Rose Sweet - A Catholic Woman’s Guide to Happiness

Life is like a journey, taken on a train,
With a pair of travelers at each windowpane.
I may sit beside you all the journey through,
Or I may sit elsewhere, never knowing you.
But if fate should make me sit by your side,
Lets be pleasant travelers; its so short a ride.

Anonymous

Happiness is a great adventure

W hen I consider the word journeyoften used for the spiritual lifeI hear a loud whistle, the shout of All aboard! and think of people on a railroad car, gazing out the window at lovely and passing landscapes, their suitcases stored high, and the roly-poly, mustachioed conductor coming down the aisle to collect their tickets. While Id love life to be such an idyllic train ride, for me its often been more of a combination of a wild Western, a Stephen King horror story, a Midsomer murder mystery, and a Jurassic Park nightmare. Looking for happiness can be quite an adventure!

The search for happiness can be deceptive, especially with cunning and seductive voices from inside our own head, or from others, beckoning us this way and that. Its tough to stay on track! C. S. Lewis said that there is no neutral ground in the universe, every square inch, every second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan. The battle to destroy our happiness is real.

Happiness is the mother of all desires

I was eleven years old when I first read a book about happiness. For Christmas in 1962, my younger sister, Barb, bought our mother the first in a popular series of small, hardcover gift books by Charles Schulz (of Peanuts fame) called Happiness is a Warm Puppy. Barb let me read it before it was wrapped and placed under the tree.

Mom was delighted! The Cuban missile crisisduring which our nation had been deeply shaken by the threat of Soviet nuclear armshad just died down, and many people were looking for an emotional security blanket. Schulz had created this simple book of drawings and text in one day, and it arrived in bookshops with a letter that read: It wont change the world, but we hope it will make things a little more pleasant for us survivors.

The charming volumewith its sweet, funny, and comforting cartoon characters wisely expounding on happinesssold millions and became a favorite for readers of all ages. Was the books tremendous success really about the little round-faced boy, Charlie Brown, and his dog, Snoopy? Or was it about that unquenchable human desire for happiness?

The world today is still in turmoil, and everyone still wants to be happy. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (394322 BC), taught that happiness is the primary motivation in life; that it is the only thing one chooses for itself because all other choices are made in efforts to obtain it. That means every decision you made todayred blouse or green, non-fat or notwas an attempt to make yourself happy.

Happiness and joy are the same

In recent years, some Christians have tried to distinguish between happiness and joy, insisting that to pursue one is maybe even vain and sinful, and the other, elevated and holy. This artificial distinction is unfounded and not taught by the Church; in fact, translations of the Bible use the words happiness, joy, and blessedness interchangeably in hundreds of verses. Even Google, which uses the Oxford Pocket Dictionary, defines joy as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

There are various levels of happiness, which we discuss later, but pushing the distinction too far risks separating what God has joined together: body and soul. It is good to volunteer selflessly in a soup kitchen, and it is also good to enjoy a Saturday afternoon pedicure. Both produce happiness, albeit one has greater long-term value. Lets not slip into the old heresy that equates the spirit with good and the body with bad, thereby demonizing the physical world and all the joys therein that God gave us.

The body is not a mere shell, nor the world a prison that we need to escape for eternal happiness. (Even though some days it certainly might feel like it!) We are enfleshed spiritsnot angelswho will, if we live rightly, be raised gloriously body and soul for all eternity. Pedicure pleasures are not bad, but they are meant to point us to those that are more enduring. If there is any sin in enjoying the created world, the problem is not in the body but in the heart.

So, for the rest of this book, know that I use the words joy and happinessalong with contentment, pleasure, delight, satisfaction, and even jump-up-and-down, slap-your-thigh, hootin-n-hollerin giddinesssynonymously.

Happiness can be yours!

No one escapes the confusion and, at times, the frustrated feeling of being lost and disappointed with life. Butas so many saints and sages have shared over the centuriesthere is a right way, we can get there, and it is totally worth it. I hope I can join them to inspire, encourage, and even make you laugh a little along the journey. Please note that this little guide is certainly not intended to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject.

Its also not a book about prayer, but prayer is necessary for the journey.

Its not a book about the lives of the saints, but they do point the way.

Its not a book about the many spiritual practices the Church offers us, but it is about holiness. And holiness is the true path to happiness.

Reflections

How would you describe your life so far?

When have you felt lost and uncertain about where to turn?

What is your definition of happiness?

____________

C. S. Lewis, Christian Reflections (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2014).