Story:
Once upon a time there was a king who had everything the world had to offer – all that money could buy, plus absolute power over his people. But despite all the money and power and prestige he possessed, he had a major problem. He was not happy.
And so he summoned the wisest of wise men in all his kingdom and asked them to provide him with a solution to his problem. “I want to be happy,” he said. “I command you to tell me how to achieve happiness.”
After consulting with one another, the wisest of all the wise men in the kingdom came up with a solution to the king’s problem. “You must find a truly happy man in your kingdom, take his shirt from him and wear it yourself. Then, you too will be happy.”
So the king dispatched his elite horsemen to every corner of the kingdom in search of a truly happy man and, eventually, they found one.
The trouble was, he didn’t own a shirt!
Happiness is defined in various ways. In the song “Happiness” (by Leah Salonga), one beautiful definition of happiness therein is: “For happiness is anyone and anything at all that’s loved by you.” Dismissing this view however, a further reflection on the definition of happiness will lead us to the view that happiness is a gift of God.
Scripture:
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden” (Luke 1:46-56).
Study:
In our Gospel, we hear Mary praising God as she expressed her happiness to be the mother of God’s only son as foretold by an angel. Her happiness lies in a selfless life lived in the trust of God. Her happiness never depends on money, business success, good health, friends, etc. but on God. Mary teaches us that happiness comes when you learn to believe that everything is a grace from God. Happiness is seeing God in every event of one’s life.
Most of us are unhappy because our life does not go the way we want it to be. We sometimes measure our happiness by looking at what our present life is and what we think our present life should be. Then we see a big gap in-between them. We believe we cannot be happy unless we can bridge the gap. But then again, bridging the gap itself seems difficult to undertake. So we begin complaining. We complain we do not have a new pair of shoes this Christmas, but we do not know what to feel for some people who have no feet. We complain when we wake up early in the morning to attend the Misa de Gallo, but we do not know what to feel for people in an ICU of a hospital who are unconscious. Yes! We do not stop complaining until we will be happy. But we do know, we cannot also be happy if we do not stop complaining.
If we only stop complaining first, and then look at the grace of God in our present situation, we can find better reasons to be happy. If we only stop thinking of what we want and begin to think what God wants for us, then we become happy. Instead of complaining for having a wife who serves you the same food for dinner every night, why not thank God for this because there are others who are hungry and they have nothing to eat. Instead of complaining for having a husband who goes early to bed, why not thank God because he is at home and not with some women at the bars. Instead of complaining for having some children who make noise in the house, why not thank God for this because there are others who have no families, no children to call their own.
Happiness is no other than being confident that God is at work with us in all events. We know He loves us and He will not allow anything evil to prosper against us. 1 Corinthians 2: 9 states: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived –the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” In every event, whether good or bad, God is preparing us for something great. So like Mary, let us live our lives in the trust of God and it is only then we can really be happy.
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