The How of Happiness

Why are we more lonely presently than in past generations? More people today tell pollsters that they are lonely. There is an epidemic of loneliness. Loneliness is a sign that even with an advanced society's comforts and freedoms, we are still without real happiness.

We have a warped sense of happiness. We think happiness is a matter of gathering things for our use or amusement, doing something we enjoy and being paid a huge salary for it, or finding beautiful people that are interested in pleasing us in whatever way we want. Happiness means no pain, suffering or torments.

While these things may bring comfort to this present life, the 'happiness' they bring must be refilled frequently or it disappears entirely.

The Catholic Church has always taught that happiness is rooted in God.

Jesus' beatitudes are His formula for happiness. The poor in spirit look for God's kingdom; mourners see the world for the broken state it is; the meek make no demands on anyone; those who desire righteousness will stop sinning; those who are merciful to others will find God gives them back mercy a thousand-fold; purity is associated with seeing God; those who make peace in a fallen world are worthy of God; and persecution means God is close-at-hand. The reward Christ describes is completely opposite of the world's reward. Christ speaks to a never-ending world rather than a fleeting material existence that has an end. Christ tells us to empty ourselves if we want true joy.

Those who have had a truly happy moment know that moment cannot last forever. But in heaven we enter a perpetual forever happiness that does not end.

Years ago we were taught that happiness is impossible without God. Today we teach that happiness is found in social justice. But social justice is flawed because people are flawed. We can't be completely just because humans are weak.

As much as we might deny God's rights over us, God who created us has a plan for our happiness. This is what heaven is -- the Divine Being's plan for our happiness. We have an inborn desire for God.

No one is lonely in heaven because heaven is a communion of us and God. That vision begins here on earth. We begin heaven here by giving ourselves and our lives to God.

If we as a society decide that we cannot include God in our public square, then loneliness will continue to rise as a world-wide problem. We cannot fill a vessel like the human person with a physical remedy when it requires the connection of us to God to find happiness.

The message of Jesus Christ is a message of what makes a person happy. The Holy Spirit takes away loneliness. Once the Holy Spirit makes His presence known in the human person, this man or woman finds no matter what happens to them, they possess a happiness that is rooted in the life to come. Nothing can take this away from them. This is the peace that Jesus promised.

As the Church today wrestles with so many problems and enters into society's hostility towards it, the Church has one great reward to give its people. It is the reward of Jesus' peace.

Those who reject the Church's teaching eventually will find that their lives have been lived in the pursuit of a false and fleeting happiness rooted in lies.To rid our society of loneliness, we will need to acknowledge our happiness is found in our communion with God. If society continues to be hostile to the Church, people will eventually come to their senses and leave this culture behind because it cannot make us happy.

Loneliness is a call to action. The state of being lonely tells the person they are not finding happiness because they are not searching in the right place. With a surrender to God, we are filled with God's spirit which gives us a happiness that is not explainable.