Happiness

For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:

I have made you a light for the nations,

so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’

Acts 13:47

It’s great having good news to share. Making the call, hearing the excitement of friends and family as you announce an engagement, an expected new family member, buying a new home or winning a promotion. It’s an experience of happiness.

Each of us seeks happiness, happiness in our own way, happiness that meets our hopes and dreams. There are broadly two types of happiness, hedonic – which is the experience or state of pleasure, and eudaimonic – which involves our entire wellbeing and contentment. And, believe it or not, there is a rich science of happiness that is multileveled and multi-disciplinary, ranging from philosophy to theology, biology to psychology.

So what do we know? Corey Keyes, a sociologist, suggests that when people flourish or when people live a ‘good life’ (as described by Aristotle) they have high life satisfaction in at least six of the following eudaimonic qualities: contributing to society, social integration, wide range of social groups, accepting others, self-acceptance, mastery over their environment, positive relationships with others, autonomy, personal growth, and purpose in life.

You and I know that happy people are great to be with, and it is recognized that happy people live longer, are more creative, playful and open to new ideas. Biology tells us that we also have a disposition to satisfaction in life, but the evidence is clear that because of the brain’s plasticity it can adapt and change according life’s experiences. We can forge positivity, it can be learned.

From his extensive research, psychologist Martin Seligman proposed three ways to increase your happiness: get more pleasure out of life, become more engaged in what you do, and find ways of making your life feel more meaningful.

Can I suggest that the Christian person ought be a happy person, because any faithful response to the Christian vocation is an answer to Seligman’s proposition? Are not Christians deeply aware of life’s offerings, of the integrity of creation and the wonders it unfurls for them each day? Are not Christians drawn by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to build communities of compassion, of fellowship, of hope? Are not Christians meaning-makers of life’s experiences? Yes, they are.

The disciples of Jesus find themselves in Antioch in Pisidia, preaching the good news to all the assembly and after being abused by the local Jewish community, Barnabas tells them that ‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it … we must turn to the pagans.’ When the pagans heard this they were very happy, they thanked the Lord and they all became believers. In this conversion both the disciples and the pagans are transformed – the disciples are filled with joy, and the pagans in their happiness take the Gospel to the whole countryside. This is Christian happiness, and it is available still to you and me.

The happiness of Emmaus

I am an unashamedly devoted and besotted grandfather. The gift of my grandson has renewed that sense of elation that arrived with the birth of our own children. There are transformative events in our lives – moments that are celebratory and those that involve grief and pain. They are transformative because the change is permanent, it challenges us to the core, we cannot return to the state we were in before that moment: the loss of a loved one, falling in love, marriage, the birth of a child, separation and divorce, abuse, children (finally) leaving home. The negative events can and do leave us reeling – it can be incomprehensible, unfathomable and perhaps unacceptable. The positive ones can bring great joy, re-start an old and worn out heart and enliven relationships.

After the story of the road to Emmaus, Luke (24:35 – 48) recounts Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Jerusalem. The disciples have been through a series of utterly traumatic events, Jesus’ arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion, and to totally confound them, his resurrection. His disciples are confused and anxious – having had to deal with the distress of his loss, then his missing from the tomb, and then the strange story of the travellers to Emmaus. And as if to affirm the message of those travellers, Jesus becomes present to them in flesh and blood: Writes Luke:

 … they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.

Then following the pattern of the Emmaus story, Jesus breaks open the Word of God and he sends the disciples out to preach the Good News (echoing the liturgy we celebrate each Sunday). What then enables those disciples to move form their insecure fear to being confident, faith-filled proclaimers of God’s love? What is it within us that carries us from one place to another, from doubt to faith, from pain to joy, from loathing to love? What is the agent the causes or creates this transformation? Perhaps at the centre of positive experiences is happiness. Martin Seligman suggests that we are most happy when we experience pleasure, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. For Maslow our peak experiences occur through self-actualisation. The Christian view is that these profound moments are windows into the Divine, into the life to come, into the Kingdom of Heaven – a taste of what is to come. They are beatitudes.

 Pain and sadness, on the other hand can create a sense of disadvantage, loss, helplessness and sorrow, and if unchecked can lead to depression. And yet we are aware that from the depths of despair there arises a tiny sense of hope, a leaven that will ignite and transform our sorrow, into acknowledgement, tolerance, willingness and then acceptance. It is from here that the disciples move, and the leaven that breaks open their hearts is nothing less than the person of Jesus of himself. This same Jesus is still there and still present, waiting for an invitation from you to break open your heart and transform your life.