"Innocent Smith is not a madman - he is a ritualist. He wants to express himself, not with his tongue, but with his arms and legs - with my body I thee worship, as it says in the marriage service. I begin to understand the old plays and pageants. I see why the mutes at a funeral were mute. I see why the mummers were mum. They meant something; and Smith means something too. All other jokes have to be noisy - like little Nosey Gould's jokes, for instance. The only silent jokes are the practical jokes. Poor Smith, properly considered is an allegorical practical joker."
Ritual and liturgy really are the way we incarnate the mysteries of life. Isn't it then the call of all lovers of Christ to be practical jokers in the sense of Smith? Shouldn't all our lives be a charade to act out the love of God?
