2013 Hecker Lecture is ‘a time to laugh’
by Stefani Manowski
February 4, 2013

Joy, humor and laughter are underappreciated values in the spiritual life, but values that are desperately needed in our personal spiritual lives, the Church and the life of anyone who works in the church.

That was the message of Father James Martin, SJ, who delivered the 2013 Hecker Lecture Jan. 26 to the more than 200 people gathered at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C.

“Joy is not a waste of time,” said Father Martin, a Jesuit priest, culture editor of America magazine and author of My Life with the Saints and The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. “Far from it. For joy is what we’ll be sharing when we are welcomed into heaven. We will be joyful. We may even laugh for joy.”

The Hecker Lecture – named for Paulist Fathers founder Father Isaac T. Hecker – has been a tradition in the Washington theological community since 1975. Held on a date near the Jan. 25 Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, a guest speaker is invited each year to expound or reflect upon one of the core aspects of Paulist spirituality: evangelization, ecumenism, interfaith relations and reconciliation. This year’s Hecker Lecture officially begins the yearlong celebrations of the 100th anniversary of St. Paul’s College.

“Humorous” is one of the four key qualities of Paulists as seen in the community’s new vocations video, according to Father Paul Huesing, CSP, rector of St. Paul’s College and Paulist director of formation.

Father James Martin, SJ, greets guests after the 2013 Hecker Lecture held Jan. 26 at St. Paul’s College in Washington, D.C.

“This lecture was a good reminder of the importance of joy and humor,” he said. “Certainly there are times to be serious, but there are also tomes to experience joy and put things in perspective.”

Father Martin called humor “an essential, but neglected, requirement of Christian spirituality” and “an essential element of vocation work.”

“Billy Joel was wrong when he sang a few decades ago, ‘I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.’ Remember that song? Well, Billy Joel had it backwards. The most joyful people are those closest to God. As the Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, ‘Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.’”

Far from advocating a “mindless, idiotic happiness,” Father Martin noted the often-quoted text in Eccleasties.

“There is a time to weep and a time to mourn,” he sad. You would be a robot not if you weren’t sad during times of misfortune or illness or death, or over the recent developments in the church, such as the sexual abuse crisis. Those are things to mourn and to grieve. But Ecclesiastes also said that there is a time to laugh. And sometimes laughter – even in the midst of sadness – can be healthy.”

Father Martin then went on to note 10 reasons for joy, laughter and humor in the Church:

  1. Humor evangelizes.
  2. Humor is a tool for humility.
  3. Humor shocks listeners into recognizing reality.
  4. Humor speaks truth to power.
  5. Humor can show Christian courage.
  6. Humor deepens our relationship with God.
  7. Humor welcomes.
  8. Humor is healing.
  9. Humor opens our mind.
  10. Humor is fun.

“Joy, humor and laughter should be part of everyone’s spiritual lives, whatever your role is in the church,” Father Martin concluded. “They are gifts from God to help us enjoy creation and build up the Kingdom. They are also neglected gifts that need to be recovered for the health of the Body of Christ. In short, joy, humor and laughter is part of the vocation of being Christian. Finally, they are essential elements in attracting anyone to any kind of Christian vocation.”