The Divine Sense of Humor...and other things

"A Divine Sense of Humor"

A divine sense of humor is not what it may seem, not some funny thing about God or Christianity, look through the words and then you’ll understand what it is. And it is just that, it is the ability to see through objects or people or nature. All objects with divine sense of humor are translucent to some other more significant meaning than its surface appearance. In Christianity, the divine sense of humor is directly linked to a sacrament. A sacrament is a tangible or audible thing with more than just a surface meaning. Sacraments present and represent something else. It is important to remember this so that one does not forget that God is an ultimate symbol, the thing itself of nature. It is important to make these connections of things in nature and God to have a divine sense of humor as it is to understand the double meanings of sacraments.

 "The Bible is a Sacramental"

The Bible is like a sacrament because it has as Sheen writes, a “foreground” and a “background”. Again it is this idea of two meanings or a deeper sense of the things presented in the foreground found in the background. It is also written that a sacrament is a mystery. Jesus is a sacrament because he is a mystery; he represents something divine, his father and presents something human because he was human. God becoming human was the best option for man because man is not divine like God; man is human…like man. So Jesus came and after he went man was left with the sacraments, signs of what he hopefully taught some of man.

 "What the Sacraments Bring to Man"

The sacraments are gifts from God, brought to man through Jesus. The sacraments are the most direct way to link human and divine together and be filled with grace. This leads Sheen to explain three levels of living, “the sensate, the intellectual, and the divine”. The most important level of course is the divine because that is where man is filled with grace and truth. God is giving himself and ourselves to us when man begins to understand the divine sense/aspect of life. A further understanding of the divine sense understands that man can prove Jesus saves because he left the sacraments. Sacraments are an almost permanent symbol of what Jesus was and what he continues to be on the divine side.

 "Seven Conditions of Life"

  There are two different aspects to these conditions of life. There are the practical ones:

Ø  Birth

Ø  Nourishment

Ø  Maturity/growth

Ø  Healing (of physical or mental wounds)

Ø  Diseases rid of

Ø  Live under government

Ø  Reproduce

Then the ones related to a Christ-life

Ø  Baptism

Ø  Eucharist

Ø  Confirmation

Ø  Penance

Ø  Anointing of the Sick

Ø  Holy Orders

Ø  Matrimony

These are the seven sacraments, signs of the conditions of life. They are instituted by Jesus, they are outward signs and have power of giving grace/divine life.

 "The Power and Efficacy of the Sacraments"

The power and efficacy of the sacraments is found in Jesus’ life and the end of his life and his resurrection back to life. He suffered and shed blood. Blood is vital to the survival of humans therefore blood can represent life. Jesus gave his life and he was human and divine therefore his blood was significant. His suffering was a sacrifice and made the sacraments all more powerful because Jesus was divine.

 "The Application to the Sacraments"

The sacraments convey grace because of Jesus’ divinity and bloodshed for man. Then, the sacraments are given out and are received and applied differently to each person during each circumstance in their life. Jesus set the ball rolling and has made the sacraments, not it is up to man receiving them to interpret them and receive them well.

What is the Divine Sense of Humor?

The Divine Sense of Humor is that which relates to a opaquness of things and in the religious sense of those things in the Bible, the Bible itself, and all that Jesus taught. Jesus prepared his followers with numerous parables and teachings in order to instill in them this divine sense of humor. It is to see through things as if they are clear not in physical attributes but in the meaning of things. Archbishop Fulton describes the different teachings of Jesus that alluded to this divine sense of humor.

Fulton Videos on the Divine Sense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxLdrE7WTaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVmc95Byl8&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyfSiaz-q7w&feature=relmfu