Pope Francis: Without a sense of humour it's difficult to be happy

Source: Vatican News Service/ICN

A new book: 'God is Young', based on interviews with Pope Francis by author Thomas Leoncini has been released ahead of World Youth Day which takes place on Palm Sunday and the forthcoming Synod of Bishops which will be attended by young people. In the wide-ranging book Pope Francis reflects on the difficulties faced by young people in today's 'uprooted society'. He recommends that young and old share ideas and stresses the importance of having a sense of humour.

In his conversation with Leoncini, the Holy Father reflects on how "young people are growing up in an uprooted society". He says: "To understand a young person today you have to understand them in movement, you cannot sit still and pretend that you are on the same wave length. If you want to dialogue with a young person you must be 'mobile,' and then he or she will slow down in order to listen to us, he or she will decide to do it. And when he or she slows down, another movement will begin: a movement in which the young person will begin to pace him or herself more slowly in order to be heard and those who are older will accelerate in order to discover the point of encounter…. Often adults uproot the young, they eradicate their roots and instead of helping them to be prophets for the good of society, they make them orphans and discard them."

He says: "We must ask pardon of our young people because we have not always taken them seriously. We do not always help them see the path and construct the means which might allow them not to end up discarded. Often we do not know how to make them dream and we are not capable of enthusing them. It is normal to seek money in order to build a family, a future, and so break out of a position of subordination to adults which today's young people have endured much too long. What matters is avoiding the drive to accumulate."

The Pope speaks out against the exploitation of young people by employers who expect them to work for nothing, in order to gain experience.

And he criticises older people who pretend to be young. "How sad that someone would want to erase the wrinkles of so many experiences, of so many joys and sorrows! Too often it is the adults who play at being teenagers, who feel the need of putting themselves at the level of an adolescent, but who do not understand that this is deceitful. It is playing with the devil. I cannot understand how it could be possible for an adult to feel that they are in competition with a young person, but unfortunately this is happening always more often."

Old dreamers, young prophets

Pope Francis recommends dialogue between the young and old - bypassing the middle-aged. "The young and the old have to talk to each other and have to do it more and more often. This is very urgent! And those who are old must take the initiative just as much as those who are young…. But this society marginalises both. It discards the young just as much as it discards the old. Yet the salvation of the elderly is to give the young the memory, this makes the elderly true dreamers of the future; while the salvation of the young is to take this teaching, these dreams, and bear them prophetically into the future.... Old dreamers and young prophets are the path of salvation of our uprooted society: two discarded generations can save everyone."

God is young

God is the One who always renews because he is always new: God is young! God is the Eternal who does not have time, but is capable of renewing, of rejuvenating himself continually and rejuvenating everything. The most particular characteristics of young people are God's as well. He is young because "he makes all things new" and he loves new things; because he amazes and loves to astonish; because he knows how to dream and desires our dreams; because he is strong and enthusiastic; because he constructs relationships and asks us to do the same, he is social. I think of the imagination of the young and I see that they also possess the possibility of being "eternal," putting into play their innocence, their creativity, their courage, their energy, accompanied by dreams and by the wisdom of their elders. It is a cycle which becomes closed, which creates with a new continuity and it reminds me of the image of eternity.

In the book Pope Francis also speaks of the importance of humour. "If one doesn't have a sense of humour, it's very difficult to be happy; it's necessary not to take oneself too seriously… A sense of humour is fundamental to be able to breathe, because it's linked to the capacity to enjoy life, to be enthusiastic."

Quoting GK Chesterton he said: "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

The Holy Father confides that every day, for almost 40 years, he has recited the 'Prayer for Good Humour' by Saint Thomas More. The book concludes with this prayer:

Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humour to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn't frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called "I."
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.

(God is Young has been published in several languages. The English edition will be out in time for the Synod in October.)