“This is good for us” – Pope Francis writes guest article about humor

In the text, Francis emphasizes the importance of humor and self-irony and quotes a number of jokes and anecdotes about previous popes and members of his order, the Jesuits. “Life inevitably has its sorrows, which are part of every path of hope and every path of conversion,” the Pope wrote. But one must avoid sinking into melancholy at all costs, so as not to embitter the heart.

Irony is a suitable medicine for this, which not only cheers and enlightens others, but also yourself. “Narcissists are constantly looking in the mirror, painting themselves, looking at themselves, but the best advice in front of the mirror is to smile. yourself. This is good for us.” According to the Pope, anyone looking for perfection will not find it. To paraphrase an old saying that says, “There are only two kinds of perfect people: those who are dead and those who have yet to be born.”

Francis went on to say that nothing gives him as much joy as meeting children. “Children are often my mentors. It is the encounters with them that excite me most, where I feel most at ease.”

Children and the elderly as role models
The same goes for meeting old people. Those “who bless life and cast aside all grudges” are irresistible. “They have the gift of laughing and crying, just like children.” Children and old people, the Pope concluded, are examples of spontaneity and humanity. “They remind us that to give up one’s own humanity is to give up everything.”

Anyone who finds it difficult to “seriously cry or passionately laugh” is “really on the decline.” “We are drugged, and drugged adults do no good for themselves, for society, or for the church.”

The article appeared on Tuesday, the church leader’s 88th birthday, and according to Kathpress is taken from his autobiography, which will be published simultaneously in 80 countries in mid-January.