From events in my own life I firmly believe that God has an exquisite sense of humor.
True Man and True God
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
People who understand little to nothing of Koine Greek and Latin often make stupid statements betraying their ignorance. A Tweeter with a Latin name like Vir Desideriorum (Man of Desire) should probably know better than to do that. Having said that, I like the art which he posts on his Twitter page.
https://x.com/VirDesideriorum
BTW, if you want to learn Latin, then follow this man on Twitter:
https://x.com/latinedisce
And use this YouTube web page for both Latin and Greek:
https://www.youtube.com/@ScorpioMartianus
Luke Ranieri (who goes by the pseudodymn of Scorpio Martianus on YouTube) is an excellent teacher of both languages. With resources like this, one needs to no longer be ignorant even if one may never become fluent in either Latin or Greek.
And here I thought that all of those many days spent in the basement of Angell Hall learning conversational Latin were of limited utility.
Both statements are true … Jesus has a sense of humor and scripture makes no mention of Him laughing.
There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4)
We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. (Matthew 11:17)
Perhaps while going about the serious business of saving humanity, it wasn’t considered a time to laugh?
“Perhaps while going about the serious business of saving humanity, it wasn’t considered a time to laugh?”
I doubt if such a somber God could create such a vibrant world.
The image of Jesus and Mary playing with the water while cleaning his hands is Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is beautiful..yet fictional. (?)
This too could be fictional;
The most holy Mary understood, more than any tongue can explain, the value and excellence of tears, and at the same time the foolishness and danger of laughter and human enjoyment. For, while all the children of Adam, though they are conceived in original sin and afterwards incur many other actual sins, give themselves over to laughter and gaiety, this heavenly Mother, being without sin at her Conception and after, was aware, that this mortal life should be consumed in weeping over the absence of the supreme Good and over the sins, which have been and are committed against God. For the sake of all men She wept over their sins, and merited by her most innocent tears the great consolations and favors of the Lord. Her most pure heart was in continual distress at the sight of the offenses committed against her Beloved and her God; her eyes distilled incessant tears (Jer. 9,1), and her bread day and night was to weep over the ingratitude of sinners toward their Creator and Redeemer (Ps. 41, 4). No creatures, not all of them together wept more than the Queen of Angels, though for men, on account of their sins, their is abundant cause of wailing and weeping, while in Her there was cause only for joy and delight on account of her treasures of grace.’
Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 90
Either way, If we take Ven. Agreda’s writings and practice humility while we have breath, one day maybe we will see the Laughter of Christ when all make it home who were called home.
I’m the most prideful in the bunch.
-please pray for me-
I think the reason behind some of our reluctance to accepting laughter from Our Lord has more to do with the Church today than those first days of His Church.
Many (myself included) are loathe to ally ourselves with the audience ingratiating dog and pony show antics of too many modern clergy. As such, I am disinclined to talk of Christ laughter, though I firmly believe in it. He was as a matter of dogma truly human, and perfectly so. Perfect humans laugh AND cry.
Additionally, Christ’s ministry was (indeed, is) a rescue mission in a disaster area. Do the same people who want to emphasize Christ laughing also expect the rescuers in LA to be cracking lots of jokes?
Do the same people who want to emphasize Christ laughing also expect the rescuers in LA to be cracking lots of jokes?
I have dealt with lots of very tense situations in my 43 years at the Bar and I have normally found that a bit of light humor on my part often helps ease the tension.
After my son died, my Bride and I found relief from our grief in recalling humorous situations with our boy, a practice we continue some 11 years and counting.
From Kipling’s Epitaphs of World War I:
A SON
My son was killed while laughing at some jest.
I would I knew what it was, and it might serve me
in a time when jests are few.
(Kipling’s only son was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915, shortly after his 18th birthday. His body was never recovered. He wrote a two volume history of The Irish Guards in the Great War, the regiment in which his son served.)
He that provides the rain. He that controls the wind, can say enough is enough if He so chooses.
I don’t His ways but Hollywood has been walking a very fine line;
https://youtu.be/0NHBLpvIXlk?si=mJzzhTwHrAMsWWz1
“I doubt if such a somber God could create such a vibrant world.“
… And yet, true God and true man. What mas cracks jokes on the way to His crucifixion?
Saint Thomas More on his way to have his head chopped off asked the Lieutenant in charge to give him a hand mounting the scaffold. He said he would fend for himself coming down.
After reading the humor of St. More as he neared the gallows another Saint came to mind;
St Lawrence
Feast Day: August 10
Born (about) 225 – Died 258
This famous martyr of Rome lived in the second century. He was one of seven deacons who were in charge of giving help to the poor and the needy. Then big trouble started and the troublemakers who did not like Christians decided to kill Pope St.Sixtus II. As they took the Pope away for execution (to chop off his head), Lawrence followed him weeping. “Father, where are you going without your deacon?” The Pope answered, “I am not leaving you, my son, in three days you will follow me.” Full of joy, Lawrence gave to the poor the rest of the money he had with him. He even sold expensive church vessels so he would have more money to give away. The prefect of Rome, a greedy man, thought the Church had a great fortune hidden away. He ordered Lawrence to bring the Church’s treasure to him. The saint said he would, in three days. Then he went through the city and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. He showed them to the prefect and said: “These people are the Church’s treasure.” The prefect was furious. In his anger he asked them to kill Lawrence slowly so he would suffer more. The saint was tied on top of an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted him. God gave him so much strength and joy that Lawrence joked with the judge saying “Turn me over”. Before he died, he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted to Jesus. He prayed that the Catholic faith would spread all over the world.
Nothing quite like being on the bbq and having a sense of humor.
Excuse me. Not the gallows, but the chopping block.
The account of St. Lawrence that I used was taken from St. Lawrence Primary School wed site.
Saint Thomas More on his way to have his head chopped off asked the Lieutenant in charge to give him a hand mounting the scaffold. He said he would fend for himself coming down.
I was prepared to cite St. Lawrence saying: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side”, but Philip beat me to it. 😀
(The story doesn’t mention whether he was laughing when he said it though.)
From scripture (our primary source of information about our Lord), we know that Jesus had a sense of humor AND scripture makes no mention of Jesus laughing.
From these two facts we can only speculate, but it seems to me that the possibilities are limited.
1) Jesus never laughed during His public Ministry.
2) Jesus laughed, but the authors of the Gospels didn’t consider the circumstances noteworthy enough to report the incident.
3) Jesus laughed, but the authors of the Gospels felt reporting the event would detract from the Gospel message of the radical, narrow path, call to discipleship.
There are probably others, but personally, I kinda lean to #3
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