for me, too. And that’s something to aim for.
My daily routine includes an active prayer life (I start each day with the Liturgy of the Hours - the Office of Readings followed by Lauds, or Morning Prayer) and try to attend mass each day. During the pandemic shutdown, I’ve been tuning into various livestream masses from around the globe. In fact, I’m learning Spanish online right now, and have been “attending” mass via three different live-streams from Spain, via YouTube.
I have a spiritual director, though I confess to not reaching out to him quite as much as I’d like, and my reading habits extend to classic Catholic spirituality, and scripture study. I tune into LOTS of Catholic podcasts and try to view news of current events from a spiritual perspective. I do the same with entertainment, and invariably make a conscious effort to find where God is in almost everything I read or watch or participate in, even in the most innocuous properties and projects.
It’s hard - really challenging - to be a Roman Catholic in the entertainment industry. But it’s really hard to be a good Catholic anywhere. I find solace in knowing that it’s not supposed to be easy. Let’s face it - putting the Beatitudes in action is basically “counter-intuitive.” Like any creative act - writing, acting, dance, sculpture, design, etc - challenge is built into choosing to do them on a daily basis. If they were easy, they would have nothing to teach us, and we’d never improve, we’d never grow closer to the essence of the thing itself. The same is true of our faith. All of the difficulties, challenges, failures and successes are the very things that bring us closer to God. And it is in the doing itself that we find our purpose - and that “doing,” that act of creativity, is really an act of praise given with all that we are or hope to be.
