San Filippo Neri:
Saint of Joy and Laughter
Americans today struggle with depression. There is no use denying the fact: we can read it in the lackluster eyes and drawn faces of citizens young and old all across the country. In a consumer-driven society, life is for many people a meaningless circle of moneymaking and money spending. The entertainment provided by popular media does little to alleviate the monotony beyond eliciting forced laughter at shallow, crude humor. Where can we go to rediscover the joy of life? Can real love and real laughter ever return to our lives in the bleak world we find ourselves in?
Fortunately, we have a friend in Heaven whose whole life is an exuberant response to this question. One of Italy’s most beloved saints, this joyful man is called, in his native tongue, “San Filippo Neri.”
The world into which this saint was born was at least as bleak as our own. The Roman Church in the 16th century needed “some message of repentance and redemption” as she battled the challenges of Martin Luther, Islamic military victories, the sack of Rome by Charles V, and the exile of Pope Clement VII.¹ From within, the Church’s hierarchy and common clergy were entangled in politics and the pursuit of wealth, which led to general corruption, ignorance and indifference in religious matters.² A voice of true Christian charity was needed to bring faith, hope and laughter back to the despairing world, and that voice was to come from a lowly Italian hermit who lived in an attic, tutored children, visited Incurables, and reached out to touch the people around him.³ His name was Filippo Neri.
Filippo was no revolutionary; he was a simple man characterized by his intense piety, his loving personality, and his quirky sense of humor.⁴ Filippo loved God very deeply, and underwent numerous ecstatic experiences⁵ during which “[h]is heart would pound, his temperature would rise and his body would seem to rise from the ground.”⁶ The joy he received from such experiences radiated from him and spread contagiously to others. His relations with all of those around him can be summed up in a single sentence: “[He] loved people, and they loved him.”⁷ Filippo also knew not to take himself too seriously. Called by a recent author “the merriest man alive,” this humble priest was fond of a good laugh and referred to his favorite joke book almost as readily as he did to Scripture.⁸
Filippo Neri is sometimes remembered for founding a society of laymen to help the poor, the pilgrims, and the convalescents,⁹ or for founding an Oratory where people could play music and speak about God,¹⁰ or for beginning the tradition of the Seven Churches Pilgrimage in Rome.¹¹ His character, however, carries a special and very memorable message for our time. Through Filippo, God has shown us that one need not be gloomy or sorrowful to be a saint. In fact, holiness can be found by transforming the humdrum, seemingly dreary realities of everyday life by a spirit of love, joy, and laughter which can only be found through internal union with God.
Filippo lived during very challenging times in the Church and in the world, when the corruption and decadence all around moved many to despair or rebellion. Filippo’s response was different. He took people the way they were and worked with them using only the simple tools of honest devotion, real affection, and a sense of humor. He gave them recreations to keep them from doing wrong;¹² he gave them the example of a mystic in love with God;¹³ he clasped them to himself;¹⁴ and he laughed with them at the frequent absurdities of human life.
Can we not do the same? By emulating this joyful, humorous approach to life, we can help alleviate the prevailing depression in our times and show others the true meaning of life. With the help of this heavenly friend, we can brighten their lives with humor, inspire them with new faith and hope, and embrace them with love. But we cannot do it without help, so we must ask, in a spirit of humility like his:
Saint Filippo Neri, pray for us!
1. Michael Joseph Kerlin, "St Philip Neri and 16th-Century Church renewal," America 172 (May 20, 1995), 22, ATLA Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, EBSCOhost (accessed April 24, 2017).
2. Michael Joseph Kerlin, "St Philip Neri and 16th-Century Church renewal," 22.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Britannica Academic, s.v. "Saint Philip Neri," accessed April 24, 2017, http://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Saint-Philip-Neri/55316.
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Images:
1. “By Unknown - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Public Domain” [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1936178]
2. “Public Domain” [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=616601]
3. “By HeiligerSatyr - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0”
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55579357]
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