Two songs that I really
like which immediately perks up the room are:
(1) Pharrell William (Happy): Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof/ Because I'm happy. /Clap along if you feel like happiness is the
truth/ Because I'm happy
(2) Bobby Mcferrin
(Don’t worry, be happy): In every life we
have some trouble/ When you worry you make it double/ Don't worry, be happy
Why are these songs
famous? I think it’s hardwired within us; everyone wants to be happy.
It was reported that a
newspaper in England once asked this question to its readers: “Who are the
happiest people on the earth?” The four-prize winning answers were: (1) A
little child building sand castles, (2) A craftsman/artist whistling over a job
well done, (3) A mother bathing her baby after a busy day and (4) a doctor who
has finished a difficult and dangerous operation that saved a human life. The
editors of the newspaper were surprised to find virtually no one submitted
kings, emperors, millionaires or others of wealth and rank as the happiest
people on earth. What is the secret to being happy?
In today’s gospel Jesus
talks about beatitudes - macarius in
Greek or beatus in
Latin which literally means “happy” or “blessed.” It’s used in the same way we
wish others well like in Happy Chinese New year (means happiness and prosperity), Happy birthday, Happy Valentine’s, or Happy
trip. And whenever we do this, we brighten up faces as we remind them of the
lighter side of life and they feel happy.
Our God wills us to be
happy. It is interesting to note that the first miracle of Jesus happened in a
wedding party at Cana where everybody was enjoying the occasion, the wine and
the food. He chooses such kind of occasion of joy to make His first miracle in
order to show that He was a happy person who could laugh and enjoy Himself. He
wanted to show too that each of us has a right to happiness. But please don’t
use this as an excuse to get drunk.
Happiness is not wrong
or a sin since joy is one of the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. A happy
person does not fall into sin very easily. Satan stays away from happy and
joyful people and they are too hard to tempt.
But now let’s talk about
Jesus’ formula for being happy –the beatitudes. The beatitudes respond to the
natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every heart. They teach us
the final end to which God calls us, - the coming of God’s kingdom (Matt 4:17), the
vision of God (Matt 5:8; 1Jn 2:1), entering into the joy of the Lord (Matt
25:21-23) and into His rest (Heb 4:7-11).
Vima Dasan in his book His Word Lives writes that the Beatitudes are golden rules for happiness. It is
because the blessed may be poor in riches but they don’t mind it because they
trust in a caring God and so they are happy. The blessed may happen to be
materially rich but because they are poor in spirit the result is that God
becomes so dear to them that wealth means nothing to them and therefore they
are happy.
They say that: “The poorest person on earth is not the one
without money, but is the one without Jesus.”
People who are poor in
spirit are those who trust God instead of being greedy; those who are humble
instead of being proud; those who forgive instead of taking revenge; those who
are just instead of being unfair; those who are merciful instead of being
judgmental; those who are pure of hearts instead of giving in to the flesh and
those who are take part in advocacies instead of being lazy. The beatitudes
should be our attitudes if we want to be called blessed by God. Only when we
put them into practice can we experience and find true happiness.
Pedro Pablo Sacristan
has this children story entitled: “The origin of happiness.” (click on picture if you want to hear the audio book)
There was once a boy who hardly had any toys or money. Nevertheless,
he was a very happy little boy. He said that what made him happy was doing
things for others, and that doing so gave him a nice feeling inside which he
could not explain. However, no one really believed him; they thought he was
crazy. He spent all day helping others, bringing
food or clothes to those in the street, and looking after abandoned animals.
Very seldom did he ever do anything for himself.
One day, he met a famous doctor who thought the boy's case was
so peculiar that he decided to investigate him. So, with a complex system of
cameras and tubes, the doctor managed to record what was happening inside the
boy. What he discovered was surprising.
Each time the boy did something good, a thousand tiny angels
gathered around the boy's heart and started tickling it. That explained the boy's happiness, but the
doctor continued studying until he discovered that we all have our own thousand
angels inside us. Unfortunately, he found that, for those who do few good
things, their angels spend most of their time wandering about, bored.
And so it was that the secret to happiness was discovered.
Thanks to that little boy we now know exactly what we have to do to feel our
hearts being tickled. Now we know the origin of happiness. But that’s for the
children.
But for us Christians,
it was Jesus who on top of that hill told the story of the origin of happiness and
we call this story in today’s Gospel: The Beatitudes.
Reference:
Beitez, J. (2011) Justmehomely’s Blog. Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A).
Sacristan, P. Bedtime Stories. The
origin of happiness.