The Sunny Side of John Paul II

The celebrated Canadian humorist, Thomas C. Haliburton, has said of his metier that it is a counterweight to balance the sad experiences of life. "God has made sunny spots in the heart," wrote the nineteenth-century Nova Scotian, "why should we exclude the light from them?"

If sadness is a weight, then humor is its natural counterweight; one being gravity, the other being levity. And if sadness adds nails to our coffin, humor, just as surely, draws them out.

What often passes for humor these days, unfortunately, is either Vulgar, Irreverent, Cruel, or Empty-headed. The initials of these four epithets spell out VICE. The proper response to such errant attempts at humor is to say: "That's not funny!" Humor should be funny. But it should also be a human virtue, one that is, rooted in love. So planted, humor Provides perspective, Offers hope, Pleases the heart, and Elicits a smile. The initials of these four verbs remind us of a man among us whose humor is truly loving, and a virtue we can all enjoy.

Pope John Paul II's favorite joke, it is said, centers on the only two possible solutions to the Eastern European crisis, of which one is realistic, the other, miraculous. In the realistic solution, Our Lady of Czestochowa suddenly appears with all the angels and saints and inspires an immediate resolution to the crisis. In the miraculous solution, all the nations cooperate.

When Time selected John Paul II as "Man of the Year" for 1994, the Pontiff thanked the magazine's delegation at a private audience in Rome, but added, somewhat mischievously, "I see that in the past, you have given this honor to Lech Walesa and to Pope John XXIII - but also to Stalin and Hitler." Upon being assured that he was on Time's "good list," not its bad one, he replied, gratified, but still playful, "I hope I always remain on the good list."

Tad Szulc, in his biography of the Pope, says of his subject that "In public, he likes to joke, often in a slightly self-deprecatory fashion, in whatever language he happens to be using at the time, and enjoys the crowd's laughing, applauding responses. It may be the actor in him." On November 11, 1993, after addressing a group of workers in Rome, he slipped on a newly installed piece of carpeting in St. Peter's Basilica and fell several steps. Though in pain, he said to the crowd on his way out of the hall: "Sono caduto ma non sono scaduto" (I have fallen, but I have not been demoted.). The Pope's artificial hip joint that was surgically implanted to compensate for his damaged femur, was giving him some problems. At a synod in October 1994, he looked at the assembled bishops and said, citing the comment Galileo allegedly muttered, "Eppur' si muove" (And yet it moves.). Sometimes, when asked how he feels, he would reply, "Neck down, not so good."

In October of 1995, the Pope spoke to a gathering in New York's Central Park about one of his favorite Polish Christmas carols, which he began spontaneously to sing. The large audience roared its approval. John Paul, cocking his head to one side and assuming an expression of surprise, remarked, "And to think - you don't even know Polish." One observer commented that the Pope's gesture was a perfect imitation of Jack Benny.

During a flight from Brussels to Rome (May 21, 1983), a journalist asked His Holiness about the risk of exposing himself to public criticism and objections, he responded by saying, "Even the Pope can learn something." En route to Alaska, the Pope's plane crossed the International Date Line, thereby gaining a calendar year. With a glint of mischief in his eye, John Paul said to his party, "Now we must decide what to do with the extra day we have been given."

Once (August 16, 1972), as Cardinal Wojtyla, he was climbing a mountain when he noticed the darkening skies and heard thunder in the distance. He joked to his guides, "I know three madmen: the first is myself, the second is my secretary, and the third is waiting for us at the summit." A journalist once alerted the Pope of an imminent soccer game to be played between Poland and Italy, and then asked, "which team will you root for?" John Paul responded wisely and humorously: "It would be better for me to keep out of sight."

The late Sir John Gielgud, considered Britain's pre-eminent Hamlet, has remarked that John Paul has a perfect sense of timing. While in Krakow in June of 1979, and being kept up until midnight by an enthusiastic crowd, the Holy Father said to the cheering throng: "You are asking for a word or two, so here they are - Good night." During that same pilgrimage to Poland, a horde of youngsters kept shouting Sto lat, sto lat (may you live to a hundred) to the point when John Paul jokingly asked, "How can the Pope live to be a hundred when you shout him down? Will you let me speak?" After order was restored, he simply said, "I love you all."

While in Chicago in October 1979, tens of thousands of Polish-Americans continually serenaded him with Sto lat. Finally, John Paul said to them, playfully, "If we keep this up, they're going to think it's the Polish national anthem." To a gathering at Castel Gondolfo (April 17, 1995), John Paul answered repeated shouts of "Long live the Pope," by saying, "Long live everyone."

Someone once remarked, by way of voicing disapproval of Wojtyla's affection for skiing, that no Italian cardinals were skiers. "That's strange, Cardinal Wojtyla said innocently, "in Poland, forty percent of our Cardinals are skiers." His detractor pointedly commented that there were only two Polish Cardinals. "Oh yes," replied Wojtyla, "but in Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski counts for sixty percent." The Holy Father was telling a Polish joke on himself. One of John Paul's biographers, and a close personal friend, John Szostak, has pointed out that John Paul has no objection to Polish jokes as long as they were not cruel. Szostak compiled a list of new Polish jokes for John Paul that was being circulated on the occasion of his elevation to the papacy. One was about the first thing a new Polish Pope would do upon moving in to the Vatican - order wallpaper for the Sistine Chapel.

The Pope's humor always Provides perspective, Offers hope, Pleases the heart, and Elicits a smile. The day after the Pope gave his Christmas message in 1979, hundreds of Romans returned to St. Peter's square. They began to clap and call for their Pope. John Paul responded by praying the Angelus with them. Then, in a playful mood, said to the throng: "I rejoice with you and I wonder why you have come. Perhaps you came to see if the Pope is at home on the second day of Christmas. And then I think you have come because today is a really beautiful day and attracts one outside. But the Pope has to stay at home because he never knows when people are coming to recite the Angelus. . . . Thank you all and a Merry Christmas to all . . . Blessed be the name of the Lord."

Pope John Paul is living testament to the fact that holiness and humor are not mutually exclusive. There are sunny spots in the human heart which allow the light of humor to be given and to be received. Good humor is sometimes the doctor's best medicine, and at other times, the Pope's best homily.