The Path to True Happiness
4 Sunday Year A – Beginning of Catholic Schools Week
January 29, 2017
Jesus went up the mountain. If you were a Jew in biblical times, this would bring to mind Moses going up on the mountain. It was on the mountain top that Moses encountered God. It was also on top of the mountain that God gave Moses the law – the 10 commandments.
It is no accident that in a Catholic Church that our sanctuaries are elevated. This is the archetypal mountain. It is here on top of this mountain that we too encounter God in the Most Holy Eucharist. And it is from the top of this mountain that we receive God’s word.
This gospel is pointing to the truth that Jesus is God. God is the lawgiver and Jesus takes the place of God in giving us the new law: the beatitudes.
We’ve heard that beatitudes so often that we perhaps don’t stop to think how radical they are! Think about this for a second: How many of us would say, “Yeah I feel blessed when I’m poor, mourning, meek, and persecuted!” That seems to be a strange path to happiness and blessedness!
How do we make sense of all this? What is Jesus saying? Ultimately, Jesus is showing us that true happiness and blessedness will be found in God alone. I love Bishop Barron’s take on the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are you if you are not attached to riches, when you haven’t placed the desires of your heart on worldly things.
We can fall into the trap of looking for our happiness in our house, our car, in having the latest fashions. I saw the movie Passengers. I can’t say it was very good but its saving grace was how it pointed out that things can’t fulfill us. The movie is about a guy who wakes up early out of hibernation and finds himself alone on this luxury space ship. He has everything to himself on the ship: the luxury suite but the only thing he has to talk to is the robot at the bar. He feels very alone. The movie points out that ultimately we are made for relationships not things. Blessed, happy are you if you are not consumed by riches.
Blessed are those who mourn – what is Jesus saying? Blessed, happy are you if you are not addicted to always feelings good. We live in a feel-good society! We can easily get entrapped by chasing after emotional highs and good feelings. We are a pill-popping society. People look for highs from drugs, alcohol, and sex. Pornography is an epidemic problem in our culture! What happens? We can become addicted to all these pleasure seeking experiences and lose our freedom. Blessed, happy are you if you are not addicted to always feeling good!
Blessed are the Meek – what is Jesus saying? Blessed are you when you are not addicted to power. Like material good things or good feelings, power can be a drug. People can become obsessed with having control, not only controlling their own lives but trying to control the lives of others. Think of all the figures in history who have been obsessed with power. Blessed are you when you allow yourself to be ruled and controlled by God. Blessed are those who surrender to God’s will rather than exerting their own will.
Blessed are the Persecuted – what is Jesus is saying? Blessed are you if you are not attached to always having esteem of others. We can often find ourselves living in the minds of others worrying about “what is everyone thinking about me.” When we do this we live our lives on an emotional roller coaster. When I receive the praise of others, I feel great! When I’m overlooked or not noticed, I feel terrible. Happy, blessed are you if you don’t look for your value and self-worth in having the esteem of others!
Jesus is showing us the true way to true happiness and blessedness. It will be found in God alone, not in riches or chasing after pleasures or power or having the esteem of others.
This is also a great gospel as we kick off Catholic Schools Week today. Our gospel is telling us that our true happiness – blessedness will come from following Christ. And, do you know what the motto of our Catholic Schools is? “Let it be known to all who enter here that Jesus is the reason for this school”. The whole goal of our Catholic School is to help form disciples of Jesus.
A sixth grade teacher shared with me that one of our newer students who transferred into our Catholic School said, “You know what I like best about St. Michael School? I can be myself.” This new student is finding it liberating to be able to talk about God in school. What I love about our school is that religion is not just one subject among many: math class, science class, religion class . . . . but our faith permeates and underlies all that we do. Whether we in the classroom, lunch room, or playground we can instill prayer, virtue, and Christian values. Our kids are immersed in a Catholic environment - 7 hours a day 5 days a week.
One of my favorite parts of our Catholic School is celebrating Mass with the children. I normally ask questions during the homily and you never know what they will say. This past fall, I wanted to talk about vocations so I asked the kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” One boy said, “A superhero!” Another boy said, “A bear!” And then a cute little kindergarten girl said, “An evil queen!” After Mass, I was told, “Father they were all telling you what they wanted to be for Halloween.”
I want to also mention that we are one of only three tithing parishes in the KC Metro. This means we do not have tuition at our school. We fund our school, our religious education program and all the ministries of our parish through our Sunday collection. This means we all have a stake in our youth! What can be more important than handing on our faith to the next generation? We invite everyone to come to our Open House from 10 am – 1 pm. When you go over, if you see one of our teachers or Mr. Cullinan our principal or Janet O’Connell, our vice principal, please thank them for all they do.
Our goal is to get everyone of our children to heaven. And Jesus gives us the road map today. Our ultimate eternal happiness is not going to be found in wealth, pleasure, power or honor, but in following Jesus. Happy, blessed are you when you follow Christ with all your heart.