Happiness and Holiness

September 15, 2024                24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
 

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it."

- Mark 8:34-35

 

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.

- St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

I give You my destiny, I'm giving You all of me. I want Your symphony singing in all that I am. At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back.

- Only Hope, Jon Foreman (Switchfoot)

In the well-loved hymn The Summons, Verse 2 starts with “Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?” Then Verse 4 starts with “Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?” I’ve always found that to be somewhat paradoxical – how could you “leave yourself behind” while also loving “the ‘you’ you hide?” The readiness to deny oneself is a consistent theme in Christianity. The second half of the popular prayer of St. Francis (which, I must dutifully point out, was not actually written by Francis of Assisi) asks God to grant “that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love…” Now, me being the type of person I am, I always approach Scripture, religion, and theology with a critical lens, and I am of the opinion (and I think the devout Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard would agree) that faith and skepticism ought to be cultivated hand in hand.

So, when I hear things like “grant that I may not so much seek to be loved as to love,” my mind can’t help but go, “but wait a minute… wouldn’t that make you so susceptible to toxic relationships and neglecting your own self-care?” In his talk on The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Bishop Robert Barron addressed a common atheistic critique of Christianity – the thinking that committing oneself to God means forsaking one’s own happiness, which is understandably what one might think when confronted by all the talk of denying oneself. Bishop Barron called to mind the well-known quote attributed to St. Irenaeus: “The glory of God is man fully alive.” I must also dutifully point out that a more accurate translation of Irenaeus’ wording is: “For the glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God.” (Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, Book IV, Ch. 20, par. 7, translated by Robert M. Grant)

In my conversations with my best friend Kathy, I’ve often expressed doubts about whether God, as understood in Christianity, really does want me to be happy, and whether this happiness is anything like what we commonly understand by the word “happiness.” One time I asked her, “What if the reason I can’t get a date is because God is blocking it? What if God wants me to be single because he wants me to be a monk or something?” She told me that she doubts if being a monk would truly make me happy, and that God would not wish that I should live an unhappy life. Later I showed her some words from the renowned Christian apologetic, William Lane Craig, who wrote: “… ‘But doesn’t God want us to be happy?’ you might ask. No! The goal of life is not happiness but holiness, which will, in turn, have human happiness as a byproduct.” I then texted Kathy “I’m remembering when I asked you what if God just wants me to be a monk, and you said that wouldn’t bring me joy (which it won’t)… but I’d certainly be ‘holier!’ I think William Lane Craig’s God wants me to be a monk.” Her response was one of the most reassuring things I’ve heard, and I think fits perfectly with the simultaneity expressed in St. Irenaeus’ words, “For the glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God”:
 

But Carlo, if you pursued being a monk, you wouldn’t be holier. Being a monk isn’t what makes a monk holy. It’s living and embracing all that comes with being a monk that creates holiness. And guess what? You can also be a lay person and live and embrace all that that vocation consists of and be holy too… Happiness and holiness are not a “first, second” experience. They are simultaneous and they feed into each other.

- Kathy Fritz, text message, 4/9/2024, 8:01 PM 

There’s a song called Only Hope that was popularized by Mandy Moore and featured in the 2002 film A Walk to Remember. Actually, the song was originally written by Jon Foreman for the Christian rock band Switchfoot. I think this song beautifully expresses the themes of happiness, holiness, and surrendering one’s life to God. If you come to the 9:30 AM Family Mass this Sunday, you’ll hear it sung by our very own Eloise Mascitti from our Youth Choir. If you won’t be at that Mass, you can still watch the video below of her rendition.

With my peace,
Carlo Serrano, Music Director