Are some people just naturally happy? Like the Disney dwarf that bears the name, some people just always have a smile regardless of what comes along. But even “Happy” could not preserve his happiness when Snow White lay dead. Likewise, even the happiest dispositions seem to lose their joy when things around them go bad. So what is the key to lasting happiness?
In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says that he has learned to be content whether he has much or little. True happiness is not a product of our circumstances and it is not a genetic predisposition. In short, it is God who grants peace and joy. The key to lasting happiness rests simply in knowing that God is in charge.
It is one thing to know what St. Paul is saying in a theoretical sense, but how can I find that contentment right here, right now? Where is that fountain of joy? I cannot will myself into a happy disposition. I cannot click my heels three times and find it. If it isn’t a question of calm days and prosperous years, what can I do or where can I go to find what St. Paul found?
The ultimate source of happiness is not money or romance. I know this from experience, for I have lived below the poverty line. I have qualified for food stamps, Medicaid, and free cheese from governmental surplus handouts. I have also known prosperity. I have spent week-long vacations at expensive resorts and enjoyed fine dining. I drive a Volvo and have a custom-built house with a gourmet kitchen.
I have known love. I have received flowers, chocolates, jewelry, and mushy cards from lovers. I have also known heartache. I have been dumped, rejected, and divorced.
I have given birth, and I have buried those I love.
When am I the happiest? Was it in prosperity or poverty? Was it when I knew love or loss?
The answer to the question is so easy. I am happiest when I kneel after receiving Holy Communion. When everything else, both good and bad, falls away and there is only my Lord and my God, that is when I am happiest. I am happiest in that moment because He comes with mercy and grace and peace and quiets the storms (and parties) of my life. I am happiest when He takes over and I just let Him do it.
All the Saints knew it. Of course, they had profound ways to describe it, but here it is in a nutshell. God is my happiness. Above Him, there is no other happiness. Apart from him, there is no lasting joy.
So, the only real question is how can you find God? Seek me, and you will find me, when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord (Jeremiah 29).
Seek, and you will find. Walk with God and his goodness will come to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6). Where can you find Him? At the foot of a cross, when you let Him reign in your heart, and when you open your life to Him and let Him commune with your soul.
You find that kind of happiness wherever you find Jesus.
He’s there in the confessional. He’s there in Holy Communion. He’s there in every face of the weak and poor and lonely and hurting.
He’s there in your calling. He’s there in the unfolding plan for your life.
He’s there in a birth. He’s there in a death.
He’s there when you are eating at a fine restaurant or eating governmental surplus.
He’s there when you are walking down the aisle to get married, and he’s there when the man of your dreams leaves you for someone else.
Indeed, I have learned to be content in all things, for I have sought Him and found Him.
My Lord and my God. You are my happiness.
Amen. Alleluia.
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