Fools

“Fools, for Christ’s sake”
1 Corinthians 4: 10

It’s probably in my genes but I have a wry sense of humor; my dad was the ultimate punster.

I’m not as good a punster as he was but I’m pretty sure I inherited his puckish spirit.

I am also noted for my laugh. When something strikes me funny, I laugh, sometimes loudly. There have also been times when I laughed so hard that people were worried about me, as my face turned red.

But some people are so serious, especially some religious folk. It’s as if they forget that the resurrection is God’s joke – his way of showing that the seriousness of death is not the final word.

Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the joy I experience here among the poor in Honduras. But I find myself smiling and looking at things in playful ways – and at times being quite playful with kids.

What a gift! Maybe this will help me be a better follower of Christ and a more fully human person.

And this is not just my idea.

Timothy Radcliffe, notes, in  Take the Plunge: Living Baptism and Confirmation, p. 16, that

St Thomas Aquinas believed that an inability to play was a sign of moral weakness: ‘Therefore, unmitigated seriousness betokens a lack of virtue because it wholly despises play, which is as necessary for a good human life as rest’.

So, today, April Fool’s Day, be playful – and if someone pulls your leg (or as we say here, pulls your hair), remember to laugh and to find a way to make that person laugh.

Be foolish, for Christ’s sake.