Commemoration of All Souls, What a Joke!

“What’s the joke of the day?”

            I am asked this question almost every day at Manna House. The question elicits both smiles and groans on the part of Manna House guests (and volunteers) because they know I am going to answer it with a (usually) lame joke.

            Several years ago I was handed a joke book that came in with a donation. Like a lot of donations, this one was discarded because its quality was less than stellar. I began to read aloud some of the jokes. They were so painfully bad that both guests and I began to laugh.

Thus began the tradition at Manna House of “the joke of the day.”

            Today, Tim wanted to hear yet again the joke about the man with penguins in the car who gets stopped by the police. It is actually not a bad joke. He said his day was going so poorly that he needed to laugh about something and he knew this joke would do it, even though he could not remember the details.

            I think Tim and other guests particularly like this joke because it pokes some (gentle) fun at the police, too many of whom are not friendly with people on the streets.

            Today was a good day for a joke or two. Monday. Grey and drizzle. The somber Christian, “Commemoration of All Souls” or “Day of the Dead” in which we are to remember all those we have known who have died.

            The day did not start with a joke, but with prayer. When we prayed with our guests, I made the invitation to call out the names of people we knew who had died. This past year we have lost Freddie and Twin and Aaron. But the names of other guests were called out as well. Frank. Sarah. Earl. Roosevelt. Semaj. Tony. I thought of still others afterwards. Michael. Bennie. Radio. Daddio. Herman. Karen. Tommy. Charles also known as Dusty. Willie. Elaina. Leroy. Carol. Mark. Nannette. And there are yet more guests who have died whose names have slipped from my memory. Some of you who are reading this may add further names.

            We need to remember that death comes earlier and more often for those in poverty, for those on the streets, for those of a darker skin color, for those who live in war-torn lands or violent neighborhoods, for those whose lives are considered expendable. This is death not simply as shared human mortality, but death from the failure of human morality.

            According to the National Coalition for the homeless, “the average life expectancy in the homeless population is estimated between 42 and 52 years, compared to 78 years in the general population.” The lack of healthcare and the lack of housing combine to kill people. This is death by social policy, by legislative and political and cultural intent. This is the power of sin and death firmly established in our political and economic institutions.

            Given these particular realities on top of the reality of death, this “Commemoration of All Souls” is at first glance, no joke. On it we not only remember those who have died, we are encouraged to remember that we all die. There is ancient wisdom here. “Memento mori”—remember that you must die. Or as the Rule of St. Benedict puts it, “Keep death daily before your eyes.” Perhaps St. Benedict had in mind a line from the Psalms, the prayer book of the monastic liturgy of the hours: "Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:12). This remembering of death, including our own, may encourage a degree of soberness. Not surprisingly, this day of remembering the dead occurs towards the end of fall. The church tells us to remember the dead as the season changes from fall into winter. Death is around and easy to see. Leaves change colors and fall to the ground. Fields have been harvested. The days grow shorter and colder.

            But I would like to urge that remembering that we die is the key to good humor. I would like to suggest that “wisdom of heart” that comes from knowing our shortness of life requires keeping our sense of humor. Not taking life too seriously. Practicing what Christian ethicist Miguel de La Torre calls “an ethic of “para joder” (an ethic that ‘screws with’).”  A “joder” he writes “is purposely a pain in the rear end, who intentionally causes trouble, who constantly disrupts the established norm, who shouts from the mountaintop what most prefer to be kept silent, who audaciously refuses to stay in his or her place.”

            Jesus was a “para joder” to the religious and political leaders of his day. And, as Daniel Berrigan (another para joder) says, “If we are going to be disciples of Jesus, then we’d better look good on wood.”

            We have had our share of para joders at Manna House. Semaj who died about a year and a half ago, was a para joder. He died arguing. Twin was too, in how he played Scrabble and stood up for his dignity. So was the man in the joke who had a carload of penguins. (Ask Tim to tell you the joke). And so was Mother Jones, the labor organizer and former Memphian who said, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

            Not a bad slogan, I would say, for the “Commemoration of All Souls.”