Hmm so if a man who gets rejected by a women is laughed at would that be a mortal sin? Or if people make light of their attempt and joke about it is it a mortal sin? It seems to me there is a light joking form of mockery and a more serious mockery. What do you think?
I'm glad you mentioned this. The saint does distinguish between mockery and good-hearted humour, actually in the next paragraph of the text I quoted.
“But as to playful words which are spoken with a modest gaiety and mirth, they belong to the virtue called eutrapelia by the Greeks, and which we might call geniality; and by this means we derive a good and pleasant recreation from the opportunities of mirth, which human imperfections supply. But we must be on our guard against passing from this honest mirth to mockery. Now mockery provokes laughter by scorn and contempt of our neighbour; but honest gaiety and pleasantry provoke laughter by an innocent liberty, confidence and homely freedom, connected with the playful wittiness of some saying. St Louis, when religious persons wished to speak to him of serious things after dinner, used to say: It is not the time to discuss and cite authorities, but to recreate ourselves with mirth and quolibets: let each one say what he likes modestly. And he said this for the sake of the nobles who were gathered about him to receive favours from his Majesty. But, Philothea, let us so pass time by recreation that we may secure holy eternity by devotion.”It seems to me that the key difference is whether we truly will the good of the other, and those around, in our joking manners; do we wish for light-hearted laughter that relieves the soul from time to time, or do we wish to subtly jab the other person, the latter being a fault all too common between men. A lot of men seem to think these subtle jabs are a sign of masculinity, when in fact it is a sign of weakness and effeminacy. It seems this is oftentimes done because the man is obviously so insecure about himself, he feels the need to take another down to deflect from his own bad behaviour, or inferiority.
Topic: Chrysostom on finding a wife... (Read 38293 times)