Stations of the Cross and Mockery in Today’s Humor

Today the eighth grade put on a depiction of the Station’s of the Cross for the school and they did a good job making up commentary without scripts. The student “soldiers” and “crowd” made fun of Jesus, calling Him names and twisting His teachings. And I became disturbed to consider how the mockery of Jesus is so much akin to what we would find funny in media, because so many jokes are put downs. I was disturbed that Jesus’ falling is so akin to what we would find funny, because so much of today’s humor is about people in pain. I was disturbed to consider how often we laugh when someone abuses another. That people would post videos of themselves eating Tide Pods and then getting sick is just as much about how there is a market for people to watch others in pain for amusement. Today I was confronted with how often I’ve been trained to laugh at mockery when one of the torments of Jesus was the people’s mockery of Him. I cried to think of how much we are desensitized to others’ trauma that we could laugh. Jesus is pure joy. I could not live in a world without jokes and laughter. But I pray for our purity in what we find funny. Lord, have mercy and purify our amusement.