February 16, 2025

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26

An old man on his deathbed tried to take his riches with him, or at least to keep them from his relatives. So he cashed out his remaining wealth and gave it to three of his friends, having them promise to have it buried with him. At his funeral, they all came to the casket and put a bag in before the coffin was closed for the last time. After the service, they were talking, and the first friend admitted to the others: “I put most of it in there, but I admit that I gave some of it to a needy person at my church who was in a bad way.” The second then admitted: “I also took a little of it out to help a person at the pharmacy buy some medicine.” The third person looked at them and said: “You two should be ashamed of yourselves. You promised to put it all in.” The other two were taken aback, and said that surely he had not put it all in the casket. “Darn right I did,” he answered. “I wrote a check for every last penny.” For you young people out there who don’t know what a check is, I ask you to pretend that I told a hilariously funny joke since the humor doesn’t work with Venmo or PayPal.

Now sometimes I tell a joke or a story because its theme matches that of my homily. Today is a little different. Today the joke provides an example of something that was in the Gospel, from the beatitudes we just read from Luke’s Gospel. And the first beatitude is about how the poor are blessed. Comforting the poor is an important theme throughout Christ’s ministry, and so we usually spend a lot of time talking about it, as is proper. But as a result we often don’t spend much time talking about the other beatitudes. So today let’s discuss one of those.

The beatitudes in Luke are pairs, with one “blessed are …” paired with a “woe to you …” on the other side of the spectrum. One of the last pairings is “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh” and “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep” [Luke 6:21b, 25b NABRE]. Surely Jesus is not teaching that laughing is always bad and that we should never do it. Just like he never says that poverty is good, he does not say that laughter is bad. He wants to ease the suffering of those who are in poverty, just as he wants to give comfort to those who are laughed at and scorned by others. This is where my joke comes in.

When I found this joke – where else, on the internet somewhere – the three people who were given the money were not described as friends but instead identified by their professions: a priest, a doctor, and a lawyer. Guess who the butt of the joke was? The lawyer. It plays on an old, tired stereotype that lawyers are greedy and devious. But of course they are not – I have relatives and friends who are lawyers and not one of them can be said to be either – but at some point it became socially acceptable to imply this. As with all stereotypes, they are always hurtful when applied generally to a whole group of people or specifically when applied to a person. It is always wrong to disparage other people. It is always a violation of Christ’s rule to love one’s neighbor as oneself. We can debate the idea of political correctness, how much of this Christian moral standard should be enacted into civil laws, regulations, and organizational rules, how badly a person should be punished for a transgression, and if and when they should be forgiven by society. But we cannot debate that Christ clearly sets the standard that we are not to laugh at other people, ever. It is wrong.

There is another aspect of this that we should also discuss. It is unchristian to laugh at a person for something that is untrue about that person, and also, as we just discussed, for a supposed attribute of some group in which that person belongs, something that might or might not be true for a given individual. For surely there are greedy or devious lawyers, just as there are greedy or devious people in every profession. So what if it is true and we believe sincerely that a person has a particular fault? If we firmly believe that a person is, say, greedy or devious, are we allowed to say this to other people? No – this is also wrong in almost all situations. The Catholic Church calls this the sin of detraction. In its discussion about bearing witness to the truth, the Catechism says this: “Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty … of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them …” [Catechism of the Catholic Church 2477, https://usccb.cld.bz/Catechism-of-the-Catholic-Church/ ]. It goes on to say, “The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it” [CCC 2488].

What this means is that gossip about someone is always wrong, even if it is based on factual material. To ruin someone’s reputation, regardless of whether the smear is true or not, is a violation of Christ’s teaching to love one’s neighbor as oneself, to love one’s enemies, and today’s teaching, to not laugh at others. This does not include revealing necessary information for what the Catechism calls “valid reasons.” What are valid reasons? Since words can do verbal violence to someone, they are the same reasons in which someone could justifiably do physical violence to someone, that is to say when absolutely necessary to protect the well-being of others, by informing law enforcement agencies, a court of law, or people that interact with someone that poses a real risk of harm to them. But let’s face it: most people gossip without a good reason, often not even bothering to investigate the situation to ensure that the information being gossiped about is even true. Gossip hurts people, it damages their reputations, and it is wrong. Laughing at people is always wrong. It is so wrong that Jesus tells us today, woe to them that do it.

I like the mural that you can see on the founder’s center as you leave from church. It shows what has been popularly dubbed “the laughing Jesus.” While the bible tells us that Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, it never tells us of an incident when he laughed. But of course we know he laughed. He enjoyed celebrations with his disciples, he ate and drank in the homes of his followers and even the Pharisees, and he celebrated the wedding of friends at Cana, all situations where people laugh and have a good time. But we know also that he never laughed at anyone. I’m sure he laughed with many people, about the misfortunes in life and the mistakes we all make, but I’m also sure that he never laughed at them, never mocked them, never told stories that demeaned them. Although Jesus often had debates, even heated debates, with many groups such as Pharisees, scribes, and yes, even lawyers, I am equally sure that he never ever told any lawyer jokes.

As we continue with our Mass, may the Eucharist we are about to receive give us the grace of wisdom to understand the effects of our actions and the hurt that we can cause. May we always find the humor that is a natural part of our life, but never when it is at the expense of another. Then we will have found the secret to building our own joy without having to detract any from another to do it.