Happiness Through Holiness

            In today’s world, an obsession with finding and doing what makes us happy permeates the culture and it has turned into what society thinks should be the primary focus of our lives. If we do what makes us happy, people say, we will be living our best lives and that’s what matters. Living our lives at our best is indeed important, and as Christians we know that God does want us to be happy. However, we also know that the happiness God wills for us is entirely different from the world’s idea of it, and that Christian happiness can only come through striving to be holy and bearing our trials and sufferings in union with Christ.

            The world’s belief that our happiness is the most important thing can indeed be true if we align our happiness with doing the will of God and striving to please Him. The problem is that today’s society equates happiness with physical pleasure and comfort. There is a certain disdain for suffering that is instilled in us and we are taught to avoid it at all costs in order to be truly happy. As I said before, God does want us to be happy. But it is a different kind of happiness than what we’re used to. He wants us happy in heaven with Him once our earthly journey is done. In order to achieve this, we must be willing to make sacrifices here on earth. And, on a practical level, we know that suffering is unavoidable. Sickness and death will always exist, and they hit home when they happen to us or a loved one. Our world today may tell us that we can avoid accepting these things by complaining or by anger toward God. We are told that ignoring our sufferings and even rebelling against God will make us happy. But when we actually follow up on doing this, we find that it makes us feel empty and that the bitterness drains us and makes us feel worse rather than better. We slowly start to realize that there must be something more and that the world’s way of doing things is not making us happy.

            If suffering is unavoidable and ignoring it doesn’t make us happy, then what are we supposed to do and why? These answers can only be found in Jesus and in our identity as sons and daughters of God. We were created in the image and likeness of God and for the purpose of knowing, loving and serving Him. He became man in the Person of Jesus Christ precisely, not just to save us, but to show us how to act to regain our place with Him in heaven following the Fall of Adam and Eve. And we can tell by the life of Jesus that conforming ourselves to Him is not easy. We are on this earth to serve God, not ourselves, and that takes sacrifice and does not involve our own comfort and pleasure. But it is what we were created for. And being created for something usually means that the creature’s happiness and fulfillment comes in doing that very thing. Therefore, our true happiness can only be found in this act of serving God and working to conform ourselves to Him through the imitation of Christ.

            This way of achieving happiness through holiness can especially be seen through the lives of the saints and in what they endured. Our Lady of Lourdes told St. Bernadette, “I do not promise you happiness in this life, but in the next.” And by the world’s standards, St. Bernadette was without happiness during most of her earthly life. She was a sickly girl and also underwent much persecution due to her apparitions at the grotto in Lourdes, even after she got older and entered the convent. Despite this, she was humble and at peace, appearing to be happy to others around her. How? Simply put, her peace and joy came from within, not without. She didn’t rely on how the world saw her or what it told her would make her happy; instead, she kept her eyes fixed on God and her search for holiness. Knowing that she was doing the will of God and suffering for Him is what made her happy. The lives of the martyrs also give us excellent insight into living out happiness through holiness. St. Lawrence, for example, is said to have cheerfully remarked, “You can turn me over, I’m done on this side,” while being roasted alive for his strong belief in Christ. It might seem crazy to us to be so cheerful while dying, but the martyrs knew that they were dying for the One they loved, and for them, dying and going to be with Him forever was gain. They were more than happy to give up their earthly life and take up their heavenly one. For them, happiness was suffering until they were in heaven with God.

            We can definitely find what makes us happy in this life, but it may not be the same as what the world thinks happiness is. In our lives, let’s strive to follow the example of the saints and find our happiness in God and living for Him. In this way, we can do what we were created for: be happy by being holy.