DEACON TOM ANTHONY

Sunday, August 4, 2013



How are we to be happy in this life? There are certain expectations that are taught to us from an early age that in order to be happy we need to work hard, educate ourselves, acquire a certain amount of money, and purchase material goods. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements and images that reinforce this point of view. Society tells us that it can make all of us happy if only we surrender to our passions, needs, and wants. These all revolve around someone or something stimulating our senses and providing some sort of entertainment. If we take a moment and reflect on how many advertisements we encounter on a daily basis we can easily come to the conclusion that from the moment that we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, someone is trying to sell us something so that we can be happy. Are we really that miserable that we have to constantly strive to enjoy ourselves to that extent? Do we really have to structure our lives around seeking physical and mental pleasure?

When we focus on materialism and pleasure we risk the danger of becoming lost in this world. The focus becomes less on God and more on society. God is removed from his creation; selfish gain and the pursuit of passions are put in his place. With this comes intense anxiety as the goals of self-gain and prosperity are sought after while our spirituality is ignored. We convince ourselves that to be happy we must fulfill the expectations of a society that only wants us to produce and consume at an alarming rate. Everything becomes a business where one person gains while another person loses. The individual person and his or her value is lost.

Everything in this world has the danger of becoming an addiction. We form patterns of behavior around the simplest of things from the kind of liquids we drink to where we prefer to buy clothes. Things are purchased for pleasure and not out of necessity. We convince ourselves that the more that we consume the happier that we will be. The measure of a good person is based upon how much earning potential he or she has and the items that are owned. Meanwhile, other people suffer because of this sort of behavior. There are those who are considered the winners and there are those who lose. The ones who lose are the ones who do not have the capability to produce or consume enough in the world to be noticed. A person's self-worth is calculated on how much money they have.

Is this what God intended? Since our creation we have struggled to emulate God by convincing ourselves that we can transform his creation into our own. To an extent this is acceptable since our free will was indeed a gift from God and through the exercising of it we have made great use of everything that makes us unique to advance civilization and lift up the human condition. We as persons have done great and glorious things. Yet, we have also failed miserably when we forget about God. People are suffering and dying every day. Through our own actions and inaction we have brought about much pain and torment into this world. The suffering of the individual is forgotten if it does not provide some sort of value for the whole.

The only thing eternal in this world is God. We were created by him out of love and we are called to love him. When we do love him and live our lives loving him then the proper way to conduct ourselves in this world comes into focus. Each individual becomes a unique and important part of our existence. No one person is more important than another. No one becomes forgotten. Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and Mammon. In other worlds, we cannot keep focusing on earthly desires while professing that we love God. Material wealth should never matter in comparison to the person. Material gain and pleasure cannot compare with the pleasure of loving God. Our relationship with God is eternal. Everything else in this world will expire.

To fully enjoy this love we must live it together as one family with God central in all of our actions and emotions. The more that we strengthen our relationship with him the more we can appreciate how precious our life and the lives of all those around us are. We can then pursue the thing that has evaded us the most in this life: true happiness and joy.

Deacon Tom

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