But it was alarming to read how the actors in the Play are saddled for ever thereafter – for better or for worse – with the attributes of the characters they represent. Those who play Jesus, for example, attract a crowd of idolising followers worthy of Hollywood, and apparently all of them have had to go ex-directory to spare themselves from sighing conversations from admirers the world over (the admiration not being directed at Jesus’ Gospel message, naturally). Those who play Pontius Pilate are always treated with a certain suspicion. Those who play Mary, apparently, are subject to nervous breakdowns (moral: make sure your Passion Play gives due prominence to the Resurrection and the Descent of the Holy Spirit). And what happens to those who play Judas Iscariot – perhaps this role is doled out to some village miscreant as an alternative to being put in the stocks?

This is all very curious, even if in terms of human behaviour it is probably inevitable. The actors play the characters and are seen to possess their attributes (even if in real life they do not). Whereas in fact Christianity is trying to steer us in exactly the opposite direction: to develop attributes – hopefully good ones – which will enable us to be seen as a Gospel character. And the principal Gospel character, of course, is Christ. For we are now called to be the visible Christs in the world.

St. Gregory Nazianzen has said this in a Lenten text: "We should honour Christ not only at our table, like some; not only with ointments, like Mary Magdalen; not only with a sepulchre, like Joseph of Arimathaea; nor with things which have to do with his burial, like Nicodemus, who loved Christ only by half … but as the Lord desired mercy and not sacrifice, let us offer him this mercy through the needy and those who are at present cast down on the ground."