Easter Sunday 2018 - Easter Laughter & The Joy of the Gospel

During the 15th century in southern Germany, a delightful custom sprung up in many parishes. At the end of the Easter church service, the priest would leave the altar and come down among the people and lead the congregation in what was called the “Risus Paschalis”, which roughly translates as “the Easter laughter.” The priest would tell funny stories and sing comical songs to evoke Easter laughter. Eventually this evolved into a regular annual practice, and the Sunday after Easter became known as Risus Paschalis Sunday. Priests would include jokes and funny stories in their sermons, and would sometimes even play practical jokes on their parishioners.

Eventually Pope Clement X outlawed the practice due to severe abuses of the practice: perhaps the medieval equivelant of putting whoopie cushions under the pews or itching powder in the holy water for the sprinkling rite.

But, why did this practice arise? Why did priests start telling jokes on Easter? Laughter is a sign of the joy that should mark this day. Joy is to bubble up in us like laughter after a good joke, as we celebrate the great victory of Jesus Christ over the powers of death.

In a sense, the greatest, most elaborate, most memorable prank in history took place that first Holy Week. Think of it…everyone was convinced Jesus was gone, dead, done away with for good. Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers thought so; with Jesus dead, they wouldn’t have to worry about an insurrection. The crowds that called for Jesus’ crucifixion thought so, in their minds, Jesus was a charlatan and got what he deserved. The Pharisees and Sanhedrin thought so; they had done everything in their power to be rid of Jesus who they thought to be guilty of the most heinous of blasphemies—claiming to be God. Satan himself must have thought that he had pulled off his great triumph in frustrating the plans and purposes of God.

But then the surprise. Then the punchline. Death was not the end, rather suffering and death became the instruments of God’s greatest victory. Death and violence do not get the last laugh, the last word. , The work of the evil one is undone by turning his own weapons against him. Suffering and death, which entered the world as a consequence of sin, were to become the very means by which sin was vanquished.

Easter is the morning when the Lord laughs out loud, laughs at all the things that snuff out joy, all the things that pretend to be all-powerful, like cruelty and madness and despair and evil, and most especially, the great pretender, death. All these pretenders are swept away by the truth and joy of the Resurrection.

As the good news of Jesus’ resurrection spread among his disciples, no doubt, surprise and joy and laughter must have bubbled up within them.

Joy is to mark the lives of Christians, especially in the Easter season when we focus on spreading the good news of Jesus rising from the dead. A glum, sour Christianity attracts few disciples.
Friedrich Nietzsche famously quipped, “If you Christians want me to believe in your Redeemer, you need to look more redeemed!”  Not that we should necessarily take advice from an atheist philosopher.  But he is certainly onto something: a truth that has been echoed often by the current holy Father, Pope Francis.

In his encyclical, “Evangelium Gaudium”, the Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis writes of how complaining and pessimism can often turn Christians into “sourpusses”, which is probably the first time the word “sourpuss” appeared in a papal document in 2000 years. Actually, the Pope’s original Spanish version of the encyclical used the phrase, “cara de vinagre” faces of vinegar, to describe Christians who have allowed pessimism and defeatism to rule over their hearts. A Christian who is complaining is not attracting anyone to Christ.

Rather, we are called to radiate with a Christian joy that bubbles up in us from our faith: that Christ is risen, he is truly risen.  Conviction that whatever powers of evil and death are left in the world, they’ve been defeated. Faith that human suffering and human death have been transformed into instruments for the sanctification of Christians. Faith that resurrection will come for all those who live and die in communion with Christ.

Christian joy is not an act. When you meet a truly joyful Christian, he is not pretending. He’s allowed the truth of the Gospel to transform his heart. And that joy is sustained through daily prayer, regular charitable service, fidelity to the commandments, and the humility to repent of his sins.

Pope Francis wrote “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.”

Easter is not just a day, it’s an entire season of 50 days. So, how can we sustain and nurture our easter joy over the next 50 days? I encourage you to read through and reflect upon the Acts of the Apostles and to imitate what you find there.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the first Christians “ate their food with joyful and generous hearts” (2:46). A family sitting down to breakfast or dinner, before saying grace, can recall Easter joy. Have one person say, “He is Risen!” and the rest respond “Indeed, he is risen!”

Acts of the Apostles tells us that wherever the disciples went, “there was great joy” (8:8); even amid persecution they continued to be “filled with joy” (13:52). When something doesn’t go your way, instead of complaining or cursing, recall the resurrection. Say to yourself, “He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!”

In Scripture we find the Blessed Mother rejoicing, the apostles rejoicing, the woman at the empty tomb rejoicing, the newly baptized rejoiced, those who were persecuted for being Christians rejoicing. “Why should we not also enter into this great stream of joy?”

But again, joy is not an act. It’s not pretend. It comes from the real conviction, real faith, real belief, that Jesus is risen from the dead, and this changes everything.

Now, if you were waiting for me to tell an Easter joke at some point in this homily, I apologize, the only jokes I know are about Jesuits and lawyers, so, if you know a good easter joke, I could use one for next year.

May each of you come to know and experience great Easter joy today and throughout this holy season, for He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! For the glory of God and salvation of souls.