A Laughing Church

It is said, laughing is a good therapy and it flexes the facial muscles. It is also said that people who laugh live longer. I think it is significant to explore, why the Church comes across to us as serious and solemn. When we laugh, do we dissipate from the primary focus of the Church, Christ? Will Christ not be happy if we laugh and enjoy in His house? While I was growing up, the Church was a place of worship and seriousness. We had to go out to speak or socialize. Laughing was forbidden in the Church. The Church was place of seriousness and solemnity with its smells and bells that scared the children and young persons. I would like to explore whether we can bring back laughter and happiness into the Church. Most often we tend to shy away from bringing our own day today life experiences to the Church. Hence we just avoid laughter in the Church.

I was celebrating the Eucharist in a particular place, and usually I would break the ice by saying a few lighter words of humour. But to my surprise I got to no response from the small gathered congregation. I was wondering, whether my English accent was not audible. But then I learnt during the course of the time that congregation that I was trying to joke with was indeed serious and solemn. They admired and respected the solemnity of the Eucharist, which is quite right. It is here that I was moved to write this small article “Laughing Church.” If one has to explicit one’s emotions, why not spectacle it? We know that God knows our hearts and our intentions, hence there is no need for us to hide our emotions of any sort.

St. Philip Neri was a humorous person in the early 16^th Century. He wanted to put smiles on the faces of people and break the dreariness in Church activities. He was a admired person in Rome during his time, but he did not like to be popular and more importantly he wanted to avoid the hero worship. Thence he hilariously broke hero worship. St Philip Neri was an enemy of solemnity and conventionality. One instance made me burst into laughter whilst I was reading his life story, and that is, when some of his more pompous penitents made their confession to him (he was famous as a confessor) he imposed salutary and deflating penances on them, such as walking through the streets of Rome carrying his cat (he was very fond of cats). Through this instance we know how jaunty and humorous saint he is. It is noteworthy that he brought laughter and joy among the people of his time by simply saying some thing very ridiculous. This did not belittle him rather people admired for breaking the monotony of the day-to-day worship in the Church.

Over the years, people are made to understand that God is a serious God; a God wears grey beard and sits on a huge decorated throne. These images somehow have crept into the Church. Sometimes may be our elders put into us fear of God in order to help to live a righteous life. This way fear of God has been instilled in our hearts. This fear, by and large is coupled with the solemnity and seriousness which has effected the faithful to avoid showing of any emotions in the Church particularly laughter.

We read from the scriptures that Jesus showed his emotions out-rightly, for example, he was irate at the temple when he over-turned the table of the moneylenders. He was sad while he learnt that his friend Lazarus had died: he wept at the tomb of Lazarus; he was anxious and felt the extreme pain in the garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross. There is not much said about His laughter, perhaps while Jesus appeared to the woman after the resurrection as a gardener, I think, he might have laughed when he revealed that he was the Christ. Or while he appeared to the disciples as a ghost in the waters, he would have laughed when the disciples recognised him. These are my own reading of a laughing Jesus. We have seen the portraits of laughing Jesus. They showcase a humours Jesus. The classic book on this subject is “The Humour of Christ” by Elton Truebood. There are considerable places in Scripture where Jesus is most likely making a joke: when the Syrophoenician woman quips back that even the dogs get the crumbs. When the Pharisees strain out the gnats but swallow a camel. When Jesus describes the Pharisees as the blind leading the blind. Hence we are shown an emotional Jesus, particularly a laughing or joking Jesus.

We, as Christians have to break out of the seriousness and wearisomeness of the daily Church activities and put smiles on the faces of the faithful. We could laugh when we have to laugh, be it be in the Church or outside. Let the Church be a place where we can bring whole of our life with emotions of joy, sadness, anxiety, confusion and so on. Let us have a laughing Church and not a monotonous serious type of Church. While I say this, I don’t mean to belittle the seriousness of the liturgy and the worship. The liturgy and the prayers have their own tempo of seriousness, we are not flouting that tempo but rather we have to laugh when we have to. Let us put smiles on person sitting next to us in the Church or in our prayer meetings. If everyone us does this, then there will be a peaceful and ever cheerful ambience in the Church.