Brother Juniper on a teeter-totter playing irreverently with kids.
Why do some people think that joy is irreverent? Check the new testament, especially Paul, for verses that encourage Christians to be joyful. “Rejoice in the Lord always” comes to mind. (Phillipians 4:4)
I like to see people laugh and hear them, too. Some people belly laugh with a kind of eruption big enough to make by-standers stop and take notice. Then, there are the silent laughers who respond to something funny by doubling over with delight, but no sound occurs.
My Aunt A’s cackle was loud and over-powering. At family gatherings, you could hear her laughter even when it had to soar over a dozen conversations. Just to hear her laugh would make us laugh, or at least, smile..
One of my favorite saints is Brother Juniper who entered into St. Francis’ original group and was always cheerful. He was like a child in his simple trust in Our Lord. Like the little children who swarmed around Jesus and whom Our Lord commended as authentic members of the kingdom of God, Juniper was a free spirit.
When Brother Juniper went to Rome dressed in a sack tied with a rope, people were awed by his devotion and simplicity and treated him as a holy man. Juniper saw some kids playing and he joined in their games, laughing and looking irreverent. He did not want to be treated like some plaster saint. It worked. People left him alone. Many thought he was a simpleton.
This original Franciscan friar (I’m sorry but I can’t think of that word as anything but a “fryer,” a plucked chicken ready for the pan) was simple and funny. Referring to a common evergreen which was called then (and today) a “juniper”, St. Francis said of his humorous friar: “Would that I had a whole forest of Junipers!”
May God bless us with a forest of cheerful companions in the Gospel.