Opinion | Pope Francis: There Is Faith in Humor

Life inevitably has its sadnesses, which are part of every path of hope and every path toward conversion.But it is important to avoid wallowing in melancholy at all costs, not to let it embitter the heart.These are temptations from which not even clerics are immune.

And sometimes we unfortunately come across as bitter, sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like old bachelors than wedded to the church, more like officials than pastors, more supercilious than joyful, and this, too, is certainly not good.But generally, we priests tend to enjoy humor and even have a fair stock of jokes and amusing stories, which we are often quite good at telling, as well as being the object of them.Popes, too.

John XXIII, who was well known for his humor, during one discourse said, more or less: “It often happens at night that I start thinking about a number of serious problems.I then make a brave and determined decision to go in the morning to speak with the pope.

Then I wake up all in a sweat … and remember that the pope is me.”How well I understand him.And John Paul II was much the same.

In the preliminary sessions of a conclave, when he was still Cardinal Wojtyła, an older and rather severe cardinal went to rebuke him because he went skiing, climbed mountains, and went cycling and swimming.The story goes something like this: “I don’t think these are activities fitting to your role,” the cardinal suggested.

To which the future pope replied: “But do you know that in Poland these are activities practiced by at least 50 percent of cardinals?” In Poland at the time, there were only two cardinals.Irony is a medicine, not only to lift and brighten others, but also ourselves, because self-mockery is a powerful instrument in overcoming the temptation toward narcissism.Narcissists are continually looking into the mirror, painting themselves, gazing at themselves, but the best advice in front of a mirror is to laugh at ourselves.

It is good for...