SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS AS A HUMAN BEING AND A CHRISTIAN

 I wish to reflect with you on my identity as a human being and as Christian. I shall narrow down my inquiry to three simple questions: Who am I? Who are you for me?  Who is God for me?

We start our reflection by facing the first question: Who am I?

1. MY PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

    I am a human being. I am different from the other living beings and the irrational animals. I belong to the human species. I am an individual, body-soul, different from other individuals. I am a person, that is, a rational being: with body to feel, intelligence to understand, and will to want and to love. As a person, I am open to other human persons and beings, and to creation. I am an ecological being, too, part of the universe. I am a religious being closely related to God as Supreme Being.

    As a human being, I have a personal conscience that tells me that my happiness is found radically in goodness and my basic responsibility is to form well and obey my conscience that tells me what to do (do good) and what not to do (avoid evil).

I am in the world, but what for? What is the purpose of my life? The purpose is to search for happiness, to be happy. What will make me happy? What makes my life meaningful? I need money; it is useful, but happiness is somewhere else. I may like power, but usually power corrupts unless it is used to serve others. I love pleasure, but if pleasure is harmful to me or to others it cannot be the source of my happiness. I search for knowledge and realize the help of science and technology, but these may be well and badly used: only if morally used they may help us be and improve our happiness. In classical philosophy and theology, only true wisdom, virtue, above all, the virtue of love can make us relatively but truly happy in this life..

What is happiness? Happiness is another name for love, for the Supreme Good, or for God as Love. In our imperfect world, happiness is hope – hope that tomorrow will be better, and it will be if we journey by the path of wisdom, virtue and love. In this life, genuine love, faithful and hopeful love gives meaning to my life, in particular the love of Jesus. For the Christian, Jesus Christ is the meaning of life and the happiest person to walk on earth. Blas Pascal says: “No one is as happy as the authentic Christian.” (Incidentally, are there many authentic Christians, or Jews, or just authentic persons?)

What am I doing to myself? I am asked by my humanity and my faith to care for life in the universe, in particular for my own life. As a human being I have a right to life and the responsibility to care for it. I am, therefore, against suicide.

Who am I? I am a human person and therefore, a human being with great dignity. I am also a wounded human being – and a sinner. After all, what do I have that I have not received – from God, from family and friends? Realizing my constant need of God and of others makes me – should make me humble!

I am a Christian who tries to be a happy Christian. Christ is my life: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). He came to the world so that we all may have life, and have it to the full (Jn 1:10). He keeps giving us life through the Spirit (Jn 3:5). The Beatitudes portray the life of Christ. The life that Christ brought and keeps bringing  to me – to us – is the life of grace, which initiates eternal life on earth: Jesus came down so that everyone “may have eternal life” (Jn 3: 16); “God has given eternal life and this life is in his Son” (I Jn 5:11-12). Thus, human life is a journey to heaven by the way of Christ who suffered and died on the cross and rose again to life. It is rooted in grace and witnessed in love, a love which is one and means loving God and all neighbors, and the whole creation.

Who is the human person for Jesus Christ? For Jesus Christ, “man is a being whose greatness consists in his openness and offering to God and brethren, and whose destruction stems from self-enclosure in his own selfishness; for Him, to be a human being is to love”(J. L. Martin Descalzo). In every human person, the Christian sees a son or a daughter of Him who wants to be called “Our Father” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC, 2212).

I continue my meditation with you, dear readers, by facing the second question: Who are you for me?

1.  MY SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

As a human person, I am a social being, a member of a family, an ethnic, a citizen of a nation and of the world. The other can be for me an “it,” a “nobody,” a “he/she,” or a “thou,” or a you. If I consider the other as an “it,” or an object, then I depersonalize, disrespect him/her, consider him or her a ‘means’. I must consider the other as what he/she is: a human person, who should never be made an object, a ‘means’ because he/she is an end (Kant).

As a human being I am not alone: “No man is an island.” As a Christian, I am not alone at all. The first Christians say, “Solus Christianus, nullus Christianus”- a solitary Christian is not a Christian. The Christian is also a member of the Church of Christ, that is, the community of faith, hope and love. The Church is the People of God composed of the Pope, bishops, priests, religious women and men and lay faithful. All the members are equal in dignity, for there is one Lord, one Spirit, one baptism for all.

If I consider the other as a “nobody,” then I am indifferent to him/her, and this is inhuman. If I take him/her as he/she, then I respect them in justice only, but I may not love them yet. If the other becomes a “thou” then I understand him/her as an equal and as a member of the human family. And I love them. In religious perspective, particularly in Christian perspective, the other is not just an equal but a brother or a sister in Christ. As a person, as a social being, the purpose of my life is to live with others in justice and love: to live with and for others. Only true justice and forgiving love lead to integral peace.

What am I doing for others? I live with others, but what for? What is my responsibility facing the life of others? My fundamental responsibility is to respect and defend the right to life of every human being from the moment of conception to natural death. Therefore, and based on my humanity, I defend human life against procured abortion, direct euthanasia, direct homicide and the death penalty.

My responsibility for the other’s life is to defend it and even promote it: not only his/her physical life but also a dignified life in the world. To a certain extent, I am responsible for the other, and his/her life in the world. I have to be just and promote justice, to be in solidarity with all, particularly the needy and weak. With others, I am obliged to work for the freedom of all and for peace in the world. I have to work for truth in love. I am not free to lie because authentic freedom is grounded on truth: it is freedom in the truth not freedom from the truth (John Paul II).The God of Jesus Christ is Love and Truth.

The responsibility for my life and the life of others is based on human dignity, which is expressed in human rights. Human dignity – a unique excellence of the human person – is equal in all human beings. Likewise human rights, the rights that belong to every human person by the fact that he/she belong to the human species. These rights include the right to education, to basic health, to freedom, including freedom of conscience and religious freedom.

As a human being I am asked by our humanity to promote the human dignity and the rights of all, in particular of those who live – or merely survive – as if they had no rights!

What is the meaning of my life with others? What makes us truly happy? It makes us happy, it gives meaning to our life this: to become more what we are, that is, to become flourishing human beings living with others and for others. To be and become more what we are may be considered the two poles of human existence. The Asian Bishops say: “We Asians are searching not simply for the meaning of life but for life itself… We speak of life as a becoming – a growing into, a journeying to life and the source of life” (FABC, 1997). Life is trying constantly – and often failing – to become what we are as human beings and as Christians: as ethical and theological beings. I am totally convinced in my mind and in my heart that only doing good gives us some happiness and leads us to more happiness. On the contrary, doing evil makes us unhappy and disposes us to more unhappiness. In this context, the aid of virtues, or good operative habits, is important, very important, for, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Happiness consists in the practice of virtue” (I-II, 55, 6).

Last October 2011, Steve Jobs, Apple creator, passed away. Jay Elliot, ex-vice president of Apple says: “Steve was the most ethical and moral person I have known. This added to his passion for his projects was a combination that I had never seen before (…) He never did anything which was not proper to the most noble among human beings” (From ABC Newspaper, October. 9, 2011)

Also last October 2011, the Forbes Magazine published the results of a survey conducted by the University of Chicago. The main question the researchers asked was: “Who is the happiest person?” The most common answers were: The happiest is the priest or pastor. Second, the fire-fighter; third, the physiotherapist, and thereafter: the professor of special education, the teacher, artist (sculptor and painters), psychologist, etc. Who is for me – and for you – the happiest person? This conclusion stating that priests are the happiest among other calls and professions confirms the results of many other researches on the same problem. Priests and pastors are the happiest, above all, by reason of their relationship with God and others and their usual inner peace. (See Stephen J. Rossetti, “A Happy Priest and the New Evangelization,” The Priest, Vol. 68, No. 3, March 2012, pp. 19, 21, 22, 51) For me, the saints or the poor in spirit are, after Jesus, the happiest human beings. As someone says, the greatest of their gifts is their smile!

What is then the purpose, the meaning of life? It is love, for love gives meaning to our life and increases our happiness. Indeed, as the great R. Tagore writes, “life is given to us, and we deserve it by giving it back” – to others, in particular, to our own family and the needy.

Finally, we try to answer the third question: Who is God for me?

1. MY RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD

         After trying to answer the questions on my personal and social identity, we need to touch on another question, the most radical one: Who is God for me?  As I said earlier, I am a religious person (is not so the great majority of people?). I am a Christian. My God is my Creator, the Creator of the whole creation and of all its creatures. He is my – our – Father.

It is becoming clearer theologically, philosophically, even sociologically that faith in God (religion in general) helps much in being and becoming happy, in particular in being able to carry the cross of our life, which is part of every human life on earth. God is the only Absolute of my life – and prayerfully yours!

The rocky grounding of true happiness or at least of less unhappiness is belief in God, and a life of prayer and compassionate love. Love means love of God and love of neighbor. Love of neighbor entails love of all: as God’s love is not selective, mine should also be universal. Among all neighbors and without excluding anyone – not even my enemies -, I try to love the needy and the poor. Why? Because each one of them is, in a special way, “Christ”: “I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty, and you gave me a glass of water; sick and you visited me…” (Mt Chapter 25).

My God is also the God of hope, the giver of hope. Life is a journey to him, and I hope that we shall be saved by his mercy. God is the object of my hope, and union with him and family and friends, the goal of this earthly life. In this life, I am – as we all are – a pilgrim journeying towards the house of the Father, of my God, who is the goal of my hope. On my journey of life, I am at time worried, at times forgetful of God, at times I may lose my way. Still, and always, God is there for me – for you – in Jesus Christ, who died for us. Why am I attached to persons, to things, to my selfishness when God is what matters most? In him everything has a sense: work, suffering, the cross, and hope! Here on earth God is in charge, and I am in the best hands I can be.

Every agent, Aristotle tells us, “Every agent acts for an end.” The human person, a moral and spiritual agent, acts for an end. The end of our life, the goal of our complete happiness is God. “Many keep saying ‘Who will put happiness in our eyes?’ let the light of your face (Lord) shine on us” (Ps 4:6). Our responsibility, then, is to give glory to God (1 Cor 10:3; see Rom 1:20:21).  (See Jordan Aumann, OP, Spiritual Theology, 1979) The Christian gives glory to God through Jesus Christ: Through him and in him, all things were created (Col 1:15:16). Jesus, the Beatitude of God, proclaims to us the Beatitudes to attain complete happiness (see Mt 5:1-12). After all, the Beatitudes are eight forms of happiness (J. M. Cabodevilla, 1984).

At the level of grace, the human being is a theological being. He/she is, or can become, a child of God One and Triune. Created by God, wounded by sin, redeemed by Christ, renewed by the Holy Spirit, called to heaven, to rise at the end from the dead, and live with God, and in the company of the saints. For the Christian, every person is a brother or a sister for whom Christ died (I Cor 8:11; cf. CCC, 1931); every neighbor is “as another self” (GS, 27).

As a theological being, the human person is an eschatological being: Destined from its conception to eternal beatitude (CCC 1703). But he or she is a wounded creature – a sinner! The human person is a being towards death: finite – mortal being. Heidegger defined the human being as “a being for death.” For him, the proper name of the human being is “mortal.” For me, and for many of us, the human being is not only mortal, but also “immortal.”

I believe in God, in the God of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, that is, the presence of God in us and around us. I am a Christian! Who is a Christian? A Christian is a baptized person who is faithful to his/her baptism.  A Christian is a person who knows God as Father, confesses Jesus Christ as Son of God and a Man-for-others, and experiences the Holy Spirit, who tells him or her that Jesus is alive, that we are called to live in him, and that outside him there is darkness (O. González de Cardedal, 1979). The Christian believer is a follower of Christ, the perfect human being.

How essential it is for me to question myself often: Who is God for me? Saint Catherine of Siena knew this well. God told her: “You need to know two things to be happy: Who are you, and who am I?” God is the beginning and the way and the end of my life.  St. Thomas Aquinas identifies ultimate end and happiness, and these with God.  St. Augustine puts it well: “Thou have made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions). Indeed, for a believer, “God alone suffices”: “solo Dios basta” (St. Teresa of Avila, Poem).

1. LOVE IS THE VALUE OF LIFE

After trying to answer the three questions I have addresses, I come to the conclusion.

Who am I? I am a human being with a great dignity, but also a wounded human being who needs others to live a flourishing life in communion, who needs God and his Son, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Certainly, “to be is to love” (E. Mounier).

Who are you for me? I am a human person who cannot live a fulfilling human life without you, who are my equals in dignity and rights, my brothers and sisters on the journey of life. I am called by God through Christ to be united to him and to live a life of universal love. Yes, “to be a human being is to be a fellow human being”  (Martin Buber).

Who is God for me? He is my God and your God, my Father and your Father. God is love. In this life, my love for God is a love permeated by hope. I am a pilgrim, and my God is the God of hope here on earth and the God of happiness here and hereafter.

The greatest value of human live is love. This is why many Christians and other human beings give their life out of love for others. What really count in my life should not be: “I” but “You,” and “You,” and “You.” It is not the “I” what is truly important but the “We” formed by you and me. We are members of a family, a community, a nation or tribe, of the world. As Timothy Radcliffe, OP says well (2005): the true community “helps each one of us to say “I” because I have learned to say “We”, and the other way around.” Indeed, “I am because we are”!

 When all said and done, what really matters in life – in your life, in my life, in our life – is to love with a genuine love that includes freedom and justice and truthfulness – and a great respect for life. Love is the primary moral principle, value and virtue of life. “In the evening of life, we shall be examined on love (St. John of the Cross).

(Life Today, Manila, June 20-13, pp. 13-20)

v  FAUSTO GOMEZ, O.P.