Main news for 19 November 2021

When the Lord said that Jairus's daughter had not died but was sleeping, they laughed at Him. Everyone who truly believes deeply knows this special laughter. To a person incapable of believing, what we believe in appears ridiculous, and we ourselves seem to him a little beside ourselves, slightly mad. The words about laughter in today's passage look rather strange. Imagine the situation: Jesus and His disciples came into a house where everyone is weeping, and suddenly the weeping changes into laughter, not into astonished silence but precisely into laughter. It is hard to imagine this, which means that this is exactly what is important to understand and feel. A person laughs when he feels strength in himself, when he feels himself master of the situation, when he rises above it. Laughter is the opposite of holy awe. At the same time, laughter is an ambiguous phenomenon; sometimes we perceive it as something good. Let us think about this again. In the Letter of James (|4:9) we find these words: be wretched, mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning. Here the apostle does not say a word about some specific laughter that should be turned to mourning; no, all laughter should be turned to mourning. Yes, the Lord calls us to perfect joy, but as long as the world remains as it is, every laughter is dangerous because it can turn into the laughter of the people who greeted Jesus in Jairus's house. It is not by chance that earthly life is often called in prayer a valley of tears.