Zachariah Heritage, a novice at the Birmingham Oratory, looks at the humour of Cardinal Newman.
Saint Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory, was the saint who kept a jokebook close at hand to soothe his spiritual ecstasies; who shaved off half his beard and went around Rome to make a fool of himself; who refused to be made a cardinal, but kept the red hat he was sent and used it for practical jokes. Yet John Henry Newman himself was no stranger to humour:
“In Saint Philip and in Newman, this humour was one of the sweetest fruits of humility: a sense of lowness, as sinners, but sinners who have been redeemed, and who now have a joyful trust in God. We see this most clearly as Newman reflects upon his old age. He variously describes himself as an old âcart-horseâ or as a âmusical snuff boxâ, âa very little rheumatic and a little lameâ, âa bird with clipped wingsâ. But this would not trouble him, he said, âif I donât aspire to long or high flightâ.”
