Fr. Martin, SJ, author of “Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life” writes that God wants us to be happy and that we are called to be joy-filled. Life can be serious for all us but without a sense of humor to see the absurdities in life, we are doomed to live mundane lives.
Fr. Martin writes that Jesus had a great sense of humor. We see his playfulness and humor in the Scriptures through stories such as the parables. The analogies he tells the disciples, the crowds, and others are pretty amazing. Picture a camel squeezing through the eye of a needle…. Now really, who would ever think of such an analogy? You have to chuckle … can’t you see this long necked creature morphing into a weird thin, rubbery figure like Roger Rabbit.
I went to Fr. Martin’s talk on humor and joy this past Autumn at St. Ignatius parish in downtown Baltimore. His talk was a preview of the book. He used humor to address some of today’s challenges. Yes there were lots of jokes and most of them were about Catholics. So, take a departure from the norm and pick up a copy of his book. This is a video of Fr. Martin previewing his book. Enjoy!
Tags: Between Heaven and Mirth, catholic, James Martin, joy and humor, Religion, scripture, SJ, spiritual life
