Where Does True Happiness Come From?
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.”Ps. 123
Many believe that happiness depends on having things, doing what one wants, exploring the world, seeking pleasures, entertaining oneself with pleasant pastimes, having a lot of money, etc. but all this is false appearance, for this is only wasting time in this world, being limited to a simply natural and temporal life, without transcendence, without projection to eternity. That would be just surviving, but not Living; it would be only bodily, carnal life, but not spiritual; the soul could be dead, and one could live as a walking corpse. Tomorrow all that will have passed and what will it have served for? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?
However, there are many, the vast majority, who do not seek more, nor ask more of life, that’s why they remain enclosed in their narrowmindedness, only listening to their ego and not listening to God. A rebellious people with obstinate hearts and stiff necks, with their superficial and earthly ambitions, who do not see or want to see anything beyond this world, the here and now, thus missing out on the most important thing, the eternity of full happiness that Christ came to give us, but men did not want to listen to him or receive him, they still prefer darkness to light. THEY PREFER NOT TO BELIEVE IN JS and stay seeing only the human part, depriving themselves of seeing their divine soul, and therefore they could not experience or know the Messiah Jesus, as in today’s gospel with those of his village. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.
On the other hand, the one who listens to God more than to his own blind and foolish ego, can find another source of happiness: the Holy Spirit, whose fruits are Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. This is the liberation from the blindness of the ego and its tyranny, to discover a happiness much better than passing satisfactions, which are the only thing the carnal man without trust in God can aspire to, because only the soul can experience a fullness of joy, which men without God ignore and neglect, although they try to hide and conceal their emptiness with noises, dances, games and distractions of all kinds.
This is the great hidden treasure of which Jesus speaks comparing it with the Kingdom of God, whose value is superior to everything he could have, that is why he went and sold everything he had to acquire it. Mth 13,44. St. Paul manifests this full happiness of the one who finds the treasure, as we can all find it, for God has placed it within our reach: everything he had as great, I now consider it rubbish, compared to the knowledge of Christ, for whom I lost everything, to gain Christ (Phil 3:7) the great treasure.
Imagine that you always have within your reach something that fills you with peace, love, and joy, and it’s free, that nothing and no one can take away from you, not even if you are in a poor country, with bad governments, or thrown into prison, whatever happens you have that with you: it is the Holy Spirit, who never ceases to give his fruits to the disciple of Christ who opens up to Him.
“My grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”2 Cor 12:9s
Weekly Readings
Sunday: Ez 2:2-5/Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4 (2cd)/2 Cor 12:7-10/Mk 6:1-6a
Monday: Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22/Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9/Mt 9:18-26
Tuesday: Hos 8:4-7, 11-13/Ps 115:3-4, 5-6, 7ab-8, 9-10/Mt 9:32-38
Wednesday: Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12/Ps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7/Mt 10:1-7
Thursday: Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9/Ps 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16/Mt 10:7-15
Friday: Hos 14:2-10/Ps 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 and 17/Mt 10:16-23
Saturday: Is 6:1-8/Ps 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5/Mt 10:24-33
Next Sunday: Am 7:12-15/Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14 (8)/Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10/Mk 6:7-13
Observances for the Week
Sunday: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Tuesday: St. Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
Thursday: St. Benedict, Abbot
Saturday: St. Henry
Next Sunday: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
