Humor and Resilience in Hard Times: The Spiritual Meaning of Humor (Part II)
- Bobby Jakucs, Psy.D.
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
“From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us.”— St. Teresa of Ávila
Humor, as we discussed last time in Part I of this series, is a powerful weapon in the face of adversity. It allows us to take perspective and engage in creative problem solving. Like a knight’s shield, humor helps us absorb the blows of life while still moving toward what matters.
We also investigated how humor is a powerful tool in developing tragic optimism, the heroic stance one takes towards life. Far from being witty, humor in this light, is something we uncover that can help us carry on with life’s journey. Even when that road is dark and difficult.
This transcendent faculty that humor exemplifies is something uniquely human. We alone in the animal kingdom possess this capacity. Hyenas may laugh, but no one has ever heard them tell a joke.
Humor can help us survive hardship. But what is the spiritual meaning of humor? What does our ability to laugh reveal about human nature and about God?
Let’s dive in.
Is Humor a Virtue? Humor, Humility, and Human Nature
There’s an old joke that when Freud reached the Gates of Heaven, St. Peter asked him “And why do you think you are worthy of entering the Kingdom?” Freud responded, “before I answer, tell me – why did you choose to ask it that way?”
While a farcical joke, this proposed interaction does illuminate something true: entering the kingdom of Heaven requires humility.
Both humor and humility trace their origins to the same Latin root, humus, meaning ground, earth or soil. In this way, both require a kind of recognition that there is something more to an experience or interaction. Finding joy in life requires a humble attitude – you can’t see the humor in something if you are focused only on yourself.
While we think of humor nowadays as the ability to see something as funny, or having a comedic disposition, Humor or umor originally meant moisture or fluid. Fluid, unlike something that is static, is alive, changing, and growing.
Humor then evolved into meaning temperament - the four humors of medieval medicine. Our temperaments, being funny things, made humor evolve further to the ability to see something as funny.
On the other hand, humilitas, where we get the word humility means lowliness or being grounded. It is considered one of the virtues. So essential to the Christian life that the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “humility is the foundation of prayer...only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought,’ are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer.”
Humor often forces us to recognize we are not the center of the universe. So, too does humility. C.S. Lewis put it best: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Far from denying gifts, it is a recognition of a paradox: without God I am nothing. But in God I am everything.
St. Augustine famously described the opposite of humility, pride, as a soul curved inward on itself. Despair has a way of doing that too. Despair is what happens when we lose ourselves to darkness and rely only on ourselves.
We can also lose ourselves in humor. We can surrender to joy. This too requires humility. Pride and despair shout at us to think more about ourselves. Humility and joy invite us to think less of ourselves. It’s why for St. Augustine, humility is a soul turned outward - toward God. A recognition that He is the center of the universe. Not me.
St. Theresa of Avila often reflected on humility. One of her most memorable insights was, “to be humble is to walk in truth.” Humor helps us take a step to walk in humble truth and say earnestly, “Thank you God that you are God and I am not.”
Does God Have a Sense of Humor? Parables and Divine Irony
Does God have a sense of humor? After all, He did make the platypus.
And we have a sense of humor. He made us. Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, it follows that He must. Perhaps His sense of humor is just infinitely better than ours.
Christ often spoke in parables. In fact so much of His teaching is tied to parables. And yet, if we examine them by the world’s logic they are quietly preposterous. Here’s just a few examples:
Leaving ninety-nine perfectly good sheep to find one lost one in the wilderness? Then throwing a celebration over it? I’m sure shepherds in the audience would have rolled their eyes.
A vineyard owner paying the same wage for people who worked all day and those who only worked one hour? That doesn’t seem fair.
A noble father humiliating himself - running not walking - to meet his wayward son who spent all his money on prostitutes? No self-respecting person would debase themselves in such a way.
It’s almost humorous. But that’s precisely the point. Not laughter for its own sake, but to turn the logic of the world on its head. It’s astonishment that disarms. It invites wonder rather than explanation.
And what better way to reach people lost to themselves in a humorless world than through wonder?
Faith Like a Child: Wonder, Humor, and Seeing the World Anew
Perhaps the hardest concept to grasp in Christian theology is the concept of the Trinity. I once heard a theologian quip that so few priests give homilies on the Trinity because it’s just too easy to fall into heresy.
So how did one of the most famous missionaries in history, St. Patrick, attempt to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to the pagan tribes of Ireland? Through a simple, ordinary three-leaf clover.
Imagine, the most complex theological argument presented as something literally everywhere in the green fields of the Emerald Isle. It seems almost comically insufficient - and it is utterly unforgettable.
C.S. Lewis once said, “miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” True humor does not reduce us but elevates us to Heaven's vantage point. At the same time, it shrinks us down small enough to see the mystery in the mundane.
It is another paradox, one that helps us relearn the language of heaven.
Perhaps that’s why Our Lord said to have faith like a child. Children naturally see miracles everywhere. Just watch a toddler when they receive a new toy for the first time. They will nonsensically toss the toy aside and happily play for hours with the box it came in.
It’s absurd. That is, until you see the laughter in that child’s eyes and the joy in their soul. At that point, you’ll start laughing too. Partly with them and partly at yourself. Because you realize, in that moment, not laughing would be the most absurd thing you could do.
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Practicing the Discipline of Humor
Here are some practical ways you can practice building the spiritual muscle of humor:
Take God seriously, never yourself. Humility is the root of holy humor. Christian humor recognizes we are finite, we are not the center of the universe, and we are totally dependent on God. This is not humiliating – it’s liberating. When something goes wrong we can ask, “is this actually tragic, or simply my wounded pride?”
Look for Divine Irony. Christianity is filled with what looks absurd, unless looked upon from Heaven’s heights. Our Lord often taught in parables, and used paradox and reversals. He still does so in our own lives. At the end of each day ask, “where did God surprise me today?” Humor helps us release expectations so that grace can enter.
Practice Sacred Lightness. The Christian faith does not deny suffering. But it does refuse to let suffering have the last word. St. Thomas More, climbing the stairs on his way to martyrdom in the Tower of London joked to his executioner, “Please help me safely up. For coming down I’ll cope myself.” The Saints often carried about them a spiritual buoyancy, a lightness that no weight, not even death, could shake. We saints-in-training can cultivate this too. When frustrations arise we can ask, “can I hold even this moment lightly.” (if you need some help, check out my post on defusion: how to gain space from unhelpful thoughts)
Cultivate Wonder. Remember, a simple clover won a people for Christ. The mundane moments in our lives are really not so mundane. The ordinary is the substance of the extraordinary. It just seems ordinary because we see it every day. Spend five minutes each day noticing something ordinary as if you are seeing it for the first time.
The Folly of the Cross: Christianity’s Great Paradox
The Spiritual Meaning of Humor
Some modern philosophers conclude that life is absurd because it does not conform to our logic or sensibilities. In that sense, they were not wrong. But, perhaps, they stopped too soon. Christianity does not deny the absurd. It reveals that what appears foolish may be the deepest wisdom of all.
Wisemen and scientists of their day, The Three Magi, were humble enough to see beyond the ordinary. In humility these learned men acknowledged the limits of their learning. They recognized the King of the Universe in an ordinary Child.
So too St. Theresa of Calcutta who in the eyes of every forsaken stranger, every lost soul and every wounded heart saw that same Child. In the unwanted she saw the end of all Wanting. In the unloved she saw Love itself.
And love, after all, is absurd. It defies logic. It has to - otherwise, it’s not love at all. The ultimate act of love happens to the most absurd. It is a fundamental offense to our worldly expectations - the Cross.
To think that the God who made the Universe, would allow Himself to be humiliated and murdered between two thieves. It is opposite to all our worldly sensibilities. But that’s the point.
As St. Paul said, “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles...for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians: 23-24) The world equates surrender as defeat. The Cross reveals victory in surrender.
In his masterful work Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton suggested that Christianity can feel like standing on your head. Until you realize the world was upside down all along. What seems absurd may simply be reality seen from the right angle.
The humor we are speaking of here is a far cry from a simple gag or a crude joke. It is seeing the things of this world for what they are – and seeing God for all that He is.
The Great Riposte
So, does God have a sense of humor? Absolutely. It is why St. Paul could proclaim, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.” (Romans 5:20).
The Cross is the greatest riposte to a joyless world. It is the answer to the riddle etched upon very human heart. And, it is the ultimate paradox – so simple a child can understand it, yet so profound it takes a lifetime to begin to comprehend it.
For in the shadow of the Cross we are reminded of the immensity of our sin:
It is because of us that Christ died upon the Cross.
And in that same shadow, we are reminded of the vastness of His love:
Because it is for us that Christ went willingly to the Cross.