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● Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab● Psalm 45 ●● 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 ● ● Luke 1:39-56 ●
Title: Happiness. Levels 1234 (Assumption, August 15, 2023)
[_00-b__] The 20th century Baltimore Catholic Catechism asked, “Why did God make you?” The answer: “God made you to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.”
What does it mean for you
and me to be happy – to be happy - with God?
Are you at times, not happy
with God, displeased with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or perhaps not
giving God a positive review for what's going on in your life or the lives of
others?
Are you in the words of the
BVM Mary today, saying, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my
spirit is rejoicing in God my Savior?”
How do you and measure or
find a level for happiness?
So I'm calling this homily,
the end of happiness. And that word end means the purpose of happiness or the
possibility of happiness.
The Greek philosopher
Aristotle observed something about happiness is an END …that is happiness is
not a means to an END, but an end in itself.
Jesuit Father Robert
Spitzer touches on 4 levels of happiness, urging us to consider – for ourselves
– for our loved ones – for our children - each level has its own merits, own
worth.
By moving through the
levels, we grow in not only happiness but also in holiness and virtue.
What are the levels?
[_01__] [Level 1.] Happiness based on physical desire and instinct. If
you're hungry (physically), eat, it will make you happy. If you're thirsty (physically),
drink, if you are tired (physically), sleep.
There is a degree
of virtue in choosing to EAT, to DRINK, to SLEEP. We need these to survive.
Yet, if all we ever
do is satisfy physical desires, our happiness will be limited.
EXAMPLE: I enjoy a good meal sitting down to table at
least as much if not more than the average person. And I will even skip a meal
in order to be sure that I'm really hungry when I get to the good meal at the
end of the day. I might skip breakfast and lunch on Thanksgiving Day because I
want to arrive ready and with an appetite for the Thanksgiving feast.
This is not a sacrifice. I
am maximizing my Level 1 happiness !
Now how can we connect this
to the BVM Mary, a young woman is presented with a gift, the satisfaction of
desire. That is she is told: “You will conceive and bear a son.” That's good.
No sooner is Mary told of
her son than she is also told that he is not only given to her but to the whole
world.
Is it possible that as soon
as we get what we want, or get something of value, we realize it is not ours to
“hoard” or to “keep” but to share. This is true of our talents and skills.
[_02__] [Level 2.] L_1 was happiness based on physical desire,
L_2 is happiness based on
comparing myself with others what others have. In other words, if I know that I
have achieved a level of success, that brings me happiness, especially when
that success is more than what somebody else has.
For example, when I played
sports as a young person, it was important to me to be on the right team with
the right players, I was really no all star, but occasionally I did well, and I
liked when I was doing better than others. When I was at level two. I compare
myself to others, I still compare myself to others.
And sometimes I am pleased
when I feel I'm doing a little bit better than others. And I'm not pleased when
I think others are doing better than me. It's not the best place to be. I'm
just saying, I've been there.
Have you ever been there?
Could Mary our Blessed
Mother? Could she be at L-2-H? Could she have fallen into the trap of comparing
herself to everyone else? Well, maybe for a tiny split second for a moment.
When the angel Gabriel
appeared, consider her question: “how can this be?”
In other words, I am
comparing myself to everybody else. I know everything I know about human
anatomy everything I know about how children come into the world, I have no
husband, I have not had any marital relations. And so how can this be? God says
You will conceive and bear a son through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So that's also a pretty
good Level 2 happiness no woman had ever until then – or has ever since then –
conceived through the Holy Spirit.
What about you and me, when you have a talent or level of achievement different from others?
This can be a burden to be
that or it's sometimes it can be inflationary to our ego. But that's what
happens if we stay only at level two.
[_03__] [Level 3.] At Level 3, our happiness is not based on our ability merely “completing” a desire or “competing” with others, but rather on contributing to to another person, or family, or community.
Jesus summed it up
this way he says he who seeks to save his life will lose it. He loses his life
for my sake will save it. Level 3 is to contribute to the happiness of others.
And at the wedding at Cana,
Mary rises to this occasion. She sees that wedding feast and couple are running
out of vino running out of wine – Cabernet or Chardonnnay (we do not know) but they
are running out of wine.
And she uses her place in a
relationship. She intercedes for intercedes for this couple of goes to Jesus,
he contributes to helping solve this problem and says, “They have no wine.”
One of the ways we can be
happy is when we offer petitions for those in need, praying and helping, or
helping material that leave those in need. Now one of our temptations is when
we encounter somebody need or somebody in trouble, we just want to give up. Or
we don't even want to pray for somebody who needs our prayers.
But it's, we can contribute
to the happiness of others by praying for others by fasting for others by
giving charitably for others, this is level three.
[_04__] [Level 4] L-4 happiness takes it one step further. In other words, to recognize that our real happiness is in serving God, knowing him loving him being happy with him in this life and in the next,
As we get older, and as we
get wiser. I think one of the things we are more comfortable with is that we
desire honesty, integrity, authenticity, we don't like falsehood or “fake news”of
any kind. This is because I dare say we desire what God wants. We want the
truth. We want truthfulness for ourselves and for others.
We want true friendship,
true love true charity, true forgiveness, true repentance, and we might pray
for somebody needs to hear the truth from you. Well, maybe if the person can't
hear the truth from you, you can pray that the other person will hear the truth
from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit from God that the person will get what
they need from God.
That they will heed the gospel instruction of our Blessed Mother and a Cana who said, who said to the servers who were not sure at Cana what to do. Remember, the wedding couple/caterer ran out of wine, they didn't know what to do. Jesus said, fill up with these large jars, these large containers with water, and they were being told converted. It was about making converting the ordinary water into extraordinary wine. In other words, to be happy. Mary invites them at the cube waiting at Cana to listen to her son who gave up his life for us, not just to get to level four, but also to get to heaven. And we reach heaven by heating her words, Do whatever he tells you. And when we do this, our souls will proclaim the greatness of the Lord. “Our Lady of the Assumption, pray for us.” [_END__]
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