Lent: Day Fourteen

I’m going to interpret St. Benedict’s next step to humility as:

NEVER LAUGH AT, DERIDE, OR MOCK ANYONE OR ANYTHING.

If you read the rule, however, you find that this rung is different than my interpretation, but let me make my case. The Saint says:

The tenth degree of humility is, when a monk is not easily moved and quick for laughter, for it is written: "The fool exalteth his voice in laughter" (Sir 21:20 in most translations).

So, St. Benedict is telling the humble to refrain from laughing. Perhaps it’s just a rationalization on my part because I happen to like laughing, but I see it more as the kind of laughter that is the issue. Yes, the counsel is literally to refrain from laughter, at least excessive laughter. But it isn’t laughter in a moment of joy, but that of a fool who laughs in ignorance. “Fools raise their voice in laughter, but the prudent at most smile quietly” (Sir. 21:20). The context of the quote is that of the value of education and knowledge, and that those who do not understand things are prone to laugh at what they don’t understand. So the laughter is that of derision and jeering.

This means that if I am humble, I don’t laugh at others. I don’t decide that others are idiots because I don’t understand what they are saying or where they are coming from. I don’t laugh at them if I think they’re wrong. The most I can do is offer a polite smile.

In effect, this type of laughter is name-calling without words. I think you are such an idiot, that I don’t even have to call you an idiot, my laughter makes it clear, so I don’t have to waste time and words expressing it.

So, just as I am not allowed to use my words to hurt anyone, I am not allowed to use laughter as a weapon either. Jesus instructed:

“...whoever insults one of his fellow-believers by saying things like ‘You’re a meathead!’ will be punished by the highest legal authority! And whoever says ‘You’re a worthless moron!’ will be punished in the flames of the fiery garbage heap of hell! (The New Peace Treaty).

So calling someone an idiot, whether explicitly with words, or implicitly with laughter, is a damnable offense according to Jesus. So how many times has my laughter and my insults condemned me to “the fiery garbage heap of hell”?

Pride puffs itself up by tearing others down; but Humility finds room for all to be honored.  This means that we are not to laugh at the mistakes of others. We are not to laugh at the failure of others. We are not to take pleasure in the misfortune of anyone. The more we grow in humility, the more empathetic, and ultimately sympathetic, we become.