Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
In All Things

Did Jesus Laugh? NPR Wants to Know

James Martin, S.J.August 22, 2009

 

That's what Scott Simon on NPR's "Weekend Edition" asked me the other day.   Here's my answer from today's show along with some reflections on an occasion when humor went too far.  The America piece on humor that Mr. Simon mentions at the beginning is The Most Infallible Sign.   The piece on The New Yorker, from "In All Things" is here.  And yes, someone really did ask me that question across the street from Carnegie Hall!

James Martin, SJ

Show Comments (
1
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
15 years 10 months ago
There is a song I was taught at an American Baptist camp called "For the Joy".   One of the verses goes: "Jesus didn't laugh every day, Jesus spent a lot of his time crying, For the bible says he was a man of sorrow.   Get ready for sorrow, if you're going to follow."   I would say that's a sign that, at least for some bible-based churches, we're not supposed to be overly perky.   But this is also the church that frowns on dancing & alcohol...

Most popular

1
The Catholic nun who brought faith and social justice to New York’s airwaves for over 50 years
Helene Stapinski
2
Pedro Arrupe, Hiroshima and the Sacred Heart
Dawn Eden Goldstein
3
Pope Leo made 8 new U.S. archbishops. Here’s what they think about peace and unity.
Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service
4
Mary Karr on being brutally honest with God
James Martin, S.J.
5
David Foster Wallace, A.I. and the future of the humanities
Michael O’Connell

Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more.

IVC is hiring in Baltimore!
Jobs
Teaching Religion to Adolescents – An Online Course
Spiritual Resources
The Journey Continues – Online Supervision for Spiritual Directors
Spiritual Direction
Director of Worship and Music
Jobs
Teaching Religion to Children – An Online Course
Spiritual Resources
See all Classifieds

The latest from america

Anne Carr, the ‘founding mother’ of Catholic feminism in academia
A leading figure in academic Catholic feminism after the Second Vatican Council, Anne E. Carr was also a renowned scholar and an inspiration to generations of theologians.
James T. KeaneJuly 01, 2025
How will Pope Leo change the process for choosing bishops?
At the time of his appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost described in an interview one change he would like to see in the bishop selection process: greater involvement of lay people.
Colleen DulleJuly 01, 2025
Catholic bishops from Global South demand climate justice in first-ever joint ecological appeal
Bishops from the conferences of Africa, Asia, and Latin America produced a joint document calling for climate justice ahead of the U.N. climate conference in November.
Nicole Winfield - Associated PressJuly 01, 2025
Mary Karr on being brutally honest with God
“One of the things I find most appealing about the award-winning writer and poet Mary Karr is her forthright, almost brutal, honesty.”
James Martin, S.J.July 01, 2025