Feb. 13, 2022: 6th Sunday C
Feb. 13, 2022: 6th Sunday C
Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen,” Mother Teresa often said. Happiness is not rooted in the circumstances, but comes from within, ignited and encouraged by the truth that we are rooted in the love that God has for us and in the victory of His Son Jesus Christ on Calvary.
A priest recently shared with me a story of his great grandparents and grandparents whose life seemed so challenging and tragic. His great great grandparents arrived in New Orleans from Germany seeking a better way of life. Their son was born in New Orleans. They baptized him at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in the Irish Channel by a confrere of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos who was stationed at that time across the street from St. Alphonsus in St. Mary’s Assumption Church which served German immigrants. However, right about the time when the epidemic of Yellow Fever took the life of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, the plague also took the life of the parents, leaving their son orphaned as a child. Yellow Fever, an epidemic which swept through New Orleans in the mid to late 1800s wiped out 10 percent of the city's population; there was so much death in those times that New Orleans was nicknamed, ‘City of the Dead.’ The boy was eventually placed in an orphanage until he grew up to be a young man. He learned the trade of iron work, and eventually married and moved to Baton Rouge. Little would he have dreamed that his great grandson would become a saintly, joyful priest serving the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
It’s easy to lose a sense of perspective when we go through the inevitable trials of life–pain, suffering, sickness, betrayals, and death. Is there a way of happiness that transcends every difficulty and troubles that can weigh us down with grief and despair? In the Beatitudes, Jesus addressed the issue of where true happiness can be found. Jesus taught his disciples that one can find happiness even in the midst of poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution. In a way, Prophet Jeremiah foreshadowed Jesus’ way of happiness using two images.
The first image is a dead tree planted in an arid, salty desert. The second image is a dying tree transplanted from the desert and planted near a running stream where its roots are fed from the life-giving water and bears abundant fruits. Jeremiah wrote, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD… [Yet] Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.”
At the heart of Jesus’ way of happiness is transformation from within – a conversion of heart and mind by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Our transformation began at our baptism when our lives took root in the life-giving stream of Christ’s death and resurrection. Daily, we are invited to uproot ourselves from our sinful way of life and to put on the mind and heart of Christ through prayer, scripture, the Sacraments, and service. A popular Christian song illustrates a life rooted in Jesus: “Lord I come, I confess / Bowing here, I find my rest / Without You, I fall apart / You're the one that guides my heart / Lord, I need You / Where You are, Lord, I am free / Holiness is Christ in me / Oh God, how I need You!”
St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the choice to renounce sin and commit one’s life to God is not an insignificant choice. It’s a choice with consequences that extend throughout our lives and into and beyond our death. All of us are unfinished disciples while we live on this earth until, with and in Christ, we attain the resurrection from the dead. This fruit of resurrection is obtained only when we entrust our faith in the Resurrection of Christ.
So here is a trick question. Which scenario would make you happier: health or sickness; success or failure; wealth or poverty? Who would not desire or prefer health over sickness, success over failure, wealth over poverty, and a long life over a short one? So what’s the real answer? Your happiness depends on whether you have accepted the will of God for you at that moment. All things in this world, including what we rather not prefer, are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. For everything [even an epidemic] has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. So phrased in a different way, our happiness is founded upon freedom from our attachment to our own desires so that we can better love, forgive, serve, and praise God. The promise of Jesus in the Beatitudes is that the joys of heaven will more than repay for the sufferings and challenges we can expect in this world.
