[Jesus said:] "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed." 

"Turn off the lights, we're gonna lose our minds tonight. What's the deal? I love when it's all too much. Turn the radio up, where's the rock 'n roll? Why so serious? Raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways, all my underdogs. We will never be anything but loud and nitty-gritty dirty little freaks. Won’t you come on and raise your glass. What part of a party don’t you understand? It’s so on right now." 

Since the Gospels deal with how to live our lives well, they must talk about the day-to-day existence of eating, drinking, and one would think, enjoying ourselves. In terms of Pink's song "Raise Your Glass," there are times when we are not so serious, times of partying, times when we must relax, especially if we are involved in stressful living of some sort. Human beings must have time to feel good, and not have to worry about the difficulties of life.

But Jesus points out that there are times during which we must be serious. Consider the ending of the world, or the ending of our lives, our deaths. Such an ending is going to come suddenly. Jesus reminds us that during the time of Noah and Lot in the Bible, people were living the day-to-day existence of eating, drinking, living the way they always lived, and suddenly, the end time was upon them. The end of life is serious business, and must be considered as we live every day doing the things that we are doing, whatever our situations in life may be.

Pink's song is a party song. Even though the person in the song asks the question "Why so serious?," she is asking the question with the idea that we should not be so serious. Partying is indeed "so on" because it is a great way to enjoy ourselves, but there are times when we must be serious. We must celebrate both moments in our lives.     

There are times to relax, and not be serious, but we do not want to forget the times when we must be serious. And so when Pink asks the question, "Why so serious?" in her song there is no doubt that we should not be serious all the time, but there are times when we must be. Young people, for example, must learn maturity. They must be serious in order to learn it well—times of study, times of learning about love and life, times of preparation to enter the world in which they are going to live. Everyone of us must learn some difficult lessons: the importance of a guide like God in life, preparing for a career, raising a family, living well in a very complicated world. Such times take a serious outlook.

There are times to be serious and there are times when we may not have to be. The mature person will work at discovering both times.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son taught us that there are times when we must be quite serious in our daily living. Give us the grace to understand our lives in such a way that we can determine well when to be serious and when to relax. Be with us, we pray. 

Questions, comments? Let me know. Email Fr. Mike

©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America