Can You Buy Happiness for $39 a Month?

This Sunday’s gospel contains Jesus’ parable about the wine grower who paid all the laborers the same daily wage, including those who only worked the last hour of the day.  Those who worked the entire day grumbled about the fairness of such generosity, but the message is clear:  God is more than fair, His generosity goes far beyond any human notion of fairness.  Thank God for that, because we are all sinners and need Divine Mercy, despite our unworthiness.  Of course, this is the good news of the gospel and it is surely it is a cause to be happy.  Happiness frequently eludes us, and for some, happiness seems all but impossible.   A couple weeks ago I heard about a survey called The World Happiness Report, which apparently has been done annually for 60 years by the The Earth Institute at Columbia University.  The surveys show that when American citizens were asked to rate their overall happiness and well-being on a scale of one to 10 (10 being very happy and one being very unhappy) the typical result in 1950 was between 7 and 7.5. Fast-forward 64 years and the typical results for self-reported happiness drops to between 5.5 and 6.  This 20% drop corresponds to a tripling of the US Gross National Product per capita, and all the amazing technological advances we’ve experienced over the last half century.  So what gives? 

Just yesterday I received an on-line ad offering a “Master Course in Happiness” for just $39/month.  The course was described as, “ … a monthly, in-depth program to help you actively, purposefully, and effectively live a happier, more fulfilling life. What you will learn in this course are the skills and principles that are the common denominator for self mastery across all circumstances and personalities.”  This seems to imply that happiness is associated with “self-mastery,” and can be both learned and attained by dint of personal effort.  Could happiness be as simple as disciplining ourselves to become more optimistic, or more content with our life?  Can we attain it on our own if we just follow the formula? 

The ancient Greeks were kind of obsessed with happiness and they were forever seeking the perfect human form and human life.  Their art depicts the ideal human form, and their literature alluded to life as exemplified by courage and overcoming any and all obstacles, including giants, sirens casting spells, sea monsters, and the forces of nature.  Socrates focused on the invisible reality beyond our perceptions, the purpose of life and the “examined life.  His student Aristotle studied and wrote about how to achieve happiness in this natural life, ostensibly by the pursuit of virtue.  Our founding fathers, who were avid readers of philosophy, even cited the pursuit of happiness as a right endowed by our creator when they penned the Declaration of Independence.  Their understanding of happiness probably corresponded more closely to Aristotle’s ideas than our modern view, which in too many cases is dependent on life’s pleasures.  For many 21^st century Americans, the pursuit of happiness means taking satisfaction in acquiring wealth, status, influence and/or power, so as to have within our means the accoutrements of pleasure and convenience that bring about happiness.

So which is it, pleasure or the virtuous life?   Or could it be something else altogether?   This summer I finished reading Pope Benedict’s trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth.  Two phrases he used caught my attention.  The first was, “the imprisonment of self-absorption,” used in connection with a discussion about Christ as a sign of contradiction.   Many regard God as putting limitations on human freedom, but this is because God’s Truth confronts the many lies humanity has bought into.  He goes on to explain that, “God is Love and as such He calls us to transcend ourselves, and free ourselves from the imprisonment of self-absorption.” 

The second phrase was, “freedom to be true children of God.”  Comparing the stories of Moses and Jesus, the pope highlighted the fact that even after being liberated from slavery in Egypt, the Jews fell back into their sinful ways and were enslaved once again by the Babylonians and others.  With Jesus however, our salvation is complete and enduring because Jesus has opened the gates of heaven and reconciled us with God Our Father.  If we profess this belief, we are free to transcend the many anxieties of this world, knowing that (as Socrates might have inferred), we have discovered the true meaning of our existence and our ultimate purpose in life: to prepare ourselves to live for all eternity in the Presence of God.  With this knowledge of our salvation, there is nothing in this world that can prevent us from attaining our destiny as true children of God.   This is certainly a reason to be happy.

With this in mind, it occurred to me that when I’m at my worst, I am imprisoned by self-absorption.   For example, although I generally sleep pretty well, the nights I cannot sleep are those when my mind is whirling away with thoughts about myself: how I might have been wronged, whether or not our finances are in order, what I could have or should have said or done, etc.  The nights I fall straight to sleep are those when I feel as though I am suspended in the love of God, both now and for all eternity. 

So I’ll pass on the $39/month course in happiness, and focus on simply being grateful for the Supernatural love of God who is forever calling me home to Himself.  And I think I’ll sleep just fine.