 |
 |
|
 |
 |
I’ve often wondered why in times of silence in services or at Mass, why it seems that suddenly, everyone’s stomachs start rumbling quite loudly, or small children leap up and announce to the whole congregation that they “need a wee!” What I think strikes me most, though, is that if I find something amusing whilst in church, I feel a strange sense of guilt for giggling to myself and feel that I have to contain myself quickly. If the same thing happened anywhere else, it would be seemingly ok to laugh about these things. I find that there often seems an atmosphere that you must be serious when in God’s house, which I often feel rather uneasy about.
![[Cartoon 'How baby clowns are baptised': a clown in a bishop's hat is dropping a baby from the top of the church tower, while two clowns below hold a large tub of water]](clown_cartoon.jpg)
Although my mental image of God varies at different times of my life, I think that the one I feel most comfortable with is the approachable, friendly God whom I can talk to at any time of the day and tell him anything I wish. I guess that I think of Him like a very good friend as such. In fact, a closer friend than I’ll ever experience in my everyday life; after all he does know everything about me and there is no hiding from him — as scary as it seems at times!
I enjoy nothing better than meeting up with friends, having a chat and probably most importantly, sharing a joke and having a laugh about something with them. I find it difficult to contemplate therefore, why when I go to visit God at His house that I’m expected to be on my best behaviour and so serious when amusing things happen. Surely, God has a sense of humour! After all, He was made man and experienced human emotions. He can’t have gone through life without a giggle now and then, could he?
It was amusing to read my five year-old brother’s children’s Bible storybook one morning in Mass. I was reading to him the story of the washing of the feet. In his children’s Bible, it said that, “Jesus knelt down and washed all his friends’ dirty, smelly feet.” Even my brother started to laugh at this and I found it funny, as it is probably a detail that we often miss out when reading the story in the Gospel. However, thinking about it, there was probably quite a lot of chuckling that went on at the Last Supper when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. After all, the concept was a bizarre one as recorded in the Bible, when Simon Peter says, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (John 13:6).
If this happened today, with twelve middle-aged men whose best friend said he was going to wash their feet, I’m almost certain that the atmosphere in the room would not be completely serious. Particularly, taking into account that not a lot of men’s feet smell pleasantly and perhaps even less so in that hygiene standards weren’t too high 2000 years ado, let alone the hot climate. Yet the scriptures are always taken with such seriousness that maybe sometimes more humorous parts are missed.
I know that my people may argue with what I have just said and I am not denying that the above part of the Gospel is an important and symbolic one to represent Jesus setting an example of service to all. However, even Jesus must have seen it as a particularly unpleasant job or surely he could have washed the disciples hands to show the same thing. He deliberately washes the feet to show that service is sometimes something we don’t particularly enjoy doing or find difficult. Perhaps we should sometimes look at the Bible with more of a child’s view — as it appears without over-complicating it as we can do. Indeed, the Bible refers to children and the views of innocent minds.
Straying away now from the childlike view; what about the Song of Solomon? There is a whole other issue with this! The other day, I was reading a past Christian Focus Bible study on the web, on a passage from Songs. I was quite relieved to read that I wasn’t the only person to have been known to chuckle to myself when reading parts of this book! I remember my RE teacher in my second year at high school looking through books of the Bible with us, and him saying that being at a “good Catholic school”, we ought not to read the book of Songs. He did say, however, that after he had previously told this to a class a few years before, the mother of a boy who had never shown much interest in RE approached him. She was wondering why he had come home one day so willing to read the Bible. She was convinced that this teacher had transformed this once rebellious teenager into a saint! I really find it difficult to try and keep a straight face whilst reading the book. Who knows, it may have been written to say it is ok to laugh now and again. But I think I shall stop commenting there before I blush too much!
The Bible is full of stories that could, I’m sure, be read in quite a lighter hearted way from time to time — as opposed to looking for answers in such a constantly theological way — if only to cheer us up. After all, things could be worse — you could find yourself in a whale’s stomach, and still alive at that! If the Bible is the Word of God and is interpreted in a lighter frame of mind once in a while, then surely it shows that God has a sense of humour … great enough even perhaps to start stomach rumbling at Night Prayer!
There is often so much stress, pain and seriousness in everyday life that it wouldn’t hurt to look on the Bible in a less pressured way. The Bible represents hope and certainly in my life, laughter is often the bringer of this hope and relief. It even says in the big Book that there is a “time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). I’m not suggesting that we should all go to Mass for a big laugh, but maybe just to see now and then that with all the other emotions that the service elicits, we often forget laughter and fun.
I would like to think that God wanted me to have fun in my life and enjoy the gift of laughter in his house as well as in the company of friends — or even both together once in a while. Yes, Church is a place for reflection but surely when we laugh we want to thank God for the joys in our life as well as seek answers. As for the beasts in Revelation that speak like dragons and have horns like lambs (Revelation 13:11), it could be something from Harry Potter! Symbolic, I guess, but rather funny — I have yet to hear a dragon, let alone any beast speak.
|
|
|
|
|
Last modified: 25th November 2005
Contents 