What is happiness?

Jesus teaches: “Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God” (Matthew 6:6).  That is to say, live in this world knowing that it is the work of God, with a destiny of glory. But the song of creation is not harmonious: there are defective, mute or discordant voices. The more we recognize this, the more we want to help redeem creation and restore the perfection of the song. And we can only redeem and restore to the extent that, having been redeemed and loved ourselves, we have learned to love.

God wants us to be happy, to have life in abundance. But Jesus teaches that to be happy, one must be poor in spirit, meek, and pure in heart (Matthew 5).  Happiness is not something we seek, much less something we can manufacture. It is something we can only receive and become. Such a way of living is not so much about having something new as being something new. As a “new creation in Christ,” we learn to view things not only as things we have, but also as things we are if we want to live loving them. We learn to see other people as one with us – destined for a weight of glory that it is our duty and joy to love and serve.

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When we see the world as Jesus sees it, our hearts will be at peace because they will be filled with the universal love for which they long. From now on we begin to rejoice in the happiness of those who have the kingdom of heaven, until we come to the final joy of the eternal day.