Christian joy
and a sense of humor

Sister Ultima

This cartoon was published in the June 2012 issue. The author is Cinzia Leone, a cartoonist, writer and journalist, who has exhibited her drawings on paper, acrylics on canvas and watercolors in solo and group exhibitions in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. Her latest book, Ti rubo la vita [I Steal Your Life] (Mondadori), won the 2019 Rapallo Prize for Women Writers.  Pope Francis indicates that peace, joy, and a sense of humor should be among the distinctive traits that mark a religious life. In the video message sent in August 2021 to participants in the Congress of Religious Life of Latin America and the Caribbean, he said, “Peace, joy, a sense of humor. Please ask for this grace. In the Exhortation on holiness, I wanted to include a chapter on the sense of humor. It is so sad to see consecrated men and women who have no sense of humor, who take everything so seriously! Please. To be with Jesus is to be joyful; it is also having the capacity for this sense of humor that holiness gives. Read this chapter in my Exhortation on holiness” In Gaudete ed exsultate Francis wrote, “Christian joy is usually accompanied by a sense of humor. We see this clearly, for example, in Saint Thomas More, Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Philip Neri. Discontent is no sign of holiness. ‘Remove vexation from your mind’ (Eccl 11:10). We receive so much from the Lord ‘for our enjoyment’ (1 Tim 6:17), that sadness can be a sign of ingratitude. We can get so caught up in ourselves that we are unable to recognize God’s gifts”.