Chapter 7 pt. 14
The Rule of Benedict February 7
Laughter is often put to uses other than a pure expression of delight. Habitual laughter can serve to guard our conversations from ever going beyond the polite. Such laughter can belittle or trivialize, which enables us to avoid honest, vulnerable engagement with a person or topic. The tenth step of humility is intended to free us from this habit.
How do you know? Why is laughter not talked about as a problem more often? How can you discern whether laughter is offensive or just an expression of delight? I often sit in silence and am quiet during discussions, while many times it is to learn and grow, there are also times that it is because I'm afraid of what others will think of what I have to say. It is extraordinarily difficult this process of discerning who God made one to be and what that looks like.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Christy, the process of discerning who I am made to be is the most difficult process of my life. And the path forward often seems obscured, not illuminated by these sorts of instructions in the Rule. I think your questions are good ones to ask. What I have to say is not an attempt to answer them. I think that's yours to do alone.
ReplyDeleteIt's helpful for me to take a step back and think of this instruction as a part of the series of steps in Chapter 7. The intention of the steps is to cultivate a posture of humility. Humility is of central importance to Benedict because it is the condition of the human soul through which God can speak and act in the world. Each step, it seems to me, dismantles some egoic barrier to this flow of Divine action into and through our lives. This is why I have tried to interpret this particular step of humility in a way that shows how laughter can present a barrier to our being used of God in our relationships.
I, for one, would suffer greatly if YOU decided to adhere strictly to this instruction and stopped laughing altogether, though.
Thank you for your thoughts.