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PDF versionSpirituality doesn't require you to be serious, Jesuit says
by Maureen Fiedler on Dec. 02, 2011
This week on Interfaith Voices, I interviewed Jesuit Fr. James Martin, author of a terrific new book called Between Heaven and Mirth.
This guy has to be the best-known Jesuit in the country since Dan Berrigan protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He's been on Stephen Colbert's show, and his book has been featured in the Washington Post, on Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and on The Huffington Post and now on Interfaith Voices.
His message is simple: Spirituality does not require being dour, grim or serious. In fact, humor, joy and laughter are central to the spiritual life. Not peripheral. Central.
When I interviewed Jim, I used some of the soundtrack from The Sound of Music, where Maria's frolicking behavior is dubbed a problem -- of course -- by her abbess. Jim agreed that this is a great example of the culture of gloom that has surrounded traditional religion. And it need not be so.
I resonate with that message. I've often said that one of the greatest signs of holiness is a good sense of humor. And it's an interfaith phenomenon: Whenever I see the Dalai Lama, who is truly a jovial personality, I often think his joy is a sign of a deep spirituality.
This delightful interview can be found here.
I agree with the overall
I agree with the overall premise Maureen, however with the hideous stories being revealed every day for the last 20 years...there is little to be lighthearted about in the Catholic Church. Just yesterday, another 85 "creeper" priests in 6 dioceses in Ireland. Bounced around my parish to parish, who knows how many more little boys were raped and tortured. Serious stuff. Would you not agree?
I'm not Maureen, and I
I'm not Maureen, and I certainly agree with you. Tomorrow [Sunday Dec 4} for the first time in my life I'm participating in a rally outside Parliament House in Melbourne, supporting an inquiry into over 36 suicides [and counting] Catholics abused by clergy as children.
I will have to face them one day and don't want to have to hide because I sat on the fence and did nothing.
MaryKate mc...i understand
MaryKate mc...i understand your statement, however, i ask you to look
at the culture around you...the sexual dangling of women on tv shows,half
naked,..click and run thru all the tv shows!...if a boy is sexually abused in
our culture all rage is registered, as it should....however, what is the
out rage about young girls, young women, etc. women prostitutes go to
prison, not the men who buy there service( i've visited such a prison for
prostitues..when i asked were the men arrested too...they all laughed!),on
right to life sundays, how many sermons have you heard directed to men, the
fathers, brothers, uncles,etc..is there a law in the health care bill that
requires men who get women pregnant to pay for half the abortion? ..it is
always aimed at the women...etc....if you ever worked in a mental health
clinic you would realize just singling out our churches failures in this
issue is a narrow view(yes, i have helped some of our ill priests)..sexual abuse is a cancer in our culture at
large.....and yes, Fr. Martin's read is a great help to clear the fog on our
glasses of spiritual adjustments....blessings, dncrowley
Forget the Prostitutes, the
Forget the Prostitutes, the true men that should be arrested are the ones that allowed the violence to be committed on our little boys and girls. The better justice would be to put several of our catholic Bishops in the slammer. These men are indeed catholic but they are not Christian. They may say they are apostolic but they fail to follow The Way of Christ!!
R. Dennis Porch
Jim Martin is the best face
Jim Martin is the best face and voice of Catholicism in the US today. Maybe Bill Donohue can let go and retire now.
Tom Merton said the same and
Tom Merton said the same
and mocked the "professionally pious"
By the way, at present the most famous anglo American Jesuit is the Reverend Father John Dear SJ, Patron of Peace.
But then again I have no radio or television, just what I read in Mexico and here on NCRonline.org
Yep, in my efforts to do
Yep, in my efforts to do charity I've found that sincere community, sharing a couple of laughs, is pretty much the most important thing I can do.
Starvation and suicide annoy me greatly, and I worry about it with folks I know, but even that stuff is pretty well driven back by a tiny bit of community.
A friend of mine used to give a church history lecture about "fools for christ", which included long ago and far away religious leaders staging a fake confrontation starting with fake grim piety, and ending in absurd clowning, for the benefit of their conflicting congregations.
Nils K. Hammer
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