St. Andrew of Crete (c. 650-c.720/740), whose feast day was yesterday (along with St. Albert the Great), said: “Receive [Jesus] with open, outstretched hands, for it was on His own hands that He sketched you.”

Our world tells us to go out and “take what is yours” because “you only live once”, and “you deserve to be happy”.

Yet the Blessed Virgin Mary told Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old French peasant girl in 1858: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.”

So which one is it? Are we made for happiness on earth or not?

Since everyone is seeking it, then invariably, the answer would be “yes”, humans have an innate desire to be happy (CCC 27).

The prince or the pauper?

One does not have to look around for long however, to discover the misery and despair around him, entrenched within strangers and kin alike.

With multitudes of sharing and comparing opinions and experiences on social media sites, seeking diversion in meaningless pastimes, and riding on the shallow waves of the latest distraction or endless entertainment, the evidence of desperate restlessness is glaringly apparent.

In this way, there is a spirit of “taking” instead of “receiving”.

But “taking” what one thinks he ought to deserve seems to lead him down a never-ending labyrinth of regret and disillusionment.

So, how does one find true happiness?

And are human beings made to take it or receive it?

From rags to riches

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) once said, “He [the Christian] ought to use the world, not become its slave.”

One will cling to the “rags” of cheap entertainment only if he has not discovered the “riches” of true love, which seeks to find him.

In other words, only when one allows himself to be loved by God can he begin to discover true happiness, because God is love (1 John 4:16).

And how can one not love what Augustine refers to as, “The Creator of All Good”?

Augustine also gave the remedy for today’s generation plagued by discontentment: He said, “Delight in Him from whom you have received everything that delights you.”

He added the only exception is sin, which does not come from God.

“Ask and you shall receive”

Why then, did Jesus tell His disciples the night before He was crucified to, “Ask, and you will receive”?

Why didn’t He just say, “Take, and you will get”?

The answer lies in the rest of His sentence, reassuring them: “…so that your joy may be complete” (John 16:24).

What does the Christian receive? The hope he will share in Jesus Christ’s glory in eternal life.

Who do does the Christian receive? Love Himself.

Now that’s something to be happy about.

Sources: From the discourse “On the Palm Branches” by Saint Andrew of Crete, Divine Office Breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, November 15, 2022, Universalis, https://www.universalis.com/usa/-400/readings.htm.

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, Divine Office Breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, November 13, 2022 and November 16, 2022, https://www.universalis.com/usa/-400/readings.htm.

“The Message of Lourdes“, February 18, 1858, Lourdes-France.org, accessed November 15, 2022, https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/message-lourdes/.