Breaking the Word: Happiness Is...

Saturday, October 03, 2015

Happiness Is...

Wedding of Aylwin & Michelle

Readings: Ecclesiasticus 26:1-4.13-16; Psalm 33:2-9; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8; Matthew 5:1-12

Aylwin and Michelle, my dear friends. Do you want to be happy? Silly question, isn’t it? Everybody wants to be happy. But how do we become happy? And what does being happy even mean? If I were to ask you to complete this sentence: Happiness is… What would you say? How would you fill in the blank?

I ask you these questions about happiness, not just because this is the natural thing to do at a wedding service. When a young man and a young woman look forward excitedly to a brand new life together. Of course they aspire to happiness. And rightly so. But that’s not the only reason why I ask about happiness. I do it because this is precisely the thing that you, Aylwin and Michelle invite us to ponder today. Through your choice of readings for this wedding service. I’m sure at least some of us here have noticed that each of the readings for today have something to do with happiness. And as we listen to them, they stir us to recall our own deep desires and dreams for happiness. They move us to examine what exactly we are doing to pursue these desires. To fulfil these dreams.

The first reading begins with the word happy. Happy the husband of a really good wife… What does the reading say about happiness? Well, taken at face value, it seems to tell us that happiness depends upon the quality of the spouse you marry. If your wife is good and perfect. Graceful and charming. Modest and chaste. Well-trained in character and, most of all, silent. Then you are a happy man. I’m not sure how Michelle feels about all this. But this isn’t actually the full picture that the reading paints for us.

Of course, the reading does not mean that any husband with a good wife will be happy. No matter how he treats her. Or how he lives his own life. Surely, a lazy, abusive, good-for-nothing husband should not aspire to true happiness. However capable his wife may be. And the reading itself is quite clear about this. Especially when it tells us that a good wife is the best of portions, reserved for those who fear the Lord. A good wife is a blessing that God grants to those who walk in God’s ways. Happiness is not about the kind of spouse you marry. Important though this may be. Happiness, rather, is about living a righteous life. Walking in the Wisdom of God. As the psalmist says, taste and see that the Lord is good. He is happy who seeks refuge in him.

So it’s not so much what kind of spouse we have. But rather what kind of life we live. The second reading helps to deepen our understanding even more. According to the reading, it’s not just the things we do that determine what kind of life we lead. Or how happy we are. We can do amazing things that impress a great many people. And inflate our own egos. But still not be happy. As the reading tells us, if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever. And we shouldn’t be surprised at this. For we hear of people like that, even today, don’t we? Isn’t this what terrorists do? Give their bodies to be burnt. Killing many other people in the process. Who among us would dare say that such people are truly happy?

No. Happiness is not so much about what we do. But more about how much love we put into the doing. I can, for example, get my secretary to remember my wife’s birthday every year. And to get an expensive present for her. But if I myself don’t take the trouble to show up. To celebrate with her. To express my love for her. And to do this not just on her birthday. But the rest of the year as well. Then what good would that annual present do? However costly it may be?

Thankfully, I have been told that both Aylwin and Michelle are quite aware of all this. Both of them understand very well that happiness is about love. And that love is about giving priority to the other. Higher priority than even the things that we may value most of all. Like work. And even the Liverpool Football Club.

And yet, those among us who have been married for a while, will probably be able to tell us that this kind of love is easier to live at the beginning. When the flames of passion are strong. When faults are willingly overlooked. And perhaps even considered adorable. But not so easy with the passing of time. When what may have seemed so endearing at first, gradually transforms into sources of endless irritation. How then to keep loving? How to be patient and kind? And not rude or selfish? When it seems like our love engine is running on empty? How then to be happy?

The answer is found in that all important gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount. How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How happy are those who realise their own poverty. Who recognise that they really do not have what it takes to love the way others need to be loved. Who humbly acknowledge that love is not something they can manufacture for themselves. But rather that they must first receive it constantly from God. From the Father. Who has loved us so irreversibly in the dying and rising of his Son. And who has given us the power to share that same love with others in the Spirit.

This, Michelle and Aylwin, is the happiness that you are proposing to us for our meditation today. This is the happiness to which you aspire. A happiness rooted in the love that you have for each other. A love that originates not from you. But in the love of almighty God. Who has seen fit, at this opportune time, to bring you both together as husband and wife. Not without help, of course, from various human agents. Especially from someone named Kim. Whose efforts at brokering free legal advice has contributed to sealing this happy union we are witnessing today. Is Kim here with us? We owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you for helping God to light the flame of love between Michelle and Aylwin. The love that brings true happiness.

I’m reminded of a song that I learnt as a boy. A song about happiness. Some of you may know it. The first verse goes like this:

Happiness is to know the Saviour,
Living a life within his favour,
Having a change in my behaviour,
Happiness is the Lord.

Happiness is the Lord. My dear friends, even as we gather to witness this joyous union of Michelle and Aylwin today. Even as we extend to them our heartfelt wishes for their future happiness. Even as we commit ourselves to accompanying them on the road of marital bliss. How might we, each and everyone of us gathered here, how might we continue to live in the happiness of the Lord today?

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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19

Saturday, October 03, 2015

Happiness Is...

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