The opening line of the Declaration of Independence speaks to us of a dream many people have. “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Today, our country boasts being the most powerful nation in the world with its standard of living, its military might, its level of employment, and its natural resources. No wonder then that we are quick to say that God has blessed America. But are we happy? Apparently not.
Each year the UN, based on the Gallup World Poll, produces the World Happiness Report. The latest poll ranked the United States as 18th, falling four spots from two years ago, “in part because of the ongoing epidemics of obesity, substance abuse and untreated depression.”
Surprisingly, all the Scandinavian countries ranked in the top ten. Iceland, for example, ranked #4. How could this remote nation, isolated in the North Atlantic, which endures 20 hours of darkness each day during the winter, be so happy? One resident offered this explanation, “Our culture is colored by the harshness of nature. That is why Icelanders have a tolerant attitude to the problems of life.” This in turn gives them a strong sense of community.
Being blessed is the theme that runs through the readings today. In biblical Greek, blessed is translated to mean a person’s inner sense of happiness.
Up front, Jeremiah tells us some individuals are not happy because they trust solely in other people and in themselves. In doing so, they turn their hearts “away from the Lord.” Using some vivid images, he tells us that the unhappy person is like “a barren bush in the desert that stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.”
So who are the happy people? Jeremiah then notes, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord.” They, he tells us, are like trees planted beside the waters with roots that go down deep. So lifegiving!
The refrain from the responsorial psalm echoes the same message, “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.” They are happy because they do not follow the counsel of the wicked and sit in the company of the insolent. Happy individuals delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on God’s law. The formula we find here for achieving happiness is the same as what we heard from Jeremiah.
In the Gospel, we hear Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. You are blessed, Jesus said, if you are poor or hungry, saddened or hated. Excuse me, Lord? His statements go against the thinking of our times and even his. So, what gives?
Jesus isn’t saying, “If you want to be happy, be poor, be hungry, weep, be hated or be insulted.” However he recognizes that the poor and hungry are those who because of their circumstances see their need for God. So long as we are self-sufficient, we may not feel the crucial need to rely on God. In doing so, we risk becoming the deadest of the dead by seeking our relief in addictions that fail to satisfy us.
The American dream suggests a different approach to finding happiness than what Jesus proposes. Bigger is better, staying young and healthy is what matters, freedom is the highest good; look out for number one; and being successful are supposedly the keys to happiness. And if they don’t work we turn to addictions that can lead to obesity or substance abuse, the modern day woes that Jesus cautions against. The American dream is what many of us live by but as Jesus wisely points out, such conventional wisdom doesn’t offer what we really want deep down in our hearts.
Jesus would tell us that to the contrary, small is good; old age and ill health can be blessings as well; compassion, not freedom is the highest good. Look out for others for loving them as Jesus loves us is the key to finding happiness.
If we take Jesus seriously, we will come to realize power and affluence are two of the greatest threats to the Christian way of life. We live in a world that praises efficiency, glorifies success and worships power. Our culture claims that happiness comes from them and freedom from any sort of pain. The trouble with relying on such material resources to bring happiness is that, doing so does not always work.
Those who wrote the Declaration of Independence were right. The pursuit of happiness is an unalienable right for God loves us unconditionally. But the happiness that God envisions resonates with what one finds in the prayer of St. Francis, “Lord, make mean instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.” St. Augustine once preached that happiness consists in the attainment of our desires, and, he emphasized, in having only the right desires.
These readings set before us happiness and misery with no ambiguity. Nothing can truly makes us happy if we turn away from God or disturb us if we trust in God. So, my friends, happy are we who hope in the Lord!