6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C) 16 February 2025 Sermon

6th Sunday of year (C)  16 February 2025  Pursuit of happiness

Everyone looks for happiness, even if it be only a reduction of misery. We are built to pursue happiness, we could say.

Well, we are built to know, love and serve God, and that would be our greatest happiness, once we actually do that.

Not everyone knows they are meant to love God, and many do not love Him, especially if that love is understood as putting God first, ahead of all else.

There are many possible sources of happiness; some get further than others, but all will be inadequate if we are not properly grounded in God.

Even legitimate happiness is limited in where it can take us. We tire of things we had previously thought would be enough for our happiness; there is a certain flatness about achievement. I have climbed the mountain, swam the sea, but I still feel the need for more.

Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee. (St Augustine)

A lot of the time people are just grasping for whatever happiness they can find, be it moral or immoral. They do not have a clear objective; they are just flitting from one experience to another.

Live for today is one piece of advice. But sometimes we have to factor in tomorrow to make a good decision about today.

Take today’s Gospel, where we have Jesus turning things on their head as in presenting the negative side of things as the source of happiness.

So, happy are you who are hungry now, you shall be satisfied, or happy are you who are poor, yours is the kingdom of God. Or Happy are you when they persecute you on My account.

We can be happy even while undergoing hardships because any suffering we have in he service of Christ will be superseded by the greater consolation. I may be hungry and poor and friendless now, but I will be the opposite of those things for all eternity.

We come to see the pursuit of happiness not as an accumulation of one experience after another  but  a deepening experience of God Himself, leading us to union with Him.

This is a life-long project, therefore not to be abandoned because of apparent setbacks.

We must be careful not to fall into the same errors the unbelievers make. 

We learn to be patient in the workings of God's will. 

We live ordered lives, based on the calm certainty of God’s eternal and infinite goodness.

Then we are like trees drawing water (grace) from the stream (first reading and psalm). We never run dry and are always bearing fruit.

Sin, on the other hand, leads to desolation and desert-like conditions; holiness leads to greenery, and lots of it.

Yes, we have to make some sacrifices, but any serious pursuit of happiness requires that.

Even the secular world demands self-discipline (look at the athletes, for instance). 

We understand that the things that really matter are out of normal reach and require some effort to attain them.

We don’t mind the quest, as we see the great prize, coming ever closer.

Then we will be happy, and all the time and in all possible ways. It is worth striving for such an outcome.