Go Ahead and Laugh
Discover more from Missio Dei
Lame (adjective):
1. (especially of an animal) unable to walk without difficulty as the result of an injury or illness affecting the leg or foot. ‘His horse went lame.’
2. (of something intended to be entertaining) Uninspiring and dull. ‘I found the program pretty lame and not very informative’
(Google Dictionary, published by Oxford Languages, 2022)
One beautiful Sunday morning, my family was sitting in church. The reading spoke about Jesus healing a ‘lame’ man. My daughters are very respectful and well-behaved in church, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see my oldest daughter begin to fidget. I could tell that she kept glancing my way, wanting my attention but not wanting to talk at an inappropriate time. She could hardly contain herself. I finally looked at her, intuitively knowing what the issue was, and not wanting to acknowledge it. She was trying very hard to hold back laughter. I hadn’t wanted to look at her, because I knew that acknowledgement of the joke would cause me to struggle to hold back laughter, too. After I made eye contact with her, we both found ourselves barely able to contain our mirth through the remainder of the readings.
The issue at hand was her misinterpretation of the word ‘lame’, not as a physical affliction, but as a personality flaw. Ever since then, whenever we run across the story of Jesus healing the ‘lame’, we lament that He can’t come and ‘heal’ a few people we know of their ‘affliction’.
Catholicism is a very serious business, but we’ve all run across unexpectedly hilarious moments in our faith. Please share one of your funny personal stories in the comments below or bless us with a particularly good Catholic joke.
Speaking of jokes and ‘lame’, there is a running, groan-inducing joke in my house. I refuse to let it die, since it brings such annoyance to the kids. Whenever it rains heavily, there is a conversation that goes something like this:
Mom: “Boy, it’s raining a lot out there.”
Daughters: “Mom, don’t do it.”
Mom: “It looks like it’s going to flood.”
Daughters: “Mom, no. Please.”
Mom: “We might need to build an ark.”
Daughters: “.......”
Mom: “I Noah guy who can help.”
*Cue groans*
Please share your favorite Catholic joke or funny personal incident in the comments below!
Copyright 2022 Jessica Tucker
Go Ahead and Laugh
My Dad had a dry sense of humor. He was raised Methodist. So, for some reason, after Mass, we'd always get back to the truck and he'd look at all the doors and then say, "good, no one nailed anything to them."
Ps. Hymn - Lift High the Cross talks about crucified bears. Gets us every time.