LAUGHTER -- Daily Images of God--Lent 2022 Day 31 April 1

 
 
Daily Images of God--Lent 2022
Day 31
April 1
 
LAUGHTER 
 
“Not everybody, however, has a genuine sense of humor. That calls for an altruistic detachment from oneself and a mysterious sympathy with others which is felt even before they open their mouths. Only the person who has also a gift for affection can have a true sense of humor. A good laugh is a sign of love; it may be said to give us a glimpse of, or a first lesson in, the love that God bears for every one of us.” --Karl Rahner, SJ 
 
Almost in the style of a Zen master telling incongruous stories and riddles meant to shock students into new ways of thinking, Jesus told jokes and shocking parables regularly: 
 
“Waiter, what’s this gnat doing in my soup?” “Probably trying to swim away from the camel!” (cf. Matt 23:24-27). 
 
“Oh no! You have a piece of lint in your eye! Let me get it out for you!” This, from a “helper” who keeps on knocking things over and destroying them with the huge log stuck into his eye socket! (cf. Matt 7:4). 
 
“You want an example, a model to aspire to? Try a crooked manager who when fired for embezzlement uses the smarts God gave him to squeeze out a little more to set up a perfect retirement! Even the boss whom he cheated was in awe of how clever he was!” (cf. Luke 16:1-8).
 
“Did you hear the one about the very ineffective guide in charge of a group of blind tourists? Turns out he himself was blind!” (Luke 6:39).
 
“My mother and brothers are outside asking me to come home because they think I’m crazy? I’ll tell you who my mother is—it’s you who are here with me! That’s who my mother is!” (Mark 3:31-35).
 
“A rich person trying to get into heaven? That’s about as likely as a sailor trying to get a huge hawser rope through the eye of the needle he’s using to mend his sails!” (Cf. Mark 10:25; the words for camel and hawser both in Greek and Aramaic at the time were pronounced the same way.)
 
Happy April Fool's Day. Laugh a lot.