Find happiness in Jesus
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Marsha Sinetar in a book entitled ‘To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love’ tells this story: Once upon a time, a fabulously wealthy king had a son whom he loved so much. The boy was bright and handsome, perfect in every way – except one: He had a severely hunched back. This saddened the king to no end. So he proclaimed that a huge reward would go to the person who figured out how to heal the boy’s back. Months and months passed without a solution. Then one day, a famous religious hermit visited the king. "I don’t want your reward," said the old woman hermit. "But I do have your answer." This was her advice: In the center of your courtyard, you must construct a statue – an exact replica of your dear son, with one exception: Its back must be straight and lovely in appearance. That’s all. Trust in God for the healing." As soon as the hermit left the king’s artisans set to work. In no time, a beautiful marble sculpture sat in the center of the courtyard. Every day as the little boy played, he studied the figure admiringly. He started to feel, "Why that’s me! That looks exactly like me." Every day, the prince gazed lovingly at the sculpture until he identified with it. Bit by bit, the boy’s back straightened. One day, a year or so later, as the king watched his son playing in the gardens he suddenly noticed the prince’s back was totally healed. The young boy’s identification with the marble sculpture had been so complete that he believed it represented him – straight back and all. Body obeyed belief. In today’s readings, Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus give us the same secret formula for lasting happiness: keep looking at the crucifix of Jesus reflecting God’s love, goodness, mercy and forgiveness, and keep imitating him. Everyone wants to be happy. God also wants us to be happy and created us to be happy. Happiness is not in question; the question is how to achieve happiness.
The word beatitude literally means happiness or blessedness. There are thirty-seven beatitudes in the New Testament, seventeen of which are sayings of Jesus. Beatitudes appear in the Old Testament as well. The first reading tells us that true beatitude consists in placing our trust in God and in putting our trust in His promises. The responsorial psalm finds beatitude in keeping God’s Law. St. Paul warns us, in the second reading, that true beatitude is obtainable only in heaven, and that Christ’s resurrection is the reason for the assurance of our reaching heaven for an everlasting life of happiness.
Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted and denounced because in poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, his providence; in sorrow, true happiness; and in persecution, true joy.
There is no happiness outside of the will of God. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
God has made our human hearts and so we will be happy only when filled by God.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
You will be happy only in God. If you have a beautiful goldfish and take it out of the water to sing a song to it will it be happy? No. If you put the fish on the couch and turn on the TV for it will it be happy? No. But if you put the fish back in the water it will be happy. It is the same with us. We will be happy only in God. You might say God is cruel making you in such a way that you will be happy only in God. But God is not cruel. God is love, total love. God loves you even if you have not yet discovered the love of God for you.
In the Beatitudes Jesus teaches us the attitudes of a Christian. The more we live the beatitudes the closer we are to Jesus. Following Jesus begins firstly in our mind, in our attitudes, and then flows over into our actions.
Luke reverses the Beatitudes and comes down hard on the greedy rich, the satisfied, the people without problems and those with power. Jesus seems to feel that these things cause us to forget God, and to forget our need of him. That is the exact reason that he sees poverty as better than wealth, poverty of spirit to attachment to goods. The eyes of the poor and those unattached to wealth and what it can do remain open to God. The eyes of those who are rich and attached to material things have eyes closed to God.
One day a puppy said to his old uncle dog, “From my short experience in life I have learned that the best thing for a dog is happiness and that happiness is in my tail. That is why I am chasing my tail, and when I catch it, I shall have perfect happiness.” The old dog replied, “From my research and long experience, I too, have judged that happiness is a fine thing for a dog and that happiness is in his tail. But I've noticed that whenever I chase it, it keeps running away from me, but when I go about my business, it comes after me.”
You may remember what Helen Keller said “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Marsha Sinetar in a book entitled ‘To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love’ tells this story: Once upon a time, a fabulously wealthy king had a son whom he loved so much. The boy was bright and handsome, perfect in every way – except one: He had a severely hunched back. This saddened the king to no end. So he proclaimed that a huge reward would go to the person who figured out how to heal the boy’s back. Months and months passed without a solution. Then one day, a famous religious hermit visited the king. "I don’t want your reward," said the old woman hermit. "But I do have your answer." This was her advice: In the center of your courtyard, you must construct a statue – an exact replica of your dear son, with one exception: Its back must be straight and lovely in appearance. That’s all. Trust in God for the healing." As soon as the hermit left the king’s artisans set to work. In no time, a beautiful marble sculpture sat in the center of the courtyard. Every day as the little boy played, he studied the figure admiringly. He started to feel, "Why that’s me! That looks exactly like me." Every day, the prince gazed lovingly at the sculpture until he identified with it. Bit by bit, the boy’s back straightened. One day, a year or so later, as the king watched his son playing in the gardens he suddenly noticed the prince’s back was totally healed. The young boy’s identification with the marble sculpture had been so complete that he believed it represented him – straight back and all. Body obeyed belief. In today’s readings, Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus give us the same secret formula for lasting happiness: keep looking at the crucifix of Jesus reflecting God’s love, goodness, mercy and forgiveness, and keep imitating him. Everyone wants to be happy. God also wants us to be happy and created us to be happy. Happiness is not in question; the question is how to achieve happiness.
The word beatitude literally means happiness or blessedness. There are thirty-seven beatitudes in the New Testament, seventeen of which are sayings of Jesus. Beatitudes appear in the Old Testament as well. The first reading tells us that true beatitude consists in placing our trust in God and in putting our trust in His promises. The responsorial psalm finds beatitude in keeping God’s Law. St. Paul warns us, in the second reading, that true beatitude is obtainable only in heaven, and that Christ’s resurrection is the reason for the assurance of our reaching heaven for an everlasting life of happiness.
Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted and denounced because in poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, his providence; in sorrow, true happiness; and in persecution, true joy.
There is no happiness outside of the will of God. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
God has made our human hearts and so we will be happy only when filled by God.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
You will be happy only in God. If you have a beautiful goldfish and take it out of the water to sing a song to it will it be happy? No. If you put the fish on the couch and turn on the TV for it will it be happy? No. But if you put the fish back in the water it will be happy. It is the same with us. We will be happy only in God. You might say God is cruel making you in such a way that you will be happy only in God. But God is not cruel. God is love, total love. God loves you even if you have not yet discovered the love of God for you.
In the Beatitudes Jesus teaches us the attitudes of a Christian. The more we live the beatitudes the closer we are to Jesus. Following Jesus begins firstly in our mind, in our attitudes, and then flows over into our actions.
Luke reverses the Beatitudes and comes down hard on the greedy rich, the satisfied, the people without problems and those with power. Jesus seems to feel that these things cause us to forget God, and to forget our need of him. That is the exact reason that he sees poverty as better than wealth, poverty of spirit to attachment to goods. The eyes of the poor and those unattached to wealth and what it can do remain open to God. The eyes of those who are rich and attached to material things have eyes closed to God.
One day a puppy said to his old uncle dog, “From my short experience in life I have learned that the best thing for a dog is happiness and that happiness is in my tail. That is why I am chasing my tail, and when I catch it, I shall have perfect happiness.” The old dog replied, “From my research and long experience, I too, have judged that happiness is a fine thing for a dog and that happiness is in his tail. But I've noticed that whenever I chase it, it keeps running away from me, but when I go about my business, it comes after me.”
You may remember what Helen Keller said “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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