Bruce Tallman, who is a spiritual Director, wrote recently about attending a lecture by a Michael Higgins on his new book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis:
According to (Michael) Higgins, Francis was first and
foremost a pastor, a pope of the heart because, although an intellectual like
most Jesuits, Francis believed, like Blaise Pascal, that the heart is greater
than reason. The heart has reasons of its own that reason alone cannot
comprehend. As Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote, “There are things that can only
be understood by eyes that have cried.”
I Believe that when we do just that – let our hearts do the
thinking we approach what has been called Holy Humour. I have written about Holy Humour
previously. So, what then do we make of
Holy Humour? Can there be true humor in such a serious thing as
religion? One author who explores this is Helen Luke in her collection of
essays, The Laughter at the Heart of Things. One commentary I came upon
summarizes the essence of what Luke is saying very well:
What is at the heart of
the matter, according to Helen Luke, is a sense of proportion. Luke
quotes T.S. Eliot and notes that, “Eliot is, expressing here (in the quote) the
identity of a sense of humour with the sense of proportion and the humility that
this engenders”. What is at the heart of things the joy of seeing
disproportion restored to proportion.
At bottom, the humour is getting us in touch with joy – the
joy of being part of God’s creation. After all, to quote a group of
musical religious sister – the Medical Mission Sisters, joy is like the
rain. Perhaps those are raindrops on roses to bring in another
song.
May you be blessed with holy humour on your journey.
Remember joy is a serious matter not to be taken too lightly – too much of the
time.
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