Being Mary is a potent medicine that drives off diseases of both body and mind. Since medicine is something you only take when you have a problem, being joyful and merry goes hand in hand with the fact that life is filled with trials and troubles. In other words, being joyful is not the same as being blind to the reality of evil and sorrow. It is possible to look forward to a merry Christmas in full awareness that we live in a world of misery. Just as there is nothing inconsistent with taking medicine to feel better in a world of sickness, so there is nothing inconsistent with a merry spirit in a world of misery.
Laughter is a good lubrication that keeps the body, mind, and spirit going for many more miles.
In laughter there is life. It is this philosophy that has caused the suffering Jews to produce the greatest comedians. No race can match the Jews for great comics and producers of laughter. For the Jews, it is a religious duty to be cheerful. In spite of the severity of the Old Testament law, and the punishments it demanded, the fact is, Judaism is a religion of joy.