A Catholic Convert in Ottawa

I don’t like April Fools’ Day.

What I dislike is the practical jokes and pranks that go with April Fools’ Day. The “Kick Me” signs, the fake news headlines, the storytelling to see just how gullible someone is before the joker says, “April Fools’,” leaving the other person feeling stupid and embarrassed.

Please don’t think that I’m a humourless, sour-faced woman. I have a healthy, if slightly warped, sense of humour and a loud laugh. (Well, it’s louder than I’d like it to be.)

I can laugh at the antics of clumsy puppies and kittens. Strange but true news stories I hear on the radio. Jokes the priest tells during his homily. Monsters vs. Aliens. The funny things children say, like when my then-preschooler son was acting up during a grocery run and his response to my scolding was to wish that I had a hundred naughty children.

The Redemptorist priest who recently visited my parish told us a woman once complained about his telling jokes during a mission because there was no place for laughter in church. I guess she wouldn’t appreciate the times at my church when the priest has gotten an answer from a child that made the rest of the congregation laugh, or when a little boy kept walking up and down the side aisles shaking people’s hands because he really enjoyed sharing the sign of peace, or when babies shrieked at a moment that seemed like an “Amen!” to a point in the homily.

I think humour and laughter are gifts from God. If they weren’t part and parcel of what it means to be human, why would even babies snort and gurgle and eventually laugh? Read the rest of this entry »