Humor and holiness

THESE two should go together. While it’s true that holiness necessarily involves suffering, and suffering all the way to the cross or martyrdom, it should never be forgotten that sanctification is a happy adventure.

Unless sanctity is understood and lived this way, we would have serious reason to doubt whether one is really on the right track to his ultimate goal. Most likely, what would happen is that one is simply embarking on his own enterprise without the benefit of God’s protection, an anomaly that has to be remedied.

Holiness is necessarily a project with God. In fact, it is God’s project first, before it is ours. All we have to do is to cooperate as freely and lovingly as possible, using all the powers and resources we have, powers and resources that also are provided for us by God.

It’s in this context that sanctification can be described as something like a reality show. Reality shows are seemingly unscripted shows but actually have a lot of planning and programming put into them.

The work of sanctification is the ultimate reality show where are all players in a life-long drama involved in a very suspenseful and mystery-laden drama, but with God in full control of the whole situation.

Except that in this work of sanctification, the outcome is, as a legal jargon would have it, final and executory, with effects that will run for all eternity. There can be no more appeal to be made. Just the same, we should focus more on the fact that God is in full control of the whole situation, no matter how much we mess it up.

He is the ultimate father who knows how to provide for his children, how to heal what is wounded, how to repair what is damaged. In the end, we are told that his mercy is forever.

But again, in spite of that supreme goodness, with our freedom, with our capacity to misuse our freedom, we can manage to get God’s condemnation. So, we should also do our part properly. And this is no laughing matter.

The need to integrate humor into our lifelong task of sanctification has to be understood on the basis of God’s unwavering love for us. We have no reason to plunge into deep worry and anxiety, since God will take care of everything, for as long as we at least don’t formally go against him.

Yes, we can still commit mistakes and all kinds of sins even with our best intentions and efforts. But as long as we go back to him, everything will be just fine. Those sins and mistakes, in God’s providence, can also occasion bigger graces from God.

We have to be cheerful all the way, deliberately training ourselves in this field, since with our human weakness and some adverse world conditions, we can easily be overcome by worry and anxiety.

Cheerfulness, even in its form of naughty humor, has very salutary effects and advantages. It makes us see things better. It makes us more flexible and more able to handle varying situations.

It gives us some space and distance from events so that we would be able to assess and judge things calmly and properly. And all this aside from its immediate effect of making everybody feel good, which is already a tremendous

In the face of severe trials, joy expressed in wit and humor is a precious element to have. It can only show one’s deep trust and confidence in the providence of God. There’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of. 

There’s the conviction that everything, including martyrdom, is an organic part of God’s saving plan for that person and for everyone else.

A good example of a saint with a tremendous sense of humor is St. Thomas More. He was a renaissance man who knew how to pursue sanctity in the secular world. He liked to have so much fun that he kept a clown and a monkey in his house. He never had the sanctimonious air about him.

He was cracking jokes all the time amid the serious work as Lord Chancellor of England. And when he was finally to be executed, he requested that he removed his beard from the chopping block since, according to him, it had nothing to do with the treason he was accused of committing.

We need to cultivate our proper sense of humor as we go about our serious business of finding and loving God, and of serving others with our whole heart. After all, there’s always a happy ending if we believe and love God.