Jesus laughs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike_Stallard
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
CarolAnnSFO:
There’s a good reason for that – in early photography, exposure times were long, and people had to remain still for the whole time. A neutral expression is much easier to hold (still) than a smile. 🙂

Assuming you’re not laughing at someone, with the intention to be hurtful, I just don’t see where laughing is immoderate or a sin.

Crazy Internet Junkies Society
Carrier of the Angelic Sparkles Sprinkle Bag
Click to expand...
Neither do I. Why did God give us a sense of humor??? He gave us tears, why not laughter??? Jesus was like us in all things save sin.(I forget where that is in scripture):o
 
If we aren’t supposed to laugh why does Fr. Max tell a joke after every mass? 😃
 
A Chesterton quote I like on this topic:

Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (1908)
 
40.png
Benedictus:
No. In fact, the Church teaches that laughing can be a sin.
Click to expand...
Hello Benedictus,

Do you have a source on this?

It is hard for me to imagine. Jesus made 150 gallons of wine at the wedding in Cana so the celibration could continue. I find it hard to imagine Jesus standing up in front of the crowd and saying, “But, I don’t want to hear any laughing going on out there!”

NAB JOHN 2:1
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now."
 
JB.:
This says more about the person writing the letter and the editor who accepted it for publication than it does about Christianity.
Click to expand...
I probably shouldn’t ask but, what exactly does this supposedly say about them?
 
40.png
vz71:
Is it possible for an individual to live 30+ years without ever laughing?

Doesn’t sound quite human to me.
Click to expand...
Indeed. Jesus was a child and a teen as well. Don’t children play, laugh, pull pranks etc ?

Georgess brought up a good point about St. John:

**John 21:25 **But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.
 
40.png
Dimmers:
Indeed. Jesus was a child and a teen as well. Don’t children play, laugh, pull pranks etc ?

Georgess brought up a good point about St. John:

**John 21:25 **But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.
Click to expand...
Well, He wouldn’t pull pranks, as that implies something wicked. But, I am sure He laughed. I think we sometimes want to have a Lord who is so decidedly different from us that we can’t see the fact He was True Man, like us in all things but sin. He ate, slept, drank water and wine, hung out with His friends and Family.
 
Steven Merten:
Hello Benedictus,

Do you have a source on this?
Click to expand...
Already posted it several posts before yours.

Please people, don’t shoot the messenger. I didn’t write the Catechism.
 
God has a sense of humor! The size and shape of my nose is solid unequivocal proof 😃
 
Uncle David:
God has a sense of humor! The size and shape of my nose is solid unequivocal proof 😃
Click to expand...
Not to mention my feet … never can find a pair of shoes to fit right.

And of course the good old Australian duck-billed platypus … that’s one seriously WEIRD creature 😃 Second only to the armadillo on the bizarreo-meter.
 
Mike Stallard:
In the Daily Telegraph, which is Britain’s Top Newspaper for Oldies, someone wrote a letter for the letters page. The gist was this: “I cannot be a Christian because there is no reference in the New Testament of Jesus laughing.”
This made me think.
Wit? Lots of it. One liners? Lots of them. Kindly remarks and chit chat, yes, even that.
But is there any reference to Jesus actually laughing?
Click to expand...
What are you trying to say about yourself here - are you a self confessed “oldy” hehe? 😃 😛
 
Mike Stallard:
In the Daily Telegraph, which is Britain’s Top Newspaper for Oldies, someone wrote a letter for the letters page. The gist was this: “I cannot be a Christian because there is no reference in the New Testament of Jesus laughing.”
This made me think.
Wit? Lots of it. One liners? Lots of them. Kindly remarks and chit chat, yes, even that.
But is there any reference to Jesus actually laughing?
Click to expand...
I have not seen any referrence to Jesus laughing, but that does not mean to say He didn’t. Certainly, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ laughed alot in His human life.
Most likely. I liked the scene in the Passion of the Christ
where Jesus was making a table, and I believe he laughed there did he not? In real life, it is not hard to
think of Christ laughing. He is the greatest Man who
ever lived. Iam quite sure He had a sense of humour.
 
40.png
Libero:
What are you trying to say about yourself here - are you a self confessed “oldy” hehe? 😃 😛
Click to expand...
Emphatically!
And now a confession. It wasn’t actually the Daily Telegraph - it was the Spectator. This week (it is a weekly) a letter “proved” Jesus’ sense of humour by referring to him calling Peter, of all people, “the Rock”.
I liked the person above who referred to the Sons of Thunder!
Marvellous!
 
And remember that the children wanted to be near Him. How many children do you know who prefer dour, stodgy, sad people to happy, laughing people?

And Jesus was on close, personal terms with God. Knowing the Truth would be enough to make a person happy. As I heard somewhere, “From sour-faced saints, deliver us.”
 
Mike Stallard:
In the Daily Telegraph, which is Britain’s Top Newspaper for Oldies, someone wrote a letter for the letters page. The gist was this: “I cannot be a Christian because there is no reference in the New Testament of Jesus laughing.”
This made me think.
Wit? Lots of it. One liners? Lots of them. Kindly remarks and chit chat, yes, even that.
But is there any reference to Jesus actually laughing?
Click to expand...
Years ago I participated to my second and last Protestant service. The first time it was a Lutheran funeral. The second time was a Baptism. During the service the presider pulled out a picture of the “Laughing Jesus” mentioning that it has been published years before in Playboy magazine, and then he went along with his speech. I felt very disturbed about it. I told myself that because Jesus is God, he is omniscient and that laughter comes from surprise, thus the paradox.

A few weeks ago I was listening to Bishop Fulton Sheen and part of the topic was about humor and as usual he was crystal clear with his explanation. And his point was that humor and laughter come when we realize an apparent contradiction of our knowledge. That explanation and the fact that Jesus is fully human allow me to accept the possibility of Jesus laughing.

The picture from the Playboy magazine still bothers me because of the association with the journal, and to make things worse the gift shop in my parish has that picture hanging behind the counter.
 
The picture from the Playboy magazine still bothers me because of the association with the journal, and to make things worse the gift shop in my parish has that picture hanging behind the counter.

Yuk!

We English have a tradition of never taking humour to pieces. We just let it spring from our lips innocently and without analysis. So your post was actually rather an insight for me. It is rather like analysing breathing!
This is an intellectual site, so allow me to mention Ronnie Knox and “Enthusiasm”.
His style is very humourous (to me) because he sums things up in a clever and pithy way. Yes, I do laugh out loud at it too. It’s clever.
Jesus, I note, often and often did the same thing (see above). “Boanerges” indeed! “Petros” - the rock!
 
Jesus, I note, often and often did the same thing (see above). “Boanerges” indeed! “Petros” - the rock!

Not quite sure what is meant by the above …but just in case …

The Lord calling St. Peter the Rock - would think it was with all seriousness and solemnity …and unsure how St. John and St.James might have got the name as ‘sons of thunder’ - but recall an instance when they ask the Lord to call dowm fire from heaven, to destroy some towns and the Lord mercifully shows them a diffrent approach !

As to St. Peter - even if we think his denying the Lord was weak…well, St. Peter had enough courage to stay with The Lord atleast through some of the Way…and we know the many instances after The Resurrection and The Pentecost , that he shows us the gift of courage and zeal …even the time when he does not mingle with the uncircumcised, was he meek enough to accept the(? misunderstood) rebuke from St. Paul with dignity, knowing that , the same would be the lot of his successors in many instances …

As to St. John, the beloved disciple … at the foot of the cross…( even if he too might have left , for a while) … being the youngest among the disciples, he probably related the best to The Father Love , in The Lord …thus to be the 'beloved disciple '…and their mother - may her memory be blessed - like any good mother wanting what she percieved is the best for her sons… 🙂
 
Well, I thought that calling a couple of fishermen from the back of beyond “the Rock” and “Sons of Thunder” is pretty good!
It shows a great affection anyway and giving people a nickname is, after all, a sign of trust.
It also, of course, shows that you recognise their potential, which, despite the ignominious retreat during the arrest and crucifixion, was, of course, fully justified.
So I think we are in agreement on that one!
 
If you have ever watched an ape or monkey at play, you know that God has a sense of humor. As a matter of fact, if you study nature at all, there are a million (and many, many more) opportunites to see God’s sense of humor. I can’t watch squirrels run and tumble and jump and squeal without loving God and his sense of humor, his tenderness.

I think he smiles at us and on us all the time.
 
Jeanette L:
If you have ever watched an ape or monkey at play, you know that God has a sense of humor. As a matter of fact, if you study nature at all, there are a million (and many, many more) opportunites to see God’s sense of humor. I can’t watch squirrels run and tumble and jump and squeal without loving God and his sense of humor, his tenderness.

I think he smiles at us and on us all the time.
Click to expand...
I hadn’t thought of that.
I reckon I’m getting too Biblical!
Thank you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top