Does God Have A Sense Of Humor?

[tinytherese]

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

[BarbTherese]

 A sense of friendly humour (about myself usually) comes to my rescue rather often and rescues me from some pinprick or other alleviating any necessity to take myself too seriously  - and since all good comes from God and it is a decided good to be rescued from taking oneself too seriously, I think God has a sense of humour and shares it with us.

 

 

 

James 1 - V17       [17] Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.

Edited January 11, 2014 by BarbaraTherese

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Also i think that God is not comical in the hollywood sense but i believe he has a sense of humour. He has caused me to laugh before with a sign in the clouds and my dad says he heard him laugh once before. 

[add]

 

There is hope for the future because God has a sense of humor and we are funny to God.

- Bill Cosby

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2014 by add

[TheLordsSouljah]

He plays tricks on me and trust games all the time. Defs has a sense of humour! Mine aint as good :P Oftentimes we focus way too much on the seriousness of everything. Okay, so obviously there are a lot of things we need to be serious about and have respect for, but when it comes to living life in general, humour helps us to laugh and spread the joy that it is to follow Christ :)

[BarbTherese]

An interesting read "Between Heaven and Mirth" Fr James Martin SJ http://www.americancatholic.org/samo/books.aspx?IssueID=32 - I'm reading it for the second time.

 

"CAN GOD TAKE A JOKE? After reading James Martin, S.J.’s, new book, one gets the idea that laughter is indeed divine. This unabashedly Jesuit author (culture editor for America magazine) penned The New York Times best-seller The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything (we’d have to infer that almost refers to the missing Franciscan knowledge). With high-powered advance praise, Between Heaven and Mirth is an attempt to hit the charts again. ..........edit.........He proves the point with a look, from many angles, at humor in Christian life (mostly Catholic life, with a few nods toward other traditions). One angle that might be most useful is the humor found in Jesus’ teaching, especially the parables. Another might be the recommendation for a bit of self examination: Does God find you to be funny? Others are some of his Top 10 lists, reminiscent of the way things get packed in on late-night television appearances (he is “resident chaplain” with occasional appearances on The Colbert Report). I found it hard to pick my favorite. Two were his favorite films (in a footnote) and his 11-and-a-half “serious reasons for good humor.”

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

how do you all define humour ?

[BarbTherese]

I guess I would think of it as something which induces laughter that is not cruel or hurtful in any way.

The Catholic Catechism mentions humor, which I think is a by product of Joy, one of the Fruits of The Holy Spirit.

 

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c4a1.htm

 

1676 Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which underlies these devotions so that the faithful may advance in knowledge of the mystery of Christ.¹⁸² Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the bishops and to the general norms of the Church.

 

At its core the piety of the people is a storehouse of values that offers answers of Christian wisdom to the great questions of life. The Catholic wisdom of the people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis. . . . It creatively combines the divine and the human, Christ and Mary, spirit and body, communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland, intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that radically affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God, establishes a basic fraternity, teaches people to encounter nature and understand work, provides reasons for joy and humor even in the midst of a very hard life. For the people this wisdom is also a principle of discernment and an evangelical instinct through which they spontaneously sense when the Gospel is served in the Church and when it is emptied of its content and stifled by other interests.¹⁸¹

[chrysostom]

Rather than the unexpected, you might say that humour is rooted in recognizing incongruities.  But then think also of the laughter of a baby which needs only a smile to set it off.  It must be a gift from above.  :)

[BarbTherese]

Typed into Post from book "Between Heaven and Mirth" James Martin SJ :-
 

 

"Pope Benedict: "I believe (God) has a great sense of humor. Sometimes He gives you something like nudge and says, "Don't take yourself so seriously!" Humor is in fact an essential element in the mirth of creation.  We can see how, in many matters in our lives, God wants to prod us into taking things a bit more light; to see the funny side of it; to get down off our pedestal and not to forget our sense of fun"

 

 

As an example from my own life.  I have recently applied for voluntary work that really does interest me and right up my alley - my prospective employer wanted verbal references.  One of them I gave was my parish priest.  I then began to be concerned because Father has not been in our parish for a full year as yet and though I have conversed with him rather lengthily on a couple of occasions, my concern became that he might feel that he does not know me well enough to refer me.  So I worried about it for a while thinking perhaps I should not have mentioned Father at all - and then it hit me that it is all in God's Hands.  So I mused "I guess all will be ok then, no matter what happens"...............and then shortly began to worry again - until I started to laugh at my own shallow trust and the stupidity of worry, the very real stupidity, when it all is in God's Hands for sure after all.  I do feel that The Lord had a giggle too.

 

Another time, I was really worried about something years ago.  Then I thought to myself "I have to pray about it! .......... as I reached for my mobile!"  I am very confident that The Lord really laughed that time!   Ahh modern times and modern technology it often confuses me! 

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

So humour is not reckless it is purposeful for the encouragement of mankind?

Edited January 17, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[BarbTherese]

So humour is not reckless it is purposeful for the encouragement of mankind?

 

Hi Tab - I don't think that humour is always "purposeful for the encouragement of mankind".  Humour can be good humour, or it can be cruel and hurtful humour.

 

A disposition of good humour (for a variety of reasons or purposes, motivations) comes from a Joyful spirit I think.  Sometimes a person might be suffering and still engage in good humour flowing from that  seed of Joy and Grace deep within - most of the time (drawing on personal experience only) it can be difficult to be of good humour when times are really trying - although not impossible.  Most often to my mind, it is not easy to be of good humour when times are hard and taxing one's resources.  And also there are times when humour would be entirely inappropriate.

    

 Ecclesiastes 3:4        

"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;"

 

The book I am reading by Fr. Martin SJ did point to the parables and just how often celebration comes into the parables for example.  Celebrations are times of Joy and laughter.  I read something else that took my eye in his book "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" since the four Gospels do not mention categorically that Jesus really laughed.  And yet there is plenty of evidence that He did have a sense of the funny - sadly Fr. Martin points out that in our modern culture, we don't grasp the humour, while those hearing Jesus speak during his own life would have done so (and perhaps started to laugh at some absurdities) and Fr. Martin gives quite a few examples from the Gospels.

 

I wont go on, one needs to read the book.  Fr. Martin gives many reasons for a sound and Joyful sense of the funny in life - and of a good sense of humour being part and parcel of a balanced personality.   Ahhh balance - so important in spiritual life and can be so elusive, short of a Gift of The Holy Spirit.

 

Here is an article on "Our Joyful Pope" (Pope Benedict) - and so often Pope Francis is smiling and laughing and each time I see him on TV, I find my own heart stirred with Joy for the Gift I believe that He is and I love Pope Benedict too. http://catholicexchange.com/our-joyful-pope

Edited January 17, 2014 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

Walking away from the computer and about to turn to something else, that Wilcox poem occurred to me "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone".  I wonder if we did find and proclaim great Joy and good humour in our Faith and not be afraid to spread it around, if we would indeed convert the whole world. 

 

...................... not to become anxious overly, its going to happen anyway :)

[Selah]

I think he takes joy in us, in his creation. But humor? I ono.

[brandelynmarie]

Platypuses. That settles the argument.

Byzantine beat me to it...definitely platypuses. :topsy:

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I think he takes joy in us, in his creation. But humor? I ono.

 

 

That's my question also selah. But in the manner of how nasty and sarcastic human humour can be, laughing at others mistakes and stuff like that also funniest home videos. As far as i can tell God doesn't have that kind of sense of humour and doesn't mock us like a domestic cat with it's prey. That's what scares me about saying God has a sense of humour is people perhaps thinking he is some kind of court jester instead of the noble king.

[BarbTherese]

 

That's my question also selah. But in the manner of how nasty and sarcastic human humour can be, laughing at others mistakes and stuff like that also funniest home videos. As far as i can tell God doesn't have that kind of sense of humour and doesn't mock us like a domestic cat with it's prey. That's what scares me about saying God has a sense of humour is people perhaps thinking he is some kind of court jester instead of the noble king.

 

Hi Tab - God is Absolute Goodness and not sinful and it would be sinful to mock others. He does not mock His creatures as some humans can do.  God does not have that cruel and sarcastic type of humour.   Sometimes we take ourselves far too seriously and God can give us a nudge to "get down off our pedestal" and laugh at ourselves and if we do, He laughs with us to my mind.

 

Here is what Pope Benedict had to say:

 

http://catholicexchange.com/our-joyful-pope Pope Benedict: “One of the fundamental rules for the discernment of spirits could therefore be the following: where joy is lacking, where humor dies, there the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is not present either. And vice versa: joy is a sign of grace. The one who is profoundly serene, who has suffered without losing joy, that one is not far from the God of the Gospel, from the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of eternal joy.”

God] "has a great sense of humor. Sometimes he gives you something like a nudge and says, 'Don't take yourself so seriously!' Humor is in fact an essential element in the mirth of creation. We can see how, in many matters in our lives, God wants to prod us into taking things a bit more lightly; to see the funny side of it; to get down off our pedestal and not to forget our sense of fun,"

 

 

Either God has a sense of humour or He does not and most Catholic theological writers think that He does.  Our sense of humour can be cruel and nasty - it can also be a great help in living, in not taking ourselves too seriously all the time, and laughter can reduce stress.  All that is Good comes from God and it is good not too take ourselves overly seriously at times and to reduce our stress levels -  hence God has a sense of humour and laughs with us - not at us in a cruel sort of way.

 

Laughter is a 'by-product' of Joy - laughter flows from a spirit of Joy.
 

Edited January 18, 2014 by BarbaraTherese

[Winchester]

God does not possess characteristics. God does not, for instance, have a sense of justice. Rather, He is Justice. So no, God does not have a sense of humor.

[PhuturePriest]

God does not possess characteristics. God does not, for instance, have a sense of justice. Rather, He is Justice. So no, God does not have a sense of humor.

 

The shining moment of God's humor was when he crafted your face.

[Winchester]

The shining moment of God's humor was when he crafted your face.

Two instances of heresy in one comment.