Wednesday, January 18, 2012

THE NARROW WAY: Happiness


Happiness consists in enjoying the true, the good, and the beautiful under the most favorable circumstances. As the truth, the good- ness, and the beauty of virtue are most excellent, virtue becomes both the object and the measure of man's happiness. In this life three factors contribute to human happiness: (1) the subordination of man's lower nature to reason enlightened by faith; (2) the possession of physical health and of the ordinary comforts of life; (3) the favorable surroundings of friendship), especially of the friendship of God.

The circumstances of earth and time are not the most favorable for human happiness. God has, therefore, implanted in the human heart a longing for an endless possession of an infinite good which is the infinite treasure of heaven. Earth and time are given us to acquire a capacity for this enjoyment. In heaven the degree of our happiness will be proportionate to the degree of moral growth or the Christian perfection we attain in this life.

The secret, then, of true happiness is (1) to rise above our natural selves, (2) to be indifferent to all earthly and temporal things, (3) and to learn to love God with all our mind and heart and strength, because He is the eternal Truth, the infinite Good, the uncreated Beauty.

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