Catholic Exchange

Levity and Gravity

Written by

Fr. Dwight Longenecker

in

,

C.S.Lewis once quipped, “You can always tell the pillars of the church because their faces look like stone.” I can remember the first time in my first parish when I cracked a joke in the pulpit. The congregation were astounded and shocked and didn’t know whether to laugh (and I thought perhaps that was because they had forgotten how to laugh).

I’m on the side of the conservatives in religion, but I have to admit that we sometimes have a serious humor deficiency. One of the problems with this is that our culture has too often reduced humor to sarcasm, smut and slapstick. There’s certainly room for satire in humor, but not cruelty and sarcasm, and smut just lowers the tone and slapstick is funny, but shallow. What we’re missing too often is the good, deep down, belly shaking laughter that makes us human. What we’re missing is genuine wit–the kind that is built from unexpected connections, the incongruities and likable foibles of the human condition.

“Adam” means “earth” in Hebrew, so to be a son of Adam means that we remember that we are but dust. ‘Human’, ‘humor’ and ‘humility’ all come from the root ‘humus’ which means earth. So humor keeps us down to earth and the best kind of humor is based on our own recognized humanity and humility. Humor sees the incongruous and hilarious situation that we are creatures of mud with the souls of angels. It sees the sad and silly situation we’re in–mortals who are made for immortality–when the humor pokes fun at our vanity, pride and self importance it opens up a new perception of ourselves and our humanity.

Why then, are we so darned serious all the time? I don’t blame only the conservative Catholics, although Lord knows we’re a pretty glum (and secretly angry) lot, but the liberal Catholics are pretty sober and dour as well with their serious causes and their simmering anger. Why do so many Catholics seem so grieved and grumpy? We need to adopt some of the other dwarves. Why not be happy instead–and if not Happy then maybe a little Dopey.

Where’s the joy I wonder?  The atheist Bertrand Russell was pretty sharp in his assessment, “If the Christians are all redeemed, why don’t they look more redeemed?” The reason to rejoice is that we have been redeemed. We can afford to be optimistic and have a few laughs. God is in charge.

If we are to evangelize, then we need to open our hearts to the enthusiasm that comes with the Holy Spirit, and the root of the word ‘enthusiasm’ is the Greek en theos or ‘God within.’ This is what people will find attractive about our faith–not that we all become goofy comedians all the time, or (God forbid) that we priests become stand up comics, but that we start to evidence the quiet and deep joy that takes God and the business of heaven very seriously, but takes ourselves very lightly.

Nor forgetting G.K.Chesterton’s line that ‘Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.’ We need to take ourselves and all our super serious concerns a bit more lightly, for t a parodoxical truth here–that if we can see the levity in gravity we’ll soon realize how much gravity there is in levity.

Fr Dwight Longenecker blogs at Standing on My Head. Browse his books, be in touch at dwightlongenecker.com

Comments

7 responses to “Levity and Gravity”

  1. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    Amen! I’ve found that my dad uses humor to work through stress or grief. I especially like the line from the article of “We can afford to be optimistic and have a few laughs. God is in charge.” Amen Father!

  2. Ray Sullivan Avatar
    Ray Sullivan

    I keep waiting for a priest, when the gospel is about the vineyard workers all receiving the same pay, even though some only worked an hour, to say, “And this, my friends, was the start of labor unions….”

  3. JMC Avatar
    JMC

    I have never understood why people take things so seriously. I remember being upbraided several times for laughing at something that was truly funny in a situation where my parents, boss, or other authority figure didn’t think it was appropriate. The problem was, with them, it was NEVER appropriate! I would try to inject a little levity into a discussion that was getting too tense for anyone’s benefit, and nearly get thrown out of the room.
    .
    As for what comprises “humor” today…I remember several years ago, someone introduced us to a British TV series, “The Vicar of Dibley.” The whole focus of the program was on the foibles of the Anglican vicar herself and of the various members of what corresponded to a parish council. Three characters stand out in my memory: The slightly dimwitted secretary, the pompous chestertonian “pillar,” and his (also slightly dimwitted) son. Yes, they were stereotypes, but that was precisely what made them so funny. It’s what comedy used to be like; however, the “political correctness nazis” won’t permit that sort of thing on the airwaves, because it “might offend someone.” So instead they give us smut without a single thought of those of us who might be offended by that, and make the father a bumbling idiot in every sitcom that features a family, and never mind anyone who is offended by that. And if you don’t want to take either of those two routes, the only permissible option left is slapstick.
    In the 1970s, there was quite an uproar when an artist did a piece called “The Laughing Christ.” Most considered it supremely disrespectful; I always loved it, though I was never able to get my hands on one for myself. You rarely even see it around anymore. Despite that fact, however, the situation, at least in the churches I’ve been to, is no longer quite so dour. While we still do have our “pillars,” who frown when people laugh at the priest’s jokes or applaud when the choir does a particularly stirring piece, for the most part the famous quote about “laughter and good red wine” is very true.

  4. JMC Avatar
    JMC

    Oh, and by the way, I’ve made that picture at the top my desktop wallpaper; it’s a great reminder to lighten up! ;D

  5. Genevieve Avatar
    Genevieve

    I really enjoyed this article this morning. I want to be with my Catholic friends and non catholic who can enjoy the funnier side of life.. I have gone through a lot of sadness as I am in my 70 s , I am tried of crying and want to laugh more and just find joy in all things. Lately I think I am achieving it because I find myself laughing even when I am alone in my apartment. God Bless Dwight Longnecker.

  6. catholicchristian Avatar
    catholicchristian

    Every time I hear something like this, I’m reminded of Jesus joking with his disciples: “It will be harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through The Eye Of The Needle.”

    “The Eye Of The Needle” is a small gate, only about 4 feet high, in the walls of Jerusalem. In order for a camel to pass through it, it must be completely unloaded of all its goods and wealth, be forced down to its knees, and basically urged – read “smacked” – through the gate, which generally happens with a lot of camel bellowing, all of which makes for a rather amusing spectacle.

    For the disciples, one can imagine how THEY would have imagined a rich man being stripped of his wealth and finery, forced to his knees, and going through the small gate of the Kingdom of Heaven on hands and knees, bellowing in protest like a camel.

    “The disciples were amazed,” writes the evangelist. I think a more accurate line would have been, “The disciples fell over laughing.”

  7. marguerite Avatar
    marguerite

    When a priest jokes at Mass that a man is not afraid of the devil because he married the evil one’s sister, where is the humor in that. In fact, it’s insulting and makes the evil one trivial and benign. When priests joke on the altar, they are pretend entertainers and wannabe comedians. There’s a time and place for hilarity, but not as a precursor to the re-presentation of the Lord’s death on the Cross at Mass. What kind of laughing took place on Calvary, except for the demons mocking Our Holy Redeemer.

Leave a Reply

More posts