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God's Sense of Humour

You have only to look at a basset hound or read the Book of Jonah to realise that God has a sense of humour. That may seem at odds with what St Benedict says today in the tenth step of humility: not to be prone to laugh too easily. It is important to remember that there are several kinds of laughter. Against the kind that builds up, there can be no prohibition. But there is a laughter that is more questionable: the sort that belittles others or derides their sorrows or infirmities, or is simply tasteless. It can be a salutary exercise to examine one's own sense of humour and beware of any tendency to misuse a divine gift for an evil end. From all tendency to mock and scorn, good Lord, deliver us.