The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-12-31
nm oUR LORD EVER SMILE?


rbe above title is given to an inter-
ting story in the Catholic Fortnight
,,5Peview. Concerning the query, the
writer says:
lrs originally we think. that though
.oad in the Gospels that Jesus vert,
We 40 moi find it recorded that he ever
N;od This is strictly true: and yet
slii',sood not infer from the silence of
w, GOSPELS that our Lord never
s'i, smiles are of different kinds. End
aoaad from different causes. r. ere
he smile of pleasure and eratifica-
e., and we cannot perceive the
iiabtest reason why Our Lord should
have smiled in this way-to eX-
Hass-a welcome to his friends and dis
p.nlas o.. TO acknowledge kindly
eoryica. Other smiles proceed from
s,rueement at the occurrence Of some
Zinc ridiculous; and we suppose that
onr Lord would never smile in this
D.sv-still less break forth into laugh
~ We all take this view about Our
ard not because there is any thing
irdecorous in being amused but be-
agnse of the supreme dignity of Our
Iord's person and character, and the
eoriousness of his life and work
Father Bridget published an article
-, thfs subject in the Dublin Review
January. 1890, in the course of
which he makes some very appropri-
,+o remarks As we cannot improve
IN what he says. We reproduce an ex-
tract I'm which, after quoting a state
,nent from Bousset, he writes as fol-
lows
Bousset may speak the truth in say
inc that laughter was unworthy of a
c0d-made man. yet it need not. there
fore be unworthy of a man, or even
If a Christian man. or of a saint. In
tbe first place. there is an intellectual
i,nperfecton in laughter that was in
conluatible with the elevation of Our
rords human soul. He took. indeed
both our nature and our weaknesses,
vet there were certain things. both
GOOD and fitting to US, in which He
could not be like US. Faith is to us
the foundation of all supernatural vir-
tues. vet Jesus Christ, from His very
excellence. could not be to US the mod
81 of faith though He was its Author
and Finisher. AS man He had vision.
not faith. Now. laughter, according to
Aristotle. is an affection of the soul
and body which arises from the sud-
den perception of something that is
homogeneous, yet neither painful nor
pernicous AS God can have no sud-
den perceptions. neither could the HUI
man soul of Jesus Christ, enjoying as
IT did the Beatific vision. We. how
ever. who do not see the essence, but
only the surface of things, have con-
stantly brought before US things incon-
gruous 1t Is. indeed but poor su- |
fnfr So eli
dwelling on the insignificant trifles of |
human life: and when laughter is de- |
liberately sought for in the imperfec- |
tons Of external forms, without re-
gard to the interior reality. it is not |
mirth but grimace and affectation. |
The hereto Tindale was full of Knocks |
and gibes and Blessed Thomas More |
said of him most truly. that che |
laggheth but from the lips forward, |
and grinneth as a dog doth when one !
p0rreth him in the teeth with A stick" |
Yet true and wise and reverent men !
may have that additional gift of wit /
which consists. not only in the power !
Of perceiving analogies between things !
which appear to have nothing in COM
mon. as Macaulay says. but also in the
power Of detecting incongrUities. and /
m moving laughter by their detection. |
This power is indeed founded on the
imperfeCtion of all human knowledge,
let in its higher sphere. It is really an
approach TO a wide and God-lil1e view
nj human things. Children laugh at
the putting on and taking off a mask.
and every small incident of their
games. clowns laugh at travesties of
serious things and gross improprieties
Of words and conduct: dull and COM
men laugh but little. be-
cause they have little imagination and
only see the things before them: while
wise and far-seeing men. men Of lively
as well as large expert
enee men who see beneath the surface
of things often have play of fancy
which fills them with silent enjoy
ment OF. when fittingly expressed.
moves the wise and sympathetic to
smiles and laughter. Erasmus wrote
Of Blessed Thomas More: In human
affairs there is nothing from which he
does not extract enjoyment. even from
things that are most serious. II he
cenTerSes with the learned and judi
olous he delights in their talent: if
with the ignorant and foolish, he en-
JOYS their stupidity" Thus there may
be IN laughter something unworthy Of
God-made man. as BousSet says, yet
need there be nothing unworthy of a