Just joking . . . . It’s not a joking matter by Marian Casillas, Ed.D.
Personal reflection:
It’s not that I don’t appreciate humor or jokes, just not during the Homily of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or after Holy Communion and before the Final Blessing and Dismissal.
After Holy Communion and before the Final Blessing and Dismissal is a time of silence and solemnity with prayers of thanksgiving for the great gift that we have received in the Eucharist and in the mystery of our redemption, by meditating and reflecting upon the nature of communion with God Himself, and also what all of this means for us in our daily lives.
If priests start their homilies with a joke then everything said afterwards will be taken as a joke, to be made fun of and ridiculed, to be demeaned and dismissed.
Jesus was taken to be a joke, made fun of and ridiculed, demeaned and dismissed during his arrest and agony, from Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane to His death on the cross at Calvary, when the crown of thorns was pressed on His Head, when He was nailed to the cross, when He hung there and struggled to breathe, throughout His Passion enduring the punishment of execution and excruciating pain, He suffered all of this for love of us and the expiation of our sins.
Will we continue mocking Him mercilessly and offending Him overtly?
Is it just a joke, just like the crown of thorns was just a joke crown for a make-believe king, and the purple robe was just a joke robe for a make-believe member of royalty?
Like everything there is a proper time and place.
There is a time for silliness, and there is a time for sacred respect. There is a time for hilarity, and there is a time for honorable reverence.
Clerics are not comedians in a comedy club, they are consecrated Catholic clergy in a Catholic Church confecting Christ for consumption at Communion.
Some might say: It’s just a joke, lighten-up, don’t be so super serious and seemingly scandalized, acting all saintly with an attitude of holier-than-thou.
This is an English translation of a joke in Spanish recently told by a priest at Mass:
A man went to talk to a dentist about the price of a tooth extraction.
The dentist replied it cost $1,000.
The man said that was too expensive, he was wondering what the itemized charges were.
The dentist said equipment sanitation cost $200.
The man said that wasn’t needed, he was sure the equipment was clean enough.
The dentist said that anesthesia cost $300.
The man said that wasn’t necessary because people needed to learn to put up with some pain.
The dentist said that brings down the cost to $500.
The man said he could afford that.
The dentist asked him when he wanted to schedule his tooth extraction.
The man replied that it wasn’t for him, that it was for his wife.
Some people in the congregation were laughing and a few were clapping.
Don’t they realize how cruel, sadistic, and unloving that is, for a husband to risk his wife getting an infection because equipment was not sterilized, and how excruciatingly painful it is not having anesthesia during a tooth extraction, all to save some money.
At a time when the divorce rate of Catholics is almost the same as the national rate, shouldn’t the Catholic clergy be doing everything in their power to foster a more caring, supportive, and loving relationship between husbands and wives.
It is a sad and sorry situation when Catholic clergy foster and facilitate the stereotypical machismo male and the victimized female in the name of good humor.
Would Saint Joseph have mistreated his wife the Blessed Virgin Mary like that?
Would the father of Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, now known as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, also called Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower, have mistreated his wife like that?
The parents of the Little Flower are Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, examples of a Holy Catholic marriage.
Their letters to each other closed with mutual loving affirmation and affection:
"I embrace you with all my heart. I am so happy that today I will welcome you back home that I can hardly work for the joy of it. Your wife who loves you more than her own life!" -Zelie
"Your husband and true friend who loves you for life." -Louis
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” – Luke 6:45
Saint Louis Martin, Spouse of Saint Zelie Martin, pray for us.
Saint Zelie Martin, Spouse of Saint Louis
Martin, pray for us.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, child of her parents
Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us.
Blessed Virgin Mary, Spouse of Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, Child of His Parents - Foster Father Saint Joseph and the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, have mercy on us.
- Marian Casillas, Ed.D.