WORD ALIVE

Everybody wants to be happy. But happiness is a very elusive thing. And the reason is we don’t agree on what it means to be happy.

Some maintain that you can be happy if you have lots of money, including ill-gotten. Others believe in the saying, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.”

Can fame and money buy happiness? Those who lived in the ’70s might remember the rock-and-roll superstar Elvis Presley who went on to make dozens of gold records, sent millions of hysterical fans into ululations of delight, and grossed $1 billion in earnings — before he died at the young age of 42, in August, 1977. He died of an excess of drugs and junk food. 

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Modern  psychiatry’s files are loaded with cases of  persons  who have managed to acquire everything they thought they  needed to make them happy, except peace of soul.

Do you know that Elvis Presley’s attractive and talented actress and partner, Dolores Hart, in many record-breaking movies turned her back on Hollywood and huge wealth for a “higher calling”? She now lives in solitude at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in rural Connecticut, US, away from the glitter of the silver screen. She spends her  cloistered life in peace, prayer, and contemplation.

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When Christ came, he taught a blueprint or guideline for living which turned upside down the prescriptions for happiness the world offers. That prescription is contained in this 6th Sunday’s gospel on “Beatitudes” (Be-Happy Attitudes) according to St. Luke (6,28-38).

Jesus declares, “Happy are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” 

What Jesus meant by “being poor” was not just material poverty. Jesus never intended to approve of the grinding poverty that we see in the slums of our cities. 

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In the first Beatitude, Jesus does not mean that only the poor will enter Heaven. A poor man who curses his lot, whose sole obsession in life is to be as rich as his wealthy neighbor and does it by illegal means is very poor, indeed. But if, despite poverty, one can turn to God and help his fellowmen, then poverty is a Christian virtue.

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On the other hand, the rich are “poor” if they have the spirit of detachment from their wealth or don’t forget God as the source of their blessings. 

Isn’t this the spiritual problem today? In the pursuit of a materialistic, consumeristic, and hedonistic life, some have forgotten their eternal destiny of he                  aven and have made money their god. 

Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul?” (Mt 16, 24). 

For his part, St. Augustine who, after a life lived in worldly pleasures, said in the end: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

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The rest of the beatitudes — being hungry for holiness, merciful, pure of heart, peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness — all spell out Christ’s prescription of happiness for us. Read St. Luke (6,28-38).

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Valentines. There was the guy who picked out Valentine’s cards from a store. They  all had the same message: “Darling, you are my one and only love.” 

And he bought a dozen!

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Marrying ages. When an 18-year-old woman marries, it’s called surprise. When a woman marries at 25, it’s right prize. When she marries at age 30-39, it’s jackpot prize. When she marries at 40-above, it’s consolation prize.

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