Author: Fr. Fernando Pascual
How do we measure the degree of happiness, of joy, of fulfillment, of a human life?
Among the Greeks it was said that no one can be called happy while they live, since everything can change suddenly, at any moment. Each life is surrounded by mystery, by an indeterminacy that always puts in danger any happiness conquered on this earth.
Leaving aside what escapes our control due to time that always surprises us in a thousand unforeseen ways, it’s normal for each of us to reflect from time to time on our life, on the level of happiness we find ourselves in.
But here we encounter many surprises. First, the parameters for measuring one’s own happiness are very confusing. Some believe they are happy if they have many pleasurable moments. Others, if their bank account shows many figures. Others, if the family is doing well. Others, if they do work that fulfills them. Others, if they have ways to escape from monotony, from the ordinary. Others… others don’t really know what to focus on to see if they are happy or not.
Second, we are surprised to find people full of qualities, money, fame and health, with a bitter, sad heart. Let’s not look outward: we too, after having experienced some intense pleasure, having conquered something strongly desired, feel a strange emptiness, a certain uneasiness. If the pleasure, moreover, was unjust or sinful, the “happiness” it may have given us in the past is now tinged with a residue of pain, if it doesn’t lead us to self-contempt or rage when we notice our selfishness and our weakness, seeing that we let ourselves be enslaved by sometimes very base passions.
Again, the question: how can we be sure that we are happy, that we have chosen the correct path that leads us to that goal? Paradoxically, the answer begins to be obtained when happiness ceases to be an obsession, when we no longer think about how to achieve it at any price.
When we don’t seek our happiness, but that of others, our heart feels happy, almost without having wanted it. We are surprised by a happiness that is born from the deepest part of ourselves, because we have stopped thinking selfishly and have opened our own life to others.
The world bombards us with phrases and examples of mistaken happiness. It invites us to the easy path, to the pleasure of sex, alcohol, entertainment or health and physical strength. It dulls our dreams of love and justice with chains that prevent us from flying far, conquering difficult goals, giving the best of our life and energies so that society may be a little more just and good.
We must, then, stop seeking to be happy through paths that lead nowhere. Perhaps it’s time to open the Gospel and listen to a Nazarene, Son of God, who tells us, also the men and women of today, that the poor, the meek, the pure, the persecuted are happy… They are happy, because they don’t think of themselves, because they seek the Father and because they give themselves to others, even to the enemy. They are happy, sometimes without knowing it, even among their tears. They are happy because God enters their lives and softens the pains and sorrows, gives peace and fills with hope, lifts up and heals. They are happy because they love and let themselves be loved. They are happy because they have stopped thinking, measuring, what their degree of happiness might be now, on this day…
How interesting, eh? I got it from here.