August 23, 2026

Dear Parishioners,

The excerpt from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans this Sunday has me thinking about the experience of being pleasantly surprised. In this chapter of the letter, Paul is writing about some pretty serious stuff–the salvation of the Gentiles, mercy for sinners, and so forth. Then, suddenly, he stops and writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!” It seems like a total tangent. Keep in mind, Paul was most likely dictating this letter to a scribe, so you could imagine Paul speaking out his thoughts about the structure of the Church and the history of salvation, and then pausing. The scribe was probably a little perplexed with the pause. Paul usually didn’t struggle to find words. Then Paul was given another thought–about how great God is. Paul says it out loud, the scribe records it, and then Paul goes on with the more intense stuff. It was like Paul had a mini-revelation about God’s goodness. Not that God’s goodness should come as a surprise to Paul, but, for some reason, the epiphany at that moment struck him as a nice surprise, such that he reacted and now we have it in perpetuity.

I’m not sure if this image exactly aligns, but I’ll give it anyways. I find myself often being struck by the amazing things that children say and do, so much so that I’ll laugh out loud. My nieces and nephews often get mad at me, as they think I’m laughing at them. But I assure them I’m not. I just find so interesting and delightful some random thing they’ll do or say that I can’t help but laugh. It’s my reaction to being surprised by joy. Like one time my six-year-old niece fell in the pool with her clothes on. She was alright and when she came out of the pool, she said, “Well, my clothes had to be washed anyways.” I laughed at that. It was a funny comment and her easy-going attitude about something stressful (we all panicked) really struck me. But she got upset because she didn’t intend it to be funny and thought I was laughing at her misfortune. I assured her I wasn’t; that I was laughing because I was so impressed by her maturity.

Or, there was another time recently I was at a family’s home for dinner and the five-year-old daughter gave a little concert with a toy microphone, singing her own songs. It was wonderful and I started laughing with delight. It wasn’t that she was a joke. Just the opposite. She was great, and it was such a nice treat, so innocent and fun. But the little girl was offended and said she would only resume the performance if I stopped laughing. I promised I wouldn’t laugh, but she could tell I was forcing a straight face and so continued stopping the song to make sure I was fulfilling my promise. This was serious, in her mind, and I should be respectful. That made me want to smile even more, but I did my best to remain stoic.

I like to think God laughs frequently at us. Not at us, in a mean, condescending way. We are not a joke to him. He laughs the way I laugh with these children. He’s so overcome by surprise–us doing a beautiful and innocent act–that he can’t help but laugh. Again, I imagine Paul chuckling as he said, “Oh the depth and the riches and the wisdom…”

Do you laugh at yourself? I think we do laugh at ourselves, but often not in the nicest way. It’s more laughing at ourselves for doing something stupid. We are our harshest critics. But maybe we should laugh at ourselves (in a good way) more frequently. Think about something you’ve done recently that our Lord may have laughed at. Something that was insightful, something that showed wisdom and level-headedness (like my niece falling into the pool), something that was courageous (like the little girl singing the rock songs for me), something that was kind and thoughtful (like the young grammar school students who gave me an envelope with coins as a donation to the church for a lemonade stand they had).

Think positively about yourself. We’re often ‘calling to mind our sins.’ Well, how about we call to mind our good deeds? How about we laugh at ourselves? There can be both spiritual and physical benefits to doing so. Scientific research has shown that genuine laughter produces measurable physiological changes. Laughing expands blood vessels to improve blood flow and heart health, suppresses cortisol and other hormones that are responsible for stress and high blood pressure, and produces antibodies that improve the immune system. And spiritually? Laughing at yourself and having an openness to being entertained can make you appreciate the life that God has given you, and the world around you, helping you fall even more in love with God, confident to do his work.

We often hear about the need to evangelize. Funny, the people telling me to evangelize (on media or wherever) often seem pretty unhappy to me and look like they haven’t laughed or had fun in a long time.  What if a type of evangelization wasn’t convincing someone of doctrine or trying to get them to go to Mass, but getting them to laugh? I bet it’s actually harder to surprise someone by your goodness, so much so that they laugh, than to convince them of the Real Presence (or whatever doctrine you have in mind). Maybe that’s a grace we can ask for this week. Lord, please help me make someone laugh this week. Inspire me with calmness, generosity, humor, kindness in a particular situation to bring delight to another person.

Who knows, maybe when Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” Jesus laughed.

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Welcome back to school, all teachers, students, and parents. I hope it is a good year for you all. We will have a special back-to-school Mass this Sunday, August 23rd at 4pm. The first day of our parish school is tomorrow, Monday, August 24th (K-8). 

There will be a Candlelight Rosary this Wednesday, August 26th at 7:30pm in the church. Thank you to the Respect Life committee for hosting these rosaries, as well as to the contemporary ensemble for providing the beautiful music.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. James