Is
humour actual?
Jesus
must have been an amusing fellow", the famous contemporary narrator,
Anthony Burgess, says. We are, therefore, quite far from the serious
statement of St. Augustine, taken by the entire Western tradition,
according to which Christ rarely wept, but never smiled; thus his
disciples, too, should belong to the (stoic) category of the
aghelasti, persons incapable to laugh. Indeed today there are
people who state that "Humour is the unique possible form of holiness
for the contemporary man". This is what the essayist poet, Franco
Cordelli, supports. Thus, the Martyr Thomas Moore, author of "Utopia",
was right to ask in prayer, "Grant me the sense of humour", such a
divine sense of humour as it is called, centuries after him, by Fulton
J. Sheen.
Today they speak of the "need of
humour". "There is no humanity where there is no humour, there is only a
concentration camp, the playwright Eugène Jonesco writes. He adds, "Only
Humour can give us serenity". The theme on humour is, therefore, is in
the limelight, as we have recently read in "Agorà"(Avvenire, 19th
June 2004).
But, let us proceed in order,
asking ourselves, first of all, what we mean by humour. Pascal in
his Provincial letters (IX), spoke of " a sweet, warm humour and
benign blood that produce joy", thus linking the term humour to its
positive aspect and seeing its result in joy. In fact. one manifestation
of humour consists in catching the comic side of things, where the term
comic recalls to mind the god Komos, who was the god of gladness.
What do we mean by humour?
"The essential elements of
humour" -
we read in an edition of
the Civiltà Cattolica (5th July, 1986)- "are the
capacity of catching the funny and contradictory sides of life, laughing
at them with benevolent understanding; a superior gaze which allows to
see better and beyond; a "new" intelligence which makes relative
and re-dimensions whatever we would take as absolute and sublime. We
soon understand how that humour has several elements in common with the
comic, with irony and with laughter, yet it is different from these,
since it expresses understanding, indulgence and meekness. "In the man
of humour we find an extraordinary strength of forbearance and an
irresistible freedom of being: his kingdom is beyond earthly
contrasts and no cold evaluation succeeds in depressing him".
We can, therefore, define humour as the attitude to transcend whatever
is not God, continuing to live it in God, underlining the positive of
what happens and finding a which allows to smile at life in its tragic
aspects and reacts before the often dramatic drifts of violence, of
stupidity and of prejudice which have given origin to a whole
literature, the literature of the chassidim, for sense in
whatever seems to be negative. "The Inner nucleus of humour - Ladislaus
Boros says - resides in the strength of the religious. Humour
sees the earthly and human things in their inadequacy before God, but
can see it in the mirror of God's love" and consequently it awakens an
attitude of love and of piety towards the world and history.
We ask ourselves what the
specific characteristic of humour is. Psychology lists it among the
defence mechanisms, and the answers recollect it to a sense of
superiority with which we face the situations of life, or to the relief
it arouses in the most different tight spots, and finally to the
capacity of catching incongruencies and discrepancies from thoughts and
actions.
Humour knows how to see things as relative, carrying with itself a sense
of proportions, it catches with a serenely critical eye the positive or
negative aspects of the events of our human existence, capable of
demythologising oneself and others. In a word, a man of humour knows how
to live the contradictions and is considered now as a lubricant, then as
an abrasive which unlocks rigidity and enclosures, acting as a
discharging valve of tensions. Finally, it is a freeing experience. It
acquires a very singular meaning when it is auto-informing, that is,
turned towards oneself and, if it bears a good dose of far-sighted
modesty, "for a luminous instant it makes violence and intolerance
disappear from the horizon, and its brightness chases away the darkness
of hatred (Moni Ovadia).
A colourful note, which is not
inappropriate in a magazine for religious, is what the founder of
psycho-analysis, Sigmund Freud, writes, namely that "women develop and
appreciate Humour more rapidly than men". Is it true?
Biblical
root
Speaking of humour in a
Christian key, we must go back to the Biblical matrix and first of all
to the Hebrew thought. Moni Ovadia, a Hebrew writer and musician from
Bulgaria, says that the passage from polytheism to monotheism is linked
to an ethic-humour gesture with which Abraham broke the idols of his
father. This is what it is said to have happened: in the absence of
Terach, with a rod, Abraham broke statues and little statues, except the
biggest one in whose arms he placed the rod. When his father returned,
he got angry, accusing his son of a sacrilegious. But Abraham found
fault with the little idols, accusing them of wanting to challenge the
greatest god and of having committed such a massacre before his eyes.
Terach reacted to this saying, "Don't behave like an idiot. How could
earthenware or stone pieces commit such a disaster?" Then Abraham
answered, "Why do your ears not listen to what your lips utter? Why do
you kneel down to adore defenceless pieces of stone?"
This is a vision disenchanted
from reality, which God is not only the creator of heaven and earth,
but also the One who has created delight and joy (cfr M. Ovadia,
Ridere fa bene anche alle religioni (to laugh is good also for
religions) in Vita e pensiero, No. 2/2004. Page 127-131). This is
why we are to look at the positive and providential side of events: this
is the purpose of humour.
The Hebrew and Christian
scriptures make it quite relevant, above all when they speak about
laughter (cfr Poudrier, L'umorismo nella Bibbia (Humour in the
Bible), St. Paul, Cinisello Balsamo 1996). The wisdom literature
states that "there is a time to laugh and a time to weep"
(Qo, 3,4) and looks into the nature of laughter, from the
incredulous laughter of Sara to that of the foolish, compared to the
"cracklings of thorns under the cauldron" (Qo 7,6), while "the
intelligent quietly smiles" (Si 21,20); and "he will hoodwink you (Si
13, 6), as well as "our enemies mock us" (Psalm 80,7), to finish by
landing at the holy laughter (Job 8,21). "Once again laughter may fill
your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips", and to the cosmic
laughter which involves the whole creation as the object of divine
benevolence (Psalm 65, 14: "they shout and sing for joy").
In the beatitudes of Luke, we
read of a laughter that changes into weeping and of a weeping that
changes into laughter (Lk 6,25; cfr Jm 4,9). "If the smiling lips reveal
what (man) is" (Si 19,27), the smile will mark the coming of God's
kingdom, "then our mouth will be filled with laughter and our lips with
songs), the psalmist sings. Under this title, Alessandro Pronzato has
recently offered to us one of his tasteful essays.
The following Christian
reflection will highlight the good laughter and will define it
"tacitus and rarus": it is the laughter that comes from a serene
conscience and from the foretaste of the heavenly joy; it is the
laughter of those who have already acquired the heavenly joy (the
laughter of the blessed); the laughter that comes from meekness and from
the benevolence of nature, which re-creates, relieves and consoles (this
is what we read in the Franciscan Summa fratris Alexandri, of
XIII century). This laughter is within the eleventh degree of
humility which St. Benedict speaks of, the Saint who expects from
the monk to avoid words that might arouse too much laughter, but demands
suavity and kindness of communication. In fact there is the risk
that laughter may change into derision, into irony, sarcasm, mocking,
wound. This is the case of that "big winning laughter" taken as theory
by Voltaire.
In the
Christian understanding
On this basis it is possible to
develop some considerations which intend to catch, if it is ever
possible, the specific Christian understanding of humour, seen in a kind
of "supernatural realism" which weds the trust in God with the fidelity
of the earth and of history. "The journey of humour in the spiritual
life steps along with the humble love for the cross and the Crucifix",
we read from a recent article which seeks the nature and the need of
humour (L. Larivera, Nature and need of humour, in La civiltà
Cattolica, 17th July 1904). It is a love which is
measured with the most paradoxical event of the human and divine history
and knows how to catch life from death, and the death of … God. In
this sense "humour is just of him who, overcoming narcissistic
self-love, knows how to appreciate realistically what he is,
overlooking also the perception of his own negative aspects; he is
rather able to integrate it. At the same time, the defence of humour
protects the esteem because it consents to the subject not to take
things too seriously, not to expect too much from himself, to
re-dimension his own weaknesses without making tragedies; possibly,
without unloading it on to the shoulders of others". "An extraordinary
degree of forbearance and an incoercible freedom of life is hidden in a
man of humour; his kingdom is beyond earthly contrasts and no cold
evaluation can ever succeed in making him do be depressed. Christian
humour is a new way of being and of feeling: it converts pessimism into
audacity, despise into piety, intolerance of limits into fruitful
acceptance. This sight of indulgence and tenderness gives us the grace -
and it is truly a grace - of laughing at ourselves, at our failures, at
our broken dreams, at our unrealised flights. The Christian who
possesses a sense of humours understands and smiles: understands his
limits and smiles at the collapse of his illusions. On one side humour,
as sense of relativity and limit, leads him to self-detachment and to
remain stable on humility, on the other side it is an invitation to
trust and audacity.
In a study on the psychology of
the saints (A.Roche, Psicologia dei santi,
Paoline editoriale Libri, Milano 1992), it was noted that "humour is the
salt of life, in a certain sense it is the salt of religious life, to
preserve it from any failure". It is not for nothing that the
hagiography speaks of saints who cultivated it as a virtue. From the
Fathers in the desert up to modern saints, like St. Philip Neri, Theresa
of Avila, Francis de Sales. All these saints have proved that the
religious looks at life as at a spectacle and smiles lovingly, and that
without an authentic faith humour either does not exist or it is its
sub-product.
St. Thomas, in the line of
Aristotle, teaches that the virtue proper to humour is the eutrapelia
which finds us "humorous and urban" at the same time". In fact, "it
knows how to turn events and words into joke (solacium).(Summa
theologiae, 2.2. 168.2). Seriousness and gaiety fuse into
eutropelia, which sends back to the anèr spoudoghéloios of
the Greek thought, namely one who mixes the serious with the humorous.
It seems that it is a virtue
which will not lose its enamel in the future kingdom;
according to Luther in a prayer addressed to the Lord, it is that "all
the creatures will experience pleasure, love, physical joy and will
laugh with You and You will laugh with them".
"Comic
theology"
On these premises, especially recently, the so called
"comic theology" has developed, which speaks of the Deus ludens
and of the Homo ludens whose existence would be "game", amusement
(see W. Thiede, L'ilarità promessa. L'umorismo e la
teologia, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo 1989).
A midrash of the
Talmud, the manual of the right Israelite, is dedicated to the
God who laughs. And in the chapter of La festa dei folli, Harvey
G. Cox reflects on "Christ harlequin", folly expresses the paroxysm
of humour and it is considered by Erasmus from Rotterdam, who
wrote its eulogy, as a "goddess in a well set up home in the world of
gods", but also of men. Starting by those "fools of God", whom we meet
in the Hagiographic tradition and in the Russian iconography.
The sense of humour, therefore, is translated into a
characteristic aspect, I would say fundamental, of the religious
experience, an in that more properly Christian, it assumes proverbial
and classical forms. Who does not remember the abundant use which the
fathers of the desert make of them, or the famous "risus paschalis"
caused by the preachers after the strict Lenten catechesis (cfr
M.C. Jacobelli, il Risus paschalis and the theological foundation of
the sexual pleasure, Queriniana 1990), or the carnival which
consented and still consents to uncork the comedy, ending
with a laughter that soothes the wounds of life?
The Christian humour appeals to the humour in the
education of the youths with the institution of the oratories. St. John
Bosco, who was one of its pioneers, set them up with the intention of
educating, instructing the youths and making them rejoice, thus going
beyond the "jokes of the priest" and the humour of the parish".
Anthony de Mello, the Jesuit who has introduced
in the West the typical oriental modality of imparting teachings through
paradox and irony, uses the humour with an abundance of "storielle"
(little stories). After all, doesn't the Italian "spiritoso" (witty,
funny) derive from "spirit"? Therefore, he who cultivates the spiritual
life cannot help being familiar with humour. The Centre of
religious studies in "Fondazione Collegio San Carlo", Modena, in
1997.1998, held a course of lessons entitled: Il sorriso dello spirito,
(The smile of the spirit), Banca popolare dell'Emilia Romagna,2000.
Humour
and spiritual life
What is left now is to specify in which sense the
spiritual life is a source of humour. We shall say, first of all, that
spiritual life, by its very nature, anchors us with the essential ( here
the role of deep prayer, eventually accompanied by a good work at
psychology level, is irreplaceable). The spiritual man catches the
relative, transitory and deluding aspects of life; he is, therefore
capable of establishing the proportions and hierarchies of his own
experiences. This is actually the substance of his humour: a
disenchanted and, therefore, smiling and benevolent vision.
This is accompanied by a major detachment which flows
into that "indifference" so dear to the saints of old ( they spoke about
apathèia), not less dear than to those of modern times, thus of a
right " superiority".
The spiritual man considers everything, as we use to
say, "sub specie aeternitatis"
He believes that everything is under the divine
direction and that Providence is the arbiter of all human events.
This is the "supernatural criterion", which inspire and guides
him. If it is true that the divine wisdom is "at play everywhere
on his earth, delighting (the Latin text says: ludit, which
means "plays") to be with the children of men" (Pr. 8,31), it is equally
true that his style expresses itself in a constant overturning of
things. All this cannot but generate a radically positive, and,
therefore, humorist vision of human life on earth and of its ultimate
destiny. We can say that in the spiritual man (and woman) optimism and
pessimism live reconciled, and this also flows into humours.
The attendance to the divine Word allows us to
penetrate the mind of God, to acquire his viewpoint, to share his
vision. The vision which - as we read from an impressive testimony-
alighted years ago on a person of a vicious conduct, who was thought as
dead ( a pre-death case), but who had luckily come back to life and to
whom the Being of Light said, "Tell me, now (that you are before me):
was it worthwhile?"
We can conclude that "a bit of humour is a good
"slide towards adoration" as it has been recently written (M. P.
Giudici, Cercare Dio con cuore semplice, AdV. Roma 2004) (To
seek the Lord with a simple heart)
and as it is deeply true.
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