Grant Me, O Lord, a Good Sense of Humor!
On June 14 of this year, a very unusual meeting took place in Rome between our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and comedians, such as Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and many others from the United States, as well as from around the world. The pope wanted to express his gratitude to them, for as he said, “In the midst of so much gloomy news, immersed as we are in many social and even personal emergencies, you have the power to spread peace and smiles. You are among the few who have the ability to speak to all types of people, from different generations and cultural backgrounds.”
Pope Francis has on many occasions spoken about the importance of having a good sense of humor. He has spoken of his devotion to St. Thomas More, and of saying a prayer each day to this saint for a sense of humor in the very words of the saint, “Grant me, O Lord, a good sense of humor.” The pope expressed to the comedians that, “When you manage to draw knowing smiles from the lips of even one spectator — when I am going to say now is not a heresy! — you also make God smile.”
One who would have been in this grouping of comedians is the great Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. He is known for his weekly 1950s televised half-hour show, Life is Worth Living, in which he drew greater ratings than the popular comedian Milton Berle, who also broadcast at the same time. Archbishop Sheen spoke on many issues facing our country, the world and the daily lives of people, and he did so with a great sense of humor. His humor was part of his style, which made him all the more attractive and his message all the more understandable. He had a great appreciation for making people laugh. He said, “The humorous have this peculiar instinct, too, of the unseen. They pierce our foibles, relieve tensions; they take away the seriousness of life even in serious moments.”
Archbishop Sheen devoted at least two of his televised talks on the subject of humor. One was Why People Laugh and the other was The Divine Sense of Humor. In these talks, as well as others, the archbishop explained that humor is the ability to perceive incongruity in things before us. It is the ability to be surprised by this incongruity and to be able to laugh at it. Archbishop Sheen described that God created the world with a sense of humor, being able to perceive things as they truly are. He explained that a person has a sense of humor if he can see through things. If a person lacks a sense of humor, he cannot see through things. A person who has a sense of humor sees the world as like looking through a window. It’s transparent. He looks out into another world. The words he hears, the things he sees, tell him about something else. To see the world as God sees it is to have a true sense of humor.
True comedy makes us laugh at ourselves. True humor comes from humility. We laugh because we see the incongruity within ourselves and are able to accept it. A true comedy show is one in which we laugh because we see ourselves in the foibles of those characters in the show. Humor that laughs not at oneself but at others is not humor. Humor that sees the foibles of others and pokes fun at them is not humor but pride, pure and simple. Unfortunately, today even many comedians do not make us laugh at ourselves, or see things the way they truly are, but demean and ridicule others. The humor of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the humor of Pope Francis, and the humor of St. Thomas More was far from this. As we look around our nation and our world today, we see the dark humor of Satan in so many ways, and not the true humor of God.
In his presentation on divine humor, Archbishop Sheen expressed that Jesus showed omnipotence, miracles, wisdom, compassion and tremendous patience under suffering. However, the archbishop concluded, “But there was one thing that He does not show … one thing He saved for those who have a divine sense of humor. It was one thing He saved for heaven, that will make heaven, heaven. And that was ... His smile.” We need more today the humor of God, the smile of God and the ability to laugh at ourselves so that we can truly have a sense of humor in the best sense.
Grant me, O Lord, a good sense of humor!
Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
