Happiness and Beatitude

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

In each one of us, there is a deep desire for happiness. For there is an infinite desire for happiness, and there is a lot of different ideas about where to find it. People try in different ways to be happy. And people wonder, is it even possible? Is it even possible to be truly, deeply happy, or do we just have to satisfy for something less? And Jesus reveals that it is possible, it is possible to have this happiness, a happiness greater than we could even imagine, because we often think that things that we imagine are too much, and so we have to be satisfied with less. But Jesus is revealing that what we’re imagining is less, much less, than this happiness that we’re called to. And not only that, but He reveals that there is someone who wants our happiness; that is, it’s not something that we just have to achieve by ourselves. It’s not something that we have to get by taking it from another. A lot of people have that idea that for them to be happy, they have to take what the other person has. I mean, just think of so many so-called great people in history, whose great kings, great military leaders, who spent their whole time taking, trying to take land and riches and so forth that belong to somebody else. And so, He reveals that this happiness is not something that we have to compete against others as if there’s just a limited amount of happiness, and if they get it, we can’t get it. And of course, this someone is God Himself, who loves you, who knows you, knows what will truly make you happy, and who is so powerful that He can bring you to this happiness. And so, we’re not just all by ourselves trying to try and on this impossible quest, but there is a God who loves you, who knows you, and who is able to bring us to this happiness. The Catechism says “the Beatitudes,” that the gospel today speaks of the Beatitudes, “respond to the natural desire for happiness,” the desire that is in all of us. It says, “God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the one who alone can fulfill it.” So, He has placed in each one of us this infinite desire for happiness, kind of like, you could say, kind of like a magnet, a magnet to draw us to God, the only one who can truly give it. And so, this reminds us that we shouldn’t oppose happiness and morality, because a lot of people think like morality is like these restrictions that are imposed on me that keep me from being truly happy, as if morality was like a prison. But the gospel shows that the gospel, the call that Jesus gives us, it’s not a prison, but it’s a path to liberation. And so, to sum up what I wanted to share today, it’s about happiness, humility, Holy Spirit and hope, so four H’s. And when I had done that, then I realized, oh, there’s an organization called the 4H, the 4H club. So that’s a way to remember that. So, happiness, humility, Holy Spirit and hope. So first of all, who is this speaking about? It’s speaking about the humble; humility, the humble. That is, those that the world would least expect. Because in the world, we think it’s the wealthy, powerful people who can be happy. But this is talking about those who the world would least expect and it’s revealing to us that many things that would seem, (and this is very important,) that many things which would seem obstacles to happiness actually become paths to beatitude, to divine happiness. And so, it’s talking about the humble or to use the Hebrew word, the anawim, the anawim. And I did a podcast on this last February. But so that’s a Hebrew word that means those who are poor, lowly, humble, meek, afflicted, and so they depend on God, and they put their trust in God. So, the anawim are the humble of the Lord. And it’s striking that all the readings today speak of the anawim. So, the first reading says, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who have observed His law, seek justice, seek humility,” seek humility. When was the last time you saw an advertisement which said, seek humility. It’s not a real popular term. I don’t think on Wall Street that seek humility. “Perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger,” and then it says, “I will leave as a remnant in your midst, a people humble and lowly.” So those who survive are not the powerful. It’s the humble and lowly. They’re the ones who form this remnant, “who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord, the remnant of Israel.” And the Psalm we had today spoke of the Lord acting for the oppressed, the hungry, captives, the blind, those who are bowed down, the just and for strangers, for the fatherless, the orphans and the widow. And then St Paul today said, “God chose the foolish of this world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing to reduce to nothing, those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” And so, another way of saying that is God chooses the anawim, those who seem like nothing. Those are the ones, those who seem foolish, weak, lowly, despised. Those are the ones that God chooses. And that’s at the end, that’s all that matters, is to be chosen by God or to be rejected by God. And it’s showing that God chooses the anawim. And then the gospel, the gospel, the great gospel, the Beatitudes, is speaking also of the anawim. It speaks of the poor in spirit. That’s a good definition of the anawim, those who are mourning and weeping, the meek, those who are gentle and respectful, those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for Jesus, like the prophets.  And so, precisely, those who would seem least in the position to attain happiness, and Jesus shows that they’re the ones who are on this great path. Those who would seem like you know that nothing much is going to; their life is not worth much, but they’re the ones for whom Jesus sees a glorious future. So, who is Jesus talking about? The humble. So that’s the first H, the humble the anawim. And so what is He talking about? He’s talking about the Beatitudes, or happiness. So that’s our second H, happiness. The Gospel today, the word that Jesus is using, it’s hard to translate sometimes, like in the Gospel, in the version we have today, it’s translated blessed. Sometimes it’s also translated happy. And those things don’t always seem to go together. There’s the people who seem happy and some people who are blessed, but they might have a very difficult life. Because oftentimes the word happy for us has a superficial meaning, like maybe I got to sleep in late today, or my team won, or something like that, superficial.  And the beatitude that Jesus is speaking about is something much different, and it’s beyond what we can imagine, because it’s sharing God’s own happiness, an experience of God, which is sharing His own joy, His own happiness, experiencing eternal life that is the fullness, the overabundance of life, and not just with like a moment, but where there is no limit to that. The Catechism says, “with Beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life.” So, man enters the human person, enters into the glory of Jesus and into the joy of the Trinity itself. What? What does that mean? That’s very quick to say, the joy of the Trinity. But what is the joy that God Himself experiences? And this is man entering into that. So again, it’s beyond anything that we could imagine. So that’s the second H the happiness of beatitude. But we could say, well, that’s very beautiful, but it’s too hard, it’s unrealistic. And so that leads us to the third H, which is the Holy Spirit, because this is, this is a demanding path, not just demanding, but it’s impossible. As Jesus says, “For man, it’s impossible.” This is not something that we could do as much as we tried. No one, no matter how intelligent, no matter how powerful, no matter how disciplined they are could ever attain this beatitude. It’s impossible without the Holy Spirit. But since baptism, we have received this gift of the Holy Spirit and this sanctifying grace. And of course, we need to cooperate with Him, and that’s challenging. But if we cooperate with Him, if we’re humble and trust in Him, then He will lead us through this beatitude. And so even though the Beatitudes that Jesus speaks of like what all those beatitudes say, like the pure of heart, we can feel like sinners, how difficult that is, but the Holy Spirit leads us to that. And so That leads us to the fourth H, hope, because Jesus is not promising us immediate gratification. The Beatitudes speak of what will happen in the future, and it’s so different from the devil. The devil promises people, and often gives people immediate satisfaction, but at the price of the fires of hell. And so, the Beatitudes are beatitudes of hope, not immediate gratification, but true hope, like our Blessed Mother said to St. Bernadette,” I don’t promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next.” And we know our Lord says, “whoever would save his life will lose it.” That is, those who are trying just to, just selfishly, to just concern selfishly for themselves in this life will lose everything. “But whoever loses his life for My sake will find it,” meaning will gain everything. Will gain this beatitude. So, the one who wants to seize happiness now will lose it forever, but the one who follows Jesus on the path of the cross will share His glory, His Beatitude, forever. And we know that the Lord can give foretaste already on this earth of that happiness to come. And so just to conclude all this so those four H’s, the happiness God has created you for supernatural, divine happiness, beatitude, beyond anything that you can imagine. And the beatitudes in the Gospel today show the path. And so the second H is humility, the humility of the anawim, that Jesus Himself, our Blessed Mother, the saints lived. And the striking thing about this is that what seems, as I said, to be obstacle to happiness, actually becomes the road to happiness, the sacrifices, the trials we have on this earth, which seem to take happiness away from us, but when we live it with Jesus, when we offer it to Jesus, it doesn’t, it becomes not an obstacle, but the road to beatitude. I mean, just to take the greatest example, of course, the cross of Jesus, if anything, would have seemed to destroy the possibility for happiness, it would have been this terrible death of being accused and then being tortured and dying on the cross at a young age, and yet that becomes the door to His glory. And so also the crosses in our life, which seem to take away happiness, earthly happiness, but become the path to beatitude. And so the fourth H, the third H is the Holy Spirit who’s in you so that this, you don’t have to do this by yourself, but He is the one acting in you and we have to cooperate with Him, but He, but He is the one, the principal one acting. And the fourth is hope, hope, and that the anawim will, as our Lord said in the Gospel, the anawim will be comforted, will inherit the earth, will be fully satisfied, will obtain mercy, will experience God in His glory and be truly His sons and daughters and possess His kingdom with an infinite reward. Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13
Psalms 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12