Roadmap to True Happiness (4th Sunday Ordinary A)

The pursuit of true happiness is every human being's concern. Since time immemorial philosophers have grappled with the question of happiness— what makes the human being happy? There has to be an answer to this quest lest human life would be nothing but a cruel existence. Humanity has tried several roadmaps that are hoped to lead towards the answer: The worldly roadmaps and the Christian roadmap.

Worldly Roadmaps . Several principles have been espoused in relation to this pursuit. To be happy, the Hedonists proposed the pleasure principle: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you will die." Those who subscribe to this principle have given themselves to indulgence in many and varied forms of pleasure in order to be happy. Many others have tried the materialistic principle: "I shop therefore I am." Their aim in life is to have more and more of the goods of this world. Wealth and comfort become for them the secret to a happy and contented life. Another road taken by some is guided by the power principle: "Might is right." To be happy in this life, one has to make sure of one's control and dominance over other people; even force, violence, and manipulation are necessary to maintain being on top. Still others go by the celebrity principle: "Fame is the name of the game." Happiness is when one is idolized by millions of fans who buy just anything one endorses.  

Apparently these principles or the combination of some of these have become the standard roadmaps to happiness in this world. Yet experience teaches us that these roadmaps fail to truly provide the true happiness our hearts are seeking for. We try any of these principles; live by it religiously; and end up still wanting more... and more. Still unhappy.   Why? What, then, is lacking in all these?

GOD. God is forgotten in these worldly pursuits. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus tells the crowd, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" Here Jesus points out that our worldly pursuit surely does not guarantee our happiness. In earlier chapter, He teaches that God's Kingdom is everything we have to seek: "For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" (Mt 6:32-33).

Christian Roadmap . In today's gospel (Mt. 5:1-12), Jesus reveals the secret to blessedness or happiness: It is the disposition of an interior freedom for God and his Kingdom. And this disposition is expressed by way of the eight beatitudes that Jesus lays down in this Gospel passage—poverty in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, being merciful, purity of heart, being peacemaker, being persecuted for righteousness. Each of these inclines a person's heart away from the deceptive glitters of the world and, more importantly, towards God and his Kingdom—the true source of blessedness. And it is important to note that all these are but aspects of Jesus' own life. When He speaks of blessedness, He speaks from experience. He is the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure of heart, the persecuted, etc. The beatitudes are not a bunch of abstract principles; they are the concrete manifestation of Jesus' own blessedness and total openness to God the Father. Jesus is the first Blessed One. As such, He reveals to us how to be fully human and truly blessed.

What makes us happy? Jesus provides us with the concrete answer. He is the answer. He is the truly blessed One, our roadmap to true happiness. Our contemplation of the person of Jesus Christ, as a way of searching for the answer, has to lead us to the imitation of him.  We need to change our roadmap and adopt Jesus' roadmap. We need to resolve to adopt the standards that Jesus sets before us. We have to embrace his beatitudes as our very own standards for life, if we are serious about being truly happy like Him.

What roadmap must we choose? The philosopher Nietzsche wrongly accused Christianity of espousing values ​​which are but "consolation prizes" for the unfortunate of this world. No. Christianity invites a person to imitate the most fortunate and blessed man who ever lived: Jesus Christ. Hence, as Jesus has shown us, between the choice of basking in worldly pomp and striving for spiritual poverty, we choose the latter for it ushers us to the greatest treasure, the Kingdom of God. 

Between having control of power and working for justice, between wallowing in insatiable forms of pleasure and being pure of heart, between enjoying our accolade in this world and being persecuted for Christ, we know the latter is the choice of Christ as it is in accordance to the standard of God's kingdom and, therefore, our own choice too. Jesus is the Blessed One; and as we live according to his values, his blessedness is surely ours too.

Which roadmap to happiness would you commit to? That of the world? Or the beatitudes laid out by Jesus Christ? Of course, we are Christ's disciples, our option is clear. We are invited by the Lord to lead a truly blessed life. It is the life He has shown us.