Sister told me today I have a dry sense of humor. I hope that means I don't offend her! If so, I will undoubtedly have many penances to perform in the future, because my sense of humor gets the better of me regularly. At least I have learned how to hold my tongue in public.
I do hope the Sisters appreciate the same things that make me laugh. They seem like very nice people, and I would like to grow close to them because I love the spirituality they bring to their work. I have worked with many different personalities over the years, and can get along with almost anyone in the workplace. But I keep in contact with very few of my former coworkers, and even fewer of my former classmates, and the ones I still connect with are those who share my sense of humor.
Even within my family there are those who just shake their head at me. Fortunately my husband and children are in the same boat, and we keep each other chuckling. I know I am home and the world is right when the one daughter sitting on the sofa tells the other daughter who is sitting at the table about something she has found online, and both my husband and I join the laughter.
I don't use "sense of humor" as a selection criteria for close relationships. Rather, the mutual amusement is a sign, an attribute of less-tangible things that we have in common: shared standards of value, shared principles, shared interests. We laugh together at jokes about religious orders because we share an interest in and therefore have studied Catholicism and the most visible representatives of our faith, namely those religious who still still wear the "uniform" of their traditions, showing the secular world they move through that there is something beyond the pursuits of money, power, fame.
Such jokes depend on knowledge of religious traditions, the particular spiritualities and even the stereotypes of different orders. When someone laughs with me, I know they share my knowledge of these things. When they respond with another joke of a similar format, I know we may become closer friends than before.
Of course, most people do not share my sense of humor, and I can live with that. The few I have already found are a treasure already.
And so, here's some fun for the family:
During a Eucharistic Congress, a number of priests from different orders are gathered in a church for Vespers. While they are praying, a fuse blows and all the lights go out.
The Benedictines continue praying from memory, without missing a beat.
The Jesuits begin to discuss whether the blown fuse means they are dispensed from the obligation to pray Vespers.
The Franciscans compose a song of praise for God’s gift of darkness.
The Dominicans revisit their ongoing debate on light as a signification of the transmission of divine knowledge.
The Carmelites fall into silence and slow, steady breathing.
The parish priest, who is hosting the others, goes to the basement and replaces the fuse.
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