Why Is This Man Laughing?

For all the obvious reasons, of course. The Three Massketeers aren't some roundhead louts who've cut ourselves off from the source and summit of the life of the Church. We have sworn fealty to the once and future King and are brothers to all who pledge likewise. We are all for one and one for all. Our eyes twinkle because, despite all the world's darkness, we see a horizon whose Dawn is already assured in Our Lady, the Second Eve, and the Empty Tomb, the Second Garden in which there is no Fall. We raise a tankard with all good men and fine ladies who share the Panis angelicus, or who are being led to that Eucharistic feast. We seek no martyrdom, not being worthy of it, but praying that if that opportunity arises, we wear that crown not of our own merit but of the merits and bounty of the Lamb Slain since the Foundation of the world. +

The Laughing Cavalier - Frans Hals (1582/3 - 1666)