It’s the way to happiness: Contemplate the Trinity

It is time to shout to the world that the Trinity is first and foremost joy and happiness. And contemplating the Trinity can overcome the great unhappiness of the world.

God is happy! St. Augustine says that God is happy and makes people happy. Happiness is part of the very mystery of his being. Being the highest good, he is also the highest and infinite happiness. St. Francis of Assisi exclaims, “You are joy; You are … joy” in his “Praises of God.”

God is happiness for the very same reason that the Trinity is happy: because he is love. Happiness, in fact, is to love and be loved. God, from all eternity, loves his Son with an infinite love, and the Son returns that love with an equally infinite love. The Father finds “all his pleasure,” that is, his happiness, in him. Since God is happy, he does everything that he does with joy: he creates with joy (see Job 38:7), he saves with joy, and he even suffers with joy.

The Holy Spirit, pouring the love of God into hearts (see Romans 5:5), at the same time pours into them the happiness of God that is inseparable from this love. Because of that, one of the first fruits that is produced in our souls is joy (see Galatians 5:22). The happiness of God is like an overflowing river “whose streams make glad the city of God” (Psalm 46:4), i.e., the church.

We all want to be happy. Just hearing the word “happiness,” people perk up, so to speak, and look to see if, by chance, you are able to offer something for their thirst. This is the one thing that unites all people, without exception, whether they are good or evil. No one, in fact, would be evil if he or she did not hope to be happy through that evil thing.

We carry the desire to be happy engraved on our hearts, because God has created us in “his image and likeness,” and since he is perfect happiness, he made us for happiness too.

But then, we ask ourselves, why are so few people truly happy? And even those who are, why are they happy for such a short time? It is not difficult to discover where the error lies. Scripture tells us, “God is love” (1 John 4:8); people have believed they can reverse the statement and say, “love is God”! Revelation tells us that God is happiness; again people invert the order and say, “Happiness is God”!

But what happens when we do this? Human beings do not know happiness that is pure, absolute, eternal, and transcendent, just as they do not know absolute love. They know fragments of happiness, which are often reduced to temporary intoxications of the senses, joys that are like fragile glass that always risks being shattered into fragments from one moment to another. In this way people deify the experience of joy and make it an idol.

This explains why whoever seeks God always finds joy, while the person who seeks joy does not always find God, but often finds only broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Augustine says, “you have made us and drawn us to yourself.” It is the whole Trinity that has made us; the Trinity is the Creator-God of Christians. We have been made for the Trinity, and our hearts will be restless until they rest in it.

Written by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa is a well-known Franciscan Capuchin preacher and writer. This is adapted from his book, Contemplating the Trinity, a series of meditations given to the papal household of John Paul II. Click here to read an excerpt.

The Search is Over: Love is Here!

The desire for joy, peace and love is deep within the human heart. Most of us have sought it. And most of us are left frustrated.

Many think that joy can be found in the ungodly. And so we try all the ungodly stuffs thinking it would make us happy. We commit one sin to the next hopping the next one would bring us happiness. In our search for joy, we have left ourselves miserable.

Many of us also believe that the world can give us peace. We presume that material wealth will automatically bring peace in our lives. We think that temporal security is the key to peace. But our effort in accumulating and preserving material wealth has only made us more anxious and fearful (of losing them.)

And our search of love, we have jumped from one wrong person to the next. Our desire for perfect and lasting love has only caused us to be heartbroken, again and again. We have sought the perfect in frail and weak creatures.

We have sought the divine in the human and in the world.

And we are disappointed.

Real lasting joy, peace and love can only be found in its Author.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”  John 15:11

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

They can only be found in Him who is joy, peace and love Himself… Jesus.

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator." (#27 Catechism of the Catholic Church)

Is Holiness the Enemy of Happiness?

The word “holiness” these days is often imagined as something rigid, cold and joyless. They think holy people are “killjoys”. Or so they think.

People who have these concepts of holiness don’t really understand what holiness really is. They imagine a holy person as a rigid, ascetic lifeless monk, like a zombie. But they cannot be further from the truth. Holy people are not just happy, they are joyful. And joy is much deeper than happiness.

A sick person is not a happy, he is miserable. A healthy person is a happy fellow. We sinners are sick with sin. Being holy only means living a healthy spiritual life. If both are body and soul is healthy, then we are happy. It is really that simple…

But hard to live.

Spiritual health, like physical health demands effort, especially if we have lived very unhealthy or sinful lives for years. The start of a workout program is always dragging. There is always a lot of resistance on our part. But once we get into the flow, it becomes easier. The more we become healthy the more we become strong and free (sick people are always confined in their beds).

It is the same in the program of holiness. It really takes a lot of effort in the beginning. We have been attached to our sins for so long that it has become a part of us, like fats. But the more we strive to be holy, the easier it gets. And one day it will be second nature to us (which is actually our first nature, God created us totally holy before “the fall).

Being holy means to be who God created us to be. Our natural state is of pure holiness. But sin has stained that.

To be holy is to be fully alive. To be holy is to animate all our God given gifts and potentials. To be holy is to be totally human again. The saints are our example. The saints are the greatest accomplishers in history. They were also people of joy. There are no unhappy saints.

When Jesus said “Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy”, He was not just commanding us, but also reminding us who we really are. We were made for holiness and there lies our happiness.

The great thing about pursuing holiness is that we are not alone in our efforts. God’s grace is sufficient and abundant in helping us be fully human once again. God wants us to be holy more than we want to. God wants us to be happy more than we want to.

"My grace is sufficient for you…" (2 Corinthians 12:9) “and running over, will be poured into your lap.” (Luke 6:38)

So how does holiness look like?

Look at Jesus. Jesus is our guide to holiness. He is also the program. To be holy is to live like Jesus and live in Him.

So be holy.

Be happy.

By Daxx Bondoc

How to Have a Life Filled to the Brim

Living an empty life is one of the most miserable experiences. We can all drown ourselves with distractions, but when the music fades and you are left to yourself, there is no running away from our own emptiness.

The world, especially the media, has taught us to pursue everything else, except real abiding fulfillment. To them getting emotionally high and pleasuring your senses is more important than real joy and peace. Now, we have emotionally unstable people who are addicted to pleasure. And they are all miserable.

So how do get the real deal?

How do we have a full and filled life?

Listen to our Holy Mother Mary!

Our Mother, who is full of grace, can teach us a thing or two how to have a life that is full.

And this is her words to us.

“Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you.” – John 2:5

Our Mother points us to her Son, the source of all fulfillments in this life and especially in the next.

In the Wedding at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine.

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. When he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” – John 2: 6-10

The key to a fulfilling life is full faith and full obedience to Christ.

When Jesus asked the servants to fill the jars with water, the water Jesus was pointing to was the water used for washing of feet. Just imagine what the servants must have thought. Putting this water to jars meant for drinking. And Jesus asked them to fill it to the brim.

And if that is not disturbing enough, Jesus asked the servants to give this water to their master. Just imagine the servants’ fear. They could lose their jobs because of Jesus.

But they believed and obeyed Jesus. And so a miracle happened.

If we want our boring life turned into a life of intoxicating joy and peace, Jesus can make that miracle happen. But He needs a faith that is filled to the brim. He wants our full obedience, even if He asks us to do something beyond our understanding. Even if it means risking ourselves. Just like what the servants did.

God’s grace is overflowing. But we can only receive what we accept. Give God a half filled jar, you get half filled fulfillment.

God is not stingy… we are.

True fulfillment comes from Christ alone, for He is our fulfillment. A fulfilled life comes from living in Christ and like Christ. And that is a life of faith and obedience to the Father.

To have Jesus is to be filled.

To live like Jesus is to find fullness.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Real Joy Vs Shallow Happiness

We live in a time where “personal happiness” is the ultimate good. It has stepped over all other goods, even Good Himself, God. And the media is doing a really good job promoting this new god.

There is nothing wrong about personal happiness, it its right context. God commands us to be a cheerful giver, so we know He is not a kill joy. But when personal happiness becomes king, here is where the problem starts.

When our personal happiness goes before love and before God, it now becomes “personal selfishness”. People have sacrificed everything and even everyone for the sake of finding personal happiness (even though he himself does not know what it is).

The personal happiness gospel is often promoted by T.V shows and movies. We watch an unhappy woman leaving everything behind to eat, pray and love. So she ate. She prayed. She loved.

But did she?

I will not go to the eating part, nothing to explain there.

But did she really prayed? One aspect of prayer is losing oneself. For Christians, praying is more about God than ourselves. But her prayers were self-centered. She was not reaching up to God. She was grasping herself, hoping to find herself.

Did she really loved? Love as St Thomas Aquinas puts it is “to will the good of the other as other”. How about her definition? She wanted to love the man on her own terms, and she wanted the man to love her on her own terms. There was no “other” on the equation. Just her.

These kinds of movie and show reinforce our selfishness, all under the banner of “personal happiness”. A mother leaves her family to “find herself”. A father goes off with another woman because she “gives him what he is looking for”. Children abandon their parents to “explore the world”. Mother’s murder their own unborn child so that her “life won’t be disturbed”.

So what happen to these people who have gone off to leave everyone behind to find themselves?

They find the same self they supposedly left behind. Just more selfish.

The paradox of personal happiness is that it can only happen when you forget yourself in love. It is in loving Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last, that you will find J-O-Y.

There is no joy apart from love. And real love is always joyful.

Love (God) created us for love. Love is the air we breathe. And love is not selfish.

If you want to find personal happiness, then don’t take it personal. Be a person for all. Then, true happiness, real joy will happen behind your back.

“For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.” Matthew 16:25

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Are You Stuck In the Past? Or Are You Anxious About the Future?

Are You a Slave of People’s Opinion and Approval?

Do you constantly trying to prove to others that you are “good enough?”

We must admit that most of our actions are motivated to win the acceptance and admiration of our peers. There is something about pleasing people that pleases us.

Most of the time, it is our personal insecurities that cause this “I need to be good enough for you” mentality. One psychologist said that to even entertain this “I need to be good enough” debate in your head is already a choice to go to the path of unhappiness. For you will never be good enough in your mind. You will always find something that you need to be “good enough” to please others.

To live in the mercy of other’s approval and acceptance is like building your life on shifting sands. People’s opinions are fickle. They love you today and then hate you tomorrow. We can see this with movie stars and music artist. Here today and gone tomorrow. Putting the direction of your life at other’s hands is to miss out your own life.

We need to learn to accept ourselves. Even those things we do not like in ourselves. Accepting does not mean liking what you see, but accepting that they are real. If you have a bad temper, you do not need to like your bad temper. But you must accept that you have one!

Only when we accept ourselves for who we really are can we start to grow. We must accept our strengths and also our weakness, the good and the bad in us. Only when we can look at ourselves objectively can we start changing those aspects of our lives that need improvements.

We must first win the approval of ourselves. I approve of me! Yes I approve of me because God approves of me. If God did not approve of me, I would not even be here.

If you want to win the approval of others, win the approval of the God first. God approves of your creation, but do you think He approves on how you are living your life right now?

But why do we want God’s approval on our lives?

Because we want joy!

Happiness can only be found when we are in line with God’s plan for our lives.

“Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy.” Mt 25:23

Written by Daxx Bondoc

The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Hobbits (Part 1: Cheerfulness)

Hobbits? What can those small folks teach us?

A lot actually!

Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest fantasy novels ever written. And it was written by a devout Catholic, J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also a friend of C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lord of the Rings is full of Christian symbolism and lessons. So let us dig in.

So what can we learn from our little hairy-footed friends?

Hobbit Habit #1: Cheerfulness.

Hobbits are a cheery bunch of Halflings. They like to drink, eat and be merry, which typically translate to singing and dancing. But their cheerfulness is unlike ours. Theirs is simpler and therefore merrier. They don’t need a big event to celebrate. Being together is enough reason to be merry.

Most of us are miserable because we have forgotten to be merry in small and simple things. We modern people want our celebrations big, bold, and gimmicky and attended by the famous. No wonder we do the most stupid things just to say we had fun. We have forgotten that we are celebrating because we are among friends who are sharing our joy.

Hobbits does not really need too much reason to be merry, they just simply do because they like to. Their simple life, their simple hearts makes them easy to please. For the most of us, our lack of the virtue of simplicity is the source of our discontent. Our discontent leads to frustration, which leads to misery.

The Hobbits can sing and dance because they know how to get caught in the moment. They are not self-conscious of what others would think of them. They are more absorbed in enjoying the moment than looking good. Because they are caught in joy, they become heralds of joy to others. When hobbits start singing and dancing on top of tables, everybody joins in. They are the life of the party because their heart is alive with joy.

For us Christian, Jesus is the source and reason of our joy. Pope Benedict XVI writes in his book Jesus of Nazareth (II), “In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us. That is the lasting motive of Christian joy.”

They say that the sign that the Holy Trinity is dwelling in you is joy. Joy is a sign of a true Christian who is in love with God.

Be a good cheer, Jesus has overcome the world and everything in between.

Written by Daxx Bondoc

Learning Joy from a Toy

Joy is what everybody longs for. Most of us have sought it through selfishness, lust and greed. And we have discovered that these ways are fleeting, shallow and leaves us empty in the end.

So how do we find joy?

Let Woody show you.

Woody is one of the main characters in the animated trilogy Toy Story. Woody always knew who he was and his purpose. So what are they?

1. He belong to Andy
2. He is a toy made for the enjoyment of others.
3. He is happy when he is giving happiness to children.

Woody does not live for himself. He always reminds his fellow toys that he and they belong to Andy. And then shows the bottom of his boots with “Andy” marked on it.

Like Woody we who are baptized have been marked. Baptism seals a Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. St Paul says: “And that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” 1 Cor 6: 19-20. We do not belong to ourselves, Christ owns us.

It is hard for us to stomach all this "belonging to Christ" talk. In a society where “freedom” and “independence” is the ultimate good, God has become a threat. “It’s my way or the highway” is the modern culture’s motto. Has our way lead us to the joy we are looking for? Or is it just a long highway of loneliness and misery?

The media has done a great job sowing the seeds of discontent by constantly reminding us of what we “don’t have” instead of what “we can give.” So we are in the vicious “If-I-Only-Have-This-I-Will-Be-Happy” cycle. Wake up call, you will never have everything you want in this world. They are found in heaven.

God created us to love. Love is our joy.

The self is given to be given away.

The toys in Toy Story are most joyful when they were played with. The last thing they wanted was to be left in the trunk, useless. Most of us have shut ourselves in the trunk of our own selfishness. We have chosen to live in a dark, lonely and miserable place. And we delude ourselves it is a happy place.

We are most ourselves when we forget ourselves. Getting lost in love (agape) is where we will find our true identity and meaning.

Be a give-joy and not a killjoy.

Written by Daxx Bondoc