First reading – Don’t be sad.  It said don’t be sad, it said it twice.  Don’t be sad, don’t be sad.  And our Lord in today’s Gospel, you just heard it, “I have come to bring glad tidings.”  Glad tidings.  The word Gospel means good news by the way.  I know you know that.  The word Gospel from the Greek it means GOOOD NEWS!  Don’t be sad, don’t be sad, glad tidings, good news.  That’s the theme for us this morning, for you and me.  

We in the seminary, we had a great professor of the New Testament,  Fr. Burke.  I say his name in honor.  What a great teacher of the Gospels.  A real scholar but he made Jesus so tangible.  Anyhow, I remember it was a drowsy afternoon in May, the room was packed.  In those days the seminary was packed.  And one guy put up his hand – we were all in our mid-20’s – he put his hand and I looked at this guy because he never asked questions, never, never.  He put up his hand.  We were talking about our Lord in class, and this guy said almost querulously, “Father, did Jesus laugh?  Did Jesus ever laugh, did he smile, did he laugh?”   And I saw some of the guys in the class rolling their eyes, you know, some of the scholarly types.  Rolling their eyes at what a silly, shallow, superficial question to pose in the midst of all this profound scholarship, but Fr. Burke he didn’t roll his eyes.  He put down his clipboard and he leaned on his lectern and he said, “What a good question.”  What a good question.  Did Jesus laugh?  He said that’s essential to his humanity.  Yeah, he was the Son of God but his human nature was fully, tangibly human.  Of course, he must of laughed.  He must have smiled a lot with those twelve clowns he was hanging out with.  (Laughter)  Affectionately, of course, but what a good question.  The human nature.

So, today, glad tidings.  I want to just take some examples in the history of our church where people made us down through 2000 years glad.  Made us laugh, made us smile.  Now, by the way, if you have a summer vacation coming up eventually, get a good history of the Catholic Church.  It’s gripping, it’s a page turner, its incredible the characters we have had in the Catholic Church.  Loonies, pinheads, saints and at least six Popes who should have been locked up before they were elected.  Its great, wonderful, it’s not boring.  Anyhow, I had to study it for years.  There was group in the Catholic Church, still is, called the Bollandists.  Authentic Jesuit scholars and they go all through the history of the church – lives of the Saints – and they scrape away all the shiny, beautiful, bring tears to a glass eye legends; and they scrape them away so that we now have authentic antidotes about the great saints, including when they laughed.  They don’t try to clean anything up.  And they are all the more human. 

Anyhow, example:  In the early church there was a story which I heard in the 4th grade, an early martyr who was arrested by the Roman soldiers because he was teaching that Jesus was God and not the Emperor and they arrested St. Lawrence and they put him on a barbecue spit and they were turning him around barbecuing him.  And after awhile St. Lawrence looked up and said I’m done on this side, turn me over.  (Laughter)  Now in the 4th grade I was deeply stirred by this gorgeous story but the Bollandists said forget about it.  They scraped it away.  There is no authentic antidote about St. Lawrence.  But these are honorary historical antidotes about laughter in the Church.

First of all, St. Peter:  St. Peter.  Remember, he comes up to our Lord in the Gospels.  “Lord, we have left all, what do we get?”  We have left all????  Presumably, he is talking about his thriving fish industry.  But what we can read in the four Gospels he couldn’t snag a sardine without Jesus working a miracle.  We have left all.  I’m sure our Lord loved these guys but he must have chuckled, at least.

When Joan of Arc – 14th century – when Joan of Arc was on trial she was put on trial and executed by monks by the way.  By monks.  And one of the monk very officially said to poor Joan of Arc who was in chains, brags one of the monks said, you say that saints spoke to Joan.  She said yes.  Were they wearing anything?  She said oh, yes, God can afford clothing.  It’s authentic, it’s written.  God can afford clothing.

Theresa of Avila  --  do you know Einstein at Princeton said, if there is an afterlife the first woman I want to meet in the next world is Theresa of Avila, 16th century Carmelite nun, who really got going when she was 40.  Great brain, Theresa of Avila.  At 40 she looked around at the convents in Spain, she was a nun herself; she said what is going on with the nuns in Spain.  They had cocktail parties, they wore jewelry, and they had had Conquistadors in the afternoon for a conversation (laughter).  Theresa of Avila said we’re suppose to be nuns, we’re suppose to be taking care of the sick and the poor, we’re suppose to be praying.  So she was cleaning up the convents.  She was doing a great job and there was one young nun, you know, very devout, translutient, idealistic young nun who was kneeling in the Chapel, but she had a job assignment elsewhere.  She’s kneeling in the Chapel, Theresa the Mother Superior went looking for the young nun, she found her in the Chapel and Mother Theresa said, “Sister, what are you doing?”  And the young devout nun said, “I’m here listening to Jesus whisper”, and Theresa said “Good, but I just came from the kitchen and he’s yelling for you there.”  (Laughter)  Authentic!

Thomas More was a lawyer and he was the Prime Minister of England.  Remember 16th  Century, Henry VIII, six wives, half of whom he killed.  Anyhow, Henry VIII wanted a new wife, a lady in waiting, who evidently was a hot number in the Court and he wanted a new wife and you know the story.  And he said well, if the Pope won’t let me have a new wife I’m going to be the head of the Church and do what I want.  There were only two people in England, two people in all of England, who said no, you’re not the head of the Church and you really don’t have a reason to have a second wife, your first wife is still here.  So Henry had everybody threatened and arrested.  Two people said no to the King.  Two – one was a Bishop, very old guy, and the other was the lawyer, the Prime Minister, married twice.  Thomas More married twice; when his first wife died he said I’m going to look for a second wife.  And his friend said but you’re such a saint, you’re such a scholar, you don’t need a second wife.  And Thomas More said yes, I do, I do, I need a woman, I need a mother for my kids, I need love.  Anyhow, Thomas More said to the King no, you’re not the head of the Church and the King had him arrested.  He was in jail for a couple of years and then finally he was dragged off to have his head chopped off.  And he was being dragged along to have his head chopped off and a lady in the crowd came running up to Thomas More who was tied up.  She said, “Thomas More”, yes, “I’m a woman that you decided against in a lawsuit and you gave the award to the other party instead of to me and I, I, I’ve got the document here and I’m still mad at you and look where you are going now.  Ha!”   He said, “Madam, I have other things on my mind.  Right now I really can’t pay much attention.”  This is verified by the Bollandists.  They dragged him up to have his head chopped off and the executioner was imported from France with a hood and Thomas More, who was a gent said, “I forgive you, you’re only doing your job.  You gotta chop off my head but you don’t have to chop off the beard because it hasn’t committed any crime.”  And Henry’s secretaries who were around wrote it down.

Catherine of Siena  -  can’t wait to meet her if I ever get there.  Catherine of Siena, 14th Century, authenticated by all historians.  She wasn’t a nun, she wasn’t married, she was what is called a member of the Third Order, people who stay in the world, live a life of chastity, do work for the poor.  A Third Order Dominican.  Anyhow, she was a genius.  She could dictate to six people, all the men, this little woman.  Catherine of Siena dictating to six men simultaneously like a red robin.  She loved politics; she stuck her nose into every ecclesiastical political mess she could get into and in those days the Pope had moved out of Rome because Rome was very dangerous.  When they had an election of a Pope, it was a riot.  Not everyone standing in the circle looking up – Oh, white smoke over the Vatican, we have a new Pope – uh huh, no, when they elected the Pope in those days there were riots outside the Vatican.  People wanted the French one, people wanted the British one, people wanted the Italian one.  They had flaming torches, they had two by fours.  Finally the Popes got scared, they did, and they moved out of Rome to France.  A chateau, Kuel Chateau in Avignon, and they were hanging out in France.  And Catherine of Siena said – you know I’m rushing this, I have to – Catherine said “The Pope belongs in Rome, that’s where the Peter died, Popes have always been in Rome.”  So she made her way to Avignon and she walked right into where the Pope was having a Papal audience, she walked up to the Pope, she said get back to Rome (I’m paraphrasing).  He said no, it’s too hot there.  She boxed his ears.  (Laughter)  It says that Catherine of Siena relished political affairs, particularly of the Church, and she scolded Cardinals and Bishops.  Isn’t that great?  Anyhow she belted the Pope and he went hustling back to Rome.

St. Teresa of Lisieux, she died at 24, 19th century, and when she died the young nuns whom she was the Novice Mistress, she was teaching the younger nuns, the young nuns said (the alarm went off that means I have to shut up in a minute), the young nuns said “Oh, with Teresa gone there is no more laughter.  She always made us happy.  There is no more laughter.”

John the XXIII in my day, mid 60’s, 77, some of you remember him, very old – I mean old as far as a Pope goes and sick, fat and he was cutting flowers in the Vatican garden in the afternoon and Time magazine had a whole set of questions for the Pope to answer and the Time guy went out to the Pope and the Pope’s clipping geraniums or whatever; and the Time Magazine guy said among other things, “How many people are working for you here in the Vatican?”  And John XXIII said, “Oh, (clip) about half of them.”  (Laughter) 

Now this is not true but it’s a story I love.  It’s an Easter story, it’s short and I love it.  Joseph of Arimathea, it’s on Good Friday night and Joseph of Arimathea is having some Manaschevitz in a bar in Jerusalem and some of his pals come up to Joe and they say, “What in God’s name were you thinking to lend your beautiful brand new crypt, your beautiful tomb, to that upstart carpenter from Nazareth.  What were you thinking?”  And Joseph strokes his beard and says, “Oh, well, relax.  I hear it will only be for the weekend.”  (Laughter)  Isn’t that a great story? 

Anyhow, Thomas Aquinas wrote in the 13th century there is no laughter in Hell.  In Hell there is no laughter.  Okay, I’m going to shut up now.  I’m a minute over.  I’m going to shut up.  Would you think of somebody in your life, especially a dark day in your life maybe, where someone made you laugh, shared a joke.  And in the silence that’s going to follow say a prayer for that lady or guy, living or dead.
Amen.

rjs