Happiness

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Entrance Antiphon Ps 106 (105):47 Save us, O Lord our God! And gather us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, and make it our glory to praise you.

Collect Grant us, Lord our God, that we may honour you with all our mind, and love everyone in truth of heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13; Psalm 146:6-10; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12a

Seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up a mountain, and when he had sat down his disciples came to him. Beginning to speak he taught them, "Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Happy are the meek, for they shall possess the land. Happy are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill. Happy the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Happy are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Happy are those who suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when they revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you untruly, for my sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you." (Matthew 5:1-12a)

Happiness It is said that the great physicist Albert Einstein strove to discover the fundamental law of the universe, and to express it in a formula. He failed. During the century before Einstein, Cardinal Newman once criticized the German philosophers of his day for trying to reduce reality to one principle. We ought indeed beware of over‑simplification, but certain patterns do occur to us. If we gaze on the world with all its variety and activity we notice that everywhere there is suffering and contentment, joy and sorrow. The animal and insect world is driven by the desire for satisfaction and yet is frustrated by fear and menace. The mother bird finds contentment in protecting its young and is attacked by other birds of prey and loses all. Mankind yearns for happiness, and time and again it eludes him. What is clear is that at the heart of visible reality there is the desire for happiness in some sense, the happiness that comes from fulfilling one’s nature. Happiness in its various meanings drives the world and yet so much threatens it. Now, if the world is thus, what is to be said of the Creator? Is not the desire for happiness the imprint of his creative hand? God is absolutely and boundlessly happy, and his creation bears the imprint of this in its desire to attain happiness according to its measure. Our wish to be happy manifests our likeness to God who is absolutely happy. But while God is happy, and while we are called to be happy, the question is, how is happiness to be attained? This is surely the abiding question for mankind and there have been any number of answers to it. Buddha made the search for this answer the purpose of his life, while various modern philosophers have said that the elusiveness of happiness shows the absurdity and meaninglessness of life. The religions of man and the systems of the philosophers have all tried to bring to light the definitive answer. The burning question in all of human history is, how is happiness to be understood and attained?

Well, Christ appeared on the stage of world history and said that he is the Light and the only true Light. In our Gospel passage today (Matthew 5:1‑12a) our Lord speaks of true human happiness. It is to be found in being in union with him and in following his way. Blessed and happy are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek, the merciful and those who hunger for what is right. Blessed are the pure of heart and the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ. Their reward will be great in heaven. How are these paths to happiness to be understood? In the first instance they are descriptions of our Lord’s own path. That is to say, they describe his own mind and heart. On one occasion our Lord said, “Come to me all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls.” Our Lord was speaking of his sacred heart. The Beatitudes of the Gospel also speak of his heart, of its poverty of spirit, of its meekness, of its mercy and hunger for the right, of its purity and love of true peace. Our Lord is telling us that happiness lies in that direction, the direction that leads to him and that accompanies him. On another occasion our Lord said that if anyone wishes to be his disciple, he should renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow in his footsteps. Therein lies the true happiness of man. What this means also is that true happiness, that happiness to which God has called us is attainable only with the help of God’s grace and it leads us to a share in the very life of God. This happiness is not the fleeting happiness of this world, but is eternal. It is everlasting. It is indeed the ultimate goal of human endeavour, and the world itself will in its measure share in it at the end at the resurrection of the dead when all is restored, but in glory. At the end, for those judged worthy of what God has prepared for those who love him, there will be the vision of God face to face, and happiness will be complete and without end.

Every time we experience happiness during this life, however limited it may be and however elusive, let that experience be a reminder to us that we are indeed called to be happy, but to a happiness that will never end and that will be complete. It is God’s gift and it is found in union with Christ and in following in his footsteps, bearing the Cross. He is our happiness and he is the way to it. Let us live according to this, and let us bear witness to this to the world around us.

(E.J.Tyler)

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