THROUGH UNTRUE
One of the gifts I treasure is the picture of the laughing Christ. It reminds me that Jesus must have laughed a lot. Otherwise, how could He have withstood human misery, the hardness of heart of the disciples, the murderous arrogance of the Pharisees, betrayal by His closest friends, and His horrible death on the cross? In preaching God's message of salvation, Jesus epitomized the most successful theory in advertising: “The medium is the message.” His did not only advertise joy. He was joy personified.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes that joy is habitual cheerfulness that allows us to take pleasure in fun, wit, childlike playfulness, humor, and laughter, even in the midst of difficulties, trials, and adversity. Yes, joy is compatible with suffering. As one poet writes: "Joy lies cheek to cheek with the deepest sorrow, and we cannot appreciate one without experiencing the other." Joy comes from the conviction that even if we don't have everything we want, even if there is a shortage of love and justice in this world, and despite the avoidable and unavoidable evils that afflict us, we still have many things to be thankful for.
St. Thomas reminds us that our morbid fear of suffering can itself be a cause of joylessness. When we always seek comfort and security, we become allergic to anything that forestalls these. We look at every problem as a killjoy, avoiding it at all cost, thereby weakening our ability to endure pain. The slightest discomfort becomes excruciating.
Christian joy, unlike that of Buddhists, does not come from an attitude of passive resignation. Nor is it the frenzied enthusiasm of the fanatic activist who dreams of building a future world by overthrowing the established order. Christian joy is not a product of denial.
The Buddhist denies the present to escape into an altered form of consciousness, while the fanatic activist denies the present by focusing his attention on a hoped-for future that he wants to establish by any means. Both are forms of escapism.
Jesus was not an escape artist. He courageously faced both the pain and joys that life offers. This is perhaps why Jesus wants us to be like children and lovers— the most joyful human beings. The children, because in their simplicity, they give themselves to the present in total abandon. The lovers, because they see reversals and disappointments as nothing compared with the security of being loved. Joy is the first fruit of love.
Jesus taught us to live by faith, which allows us to see meaning even in the most desperate situations in life. As Friedrich Nietzsche writes, “If you have a WHY, you can bear any HOW." During this pandemic, the barrage of news about death, sickness, natural disasters, poverty, unemployment, and criminality makes it easier for us to frown than to smile. One of Apo Hiking Society’s songs is a good meditation piece for us today:
Kaibigan, tila yata matamlay ang 'yong pakiramdam
At ang ulo mo sa kaiisip ay tila naguguluhan
Kung ang problema o suliranin ay lagi mong didibdibin
Ay tatanda kang bigla, 'pag tumulo ang luha
Hahaba ang mukha at ikaw ang siyang kawawa.
It's Christmas time. Smile and laugh today. Laughter serves as a solid wall against which we slam sadness to pieces. Let us discard our frowning and cynical faces, lest we forget what faces are for.