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30 Jan 2011 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

HOW DO YOU get to holy from where you’re sitting? Is it a matter of saying enough prayers, going to church for years, not breaking the Commandments, being generous to the annual bishop’s appeal? Those things might help; I’m not one to knock any of them. Especially the bishop’s appeal, which is a way of being faithful to the common good of our sisters and brothers. But sanctity is not the pot of gold at the end of any of these rainbows automatically. And maybe, honestly, holiness is not even on your bucket list. The faces on the holy cards rarely look like they’re having a good time. I’ve got a heavenly host of saints’ images all around my desk, with expressions ranging from pensive (the Madonnas) to brooding (Saint Paul) to grim (Jerome!). I’d love to have a view of the laughing, dancing communion of saints, but apart from some grinning Mother Teresas and mischievous Pope John Paul IIs, those are hard to find. Yet when Jesus fashioned his most famous teaching, the Beatitudes, he capitalized on what would make us “happy”—which is a more accurate translation than “blessed.” Which leads you to wonder: Shouldn’t being among the blessed be a source of joy for us? Of course one must admit the list of qualifying folks doesn’t sound as if they’ve got a lot to smile about: the poor (in spirit or otherwise), the mourners, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the persecuted and insulted. I suppose being a compassionate, pure-hearted peacenik isn’t so bad. But ask me again when I’m actually practicing those virtues. So what makes this lot so happy, according to Jesus? Their reward in heaven will be great. In a culture that views delayed gratification as no gratification at all, that sounds like the not-so-good news of Jesus Christ. Is Jesus saying, “Suffer now to be happy later”? When life is presented in those terms—the cross today or the flames tomorrow—that’s not exactly comforting. Happily, that’s not what Jesus is saying. The common denominator in the Beatitude Club is humility, not suffering. If we want to belong to this Happy Club, we have to exercise that most essential of all virtues. What does it mean to be humble? To know when to bow down or bend the knee. We bow before the will of God, which is to love and be loved. We bend the knee before God alone. Those who are humbled by their present circumstances or who humble themselves by conforming their lives to God’s will are mutually blessed. As Mother Teresa once said, we must empty ourselves to receive a blessing because even God cannot fill what is full. Want happiness? Seeking holiness? Start with humility. Related scripture links Israel as God's own possession: Exod. 3:6-10, 13:1, 15:16-17, 19:4-6, 20:1-6 Saved from the flood: Gen. 6:5-9:1, 7; 2 Pet. 2:5 Spared from Sodom: Gen. 19:1-29 God relents from wiping out the nation: Exod. 32:1-29 Catechism links The universal destination of goods: CCC 2401-2449

Authors Alice Camille

holiness happiness joy beatitudes blessed

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Religion is good for you, study says

27 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Salvation and other blessings flow into the human heart “because we have been justified by faith,” writes Saint Paul in the Letter to the Romans. A new survey says faith may also justify increased physical and emotional health. According to a new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being study, Americans who are considered the “most religious” also have the highest levels of well-being. They make healthier choices than their moderately religious and nonreligious counterparts across all four of the study’s “Healthy Behavior Index” categories, including smoking, healthy eating, and regular exercise. In addition, very religious Americans are about 24 percent less likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who are moderately religious and 17 percent less likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who are nonreligious. Religious participation has other benefits as well. Attendance at worship services promotes social interaction and friendship with others, and Gallup analysis has shown that time spent socially and social networks themselves are positively associated with well-being. Religion also generally involves more meditative states and faith in a higher power, both of which have been widely used as methods to lower stress, reduce depression, and promote happiness. Religion provides mechanisms for coping with setbacks and life's problems, which in turn may reduce stress, worry, and anger. Many religions have beliefs about positive relationships with one's neighbors and charitable acts, which may lead to a more positive mental outlook. Source: An article by Frank Newport, Sangeeta Agrawal, and Dan Witters for Gallup

religion worship health happiness united states americans well-being gallup-healthways well-being depression

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Nothing gross about measuring happiness

27 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This first Sunday of Advent we begin the joyful task of preparing for the Nativity, the birth of the Christ-child into the world. Yet as a nation are we really happy? Researchers are beginning to study the elusive quality of well-being, and they say “gross national happiness” is a more important measure of a society’s success than the accumulation of wealth. “We are very good at measuring what we make in this country and the services we provide. It’s called the gross national product,” said Bob Faw of Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. “But 43 years after Robert Kennedy complained that the gross national product ‘measures everything except that which matters most,’ economists and social critics say there should be an additional barometer.” “We need more metrics to fully understand human well-being and human welfare and how to advance it,” said economist Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution. “There’s a search for a new paradigm with the financial crisis and the sense of, Were our fundamental’s wrong? Were we chasing the right goals?” The tiny country of Bhutan now tracks “gross national happiness,” a survey that measures the total quality of life. France and England are also trying to include happiness when assessing their economies, said international business consultant and author David Rothkopf. “Something like happiness, it sound frivolous, but it’s not frivolous. The purpose of society is to create a better quality of life for all the people. It’s not to create the highest amount of aggregate wealth,” Rothkopf said. By surveying thousands of people, Graham found that money doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness, that anxiety diminishes it, and that people of faith tend to be happier than people without. “One of the things that surprised me when I got into this enterprise was how common the determinants of happiness were around the world,” she said. All that research on happiness does have real-world implications, said Religion & Ethics Newsweekly’s Faw. “For example, if a lack of medical care causes anxiety, shouldn’t government pay more attention to health care than, say, general prosperity? “After all,” Faw said, “despite our enormous wealth, in quality of life surveys taken in various countries by Newsweek and Gallup, the U.S. doesn’t even make the top ten.” Father Jonathan Morris, vicar at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City, has written a book about happiness, God Wants You Happy: From Self-Help to God’s Help, in which he says: “Part of finding out who we are and flourishing at the deepest levels of who we are, has to do with helping my neighbor. And that’s part of really tapping into this notion of a search for meaning and purpose and the pursuit of happiness.” Great religious leaders, philosophers, and poets agree true happiness is rooted in a higher calling. That is possible, Morris said, only through “a union with God, which means connecting to my very origin, my essential origin and somehow developing a relationship” with God that gives us purpose and joy. Source: A report by Bob Faw for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

happiness gross national happiness gross national product carol graham david rothkopf jonathan morris

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Nothing gross about measuring happiness

27 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This first Sunday of Advent we begin the joyful task of preparing for the Nativity, the birth of the Christ-child into the world. Yet as a nation are we really happy? Researchers are beginning to study the elusive quality of well-being, and they say “gross national happiness” is a more important measure of a society’s success than the accumulation of wealth. “We are very good at measuring what we make in this country and the services we provide. It’s called the gross national product,” said Bob Faw of Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. “But 43 years after Robert Kennedy complained that the gross national product ‘measures everything except that which matters most,’ economists and social critics say there should be an additional barometer.” “We need more metrics to fully understand human well-being and human welfare and how to advance it,” said economist Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution. “There’s a search for a new paradigm with the financial crisis and the sense of, Were our fundamental’s wrong? Were we chasing the right goals?” The tiny country of Bhutan now tracks “gross national happiness,” a survey that measures the total quality of life. France and England are also trying to include happiness when assessing their economies, said international business consultant and author David Rothkopf. “Something like happiness, it sound frivolous, but it’s not frivolous. The purpose of society is to create a better quality of life for all the people. It’s not to create the highest amount of aggregate wealth,” Rothkopf said. By surveying thousands of people, Graham found that money doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness, that anxiety diminishes it, and that people of faith tend to be happier than people without. “One of the things that surprised me when I got into this enterprise was how common the determinants of happiness were around the world,” she said. All that research on happiness does have real-world implications, said Religion & Ethics Newsweekly’s Faw. “For example, if a lack of medical care causes anxiety, shouldn’t government pay more attention to health care than, say, general prosperity? “After all,” Faw said, “despite our enormous wealth, in quality of life surveys taken in various countries by Newsweek and Gallup, the U.S. doesn’t even make the top ten.” Father Jonathan Morris, vicar at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York City, has written a book about happiness, God Wants You Happy: From Self-Help to God’s Help, in which he says: “Part of finding out who we are and flourishing at the deepest levels of who we are, has to do with helping my neighbor. And that’s part of really tapping into this notion of a search for meaning and purpose and the pursuit of happiness.” Great religious leaders, philosophers, and poets agree true happiness is rooted in a higher calling. That is possible, Morris said, only through “a union with God, which means connecting to my very origin, my essential origin and somehow developing a relationship” with God that gives us purpose and joy. Source: A report by Bob Faw for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

happiness gross national happiness gross national product carol graham david rothkopf jonathan morris

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Meaningful living is healthy living

11 Aug 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the long form of the Sunday gospel, Jesus encourages his disciples to get their priorities in order: "Sell your belongings and give alms . . . . For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." Research suggests that advice is good not only for the soul but also for the body: Those who seek a meaningful life based on service exhibit stronger immune systems than those concerned only with self-centered happiness.Many studies in the past have noted the connection between a happy mind and a healthy body, but a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) challenges this rosy picture. Happiness may not be as good for the body as researchers thought. It might even be bad.The key is understanding the difference between a meaningful life and a happy life. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, but a January study in the Journal of Positive Psychology looked at a large sample of people over a month-long period and found that happiness is associated with selfish “taking” behavior and that having a sense of meaning in life is associated with selfless “giving” behavior."Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed, or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided," the authors of that study wrote. "If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need.” While being happy is about feeling good, meaning is derived from contributing to the lives of others or to society in a bigger way.The new PNAS study sheds light on the difference between meaning and happiness on the biological level. Researchers examined the self-reported levels of happiness and meaning in 80 research subjects. They found immune systems better equipped to resist infection in those scoring high on meaning when compared to those who scored high for a more self-pleasing approach to happiness.Homily hint: "The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it," wrote psychoanalyst Carl Jung, echoing the wisdom found throughout the biblical testimony to the value of a life focused on service rather than pleasure. Many Americans report lives high in personal satisfaction but low in meaning. What does that tell us about our priorities as a culture? The Good News—give your life away in service and find it—was never needed more. Source: An article by Emily Esfahani Smith for The Atlantic

health happiness immune system meaning journal of positive psychology

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Use of smartphones may not be so smart

12 Jan 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet Isaiah says the Lord’s servant will "open the eyes of the blind" and “bring out prisoners from confinement.” Less use of cellphones, recent research indicates, may open the eyes of young people and help lead them out of the prison of unhappiness.A new study of 500 college students found that those who use their cellphones most often are likely to be less happy, more anxious, and less successful than those who sometimes ignore them. “There is no ‘me’ time or solitude left in some of these students’ lives,” said Kent State University researcher Andrew Lepp. “I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life’s events, and just recover from daily stressors.”After tracking the students’ cellphone usage, Lepp and his team found that those who could put their cellphones aside for periods of time earned higher GPAs and experienced less anxiety and greater happiness than more frequent phone users. “The social network sometimes just makes me feel a little bit tied to my phone,” one student said. “It makes me feel like I have another obligation in my life.”Homiily hint: Alongside the many capacities smartphones offer when it comes to socializing and and taking advantage of online resources, the ability to connect constantly seems to have some downsides. Urge those in your community—and maybe try to lead the way yourself—to turn off the phone every once in a while and enjoy the benefits of some good old-fashioned introspection. Source: An article for The Daily Mail (U.K.)

happiness college students smartphones cellphones

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Homily stories

19 Jun 2011 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle A

God's going to punish you!" the angry older sister said. Her little brother had been misbehaving since they'd arrived at the playground. Her babysitting resources all depleted, the girl resorted to her trump card--threatening punishment from God. As I looked around the playground at all the kids, I wondered how many of them had heard such threats: "God's going to punish you!" I suspect that a good number of them had. And yet in today's gospel we learn that God is not in the punishment business. He's in the offering business. He continually offers us the chance to participate in the fullness of life in him. He makes it clear that, like any good parent, he did not send Jesus into the world to condemn it but to save us all. Those who do not accept what Jesus offers are, in effect, condemning themselves to a kind of hell because life without the truth that Jesus reveals is hell on earth. The suffering that results is not God's punishment but rather the simple consequence of the way we live and the choices we make. And meanwhile, God's offer of happiness is always on the table.

Authors Tom McGrath

punish jesus happiness

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Homily stories

18 Sep 2011 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The judge was surprised when he read the complaints. Before him sat four people who were the adult children of a recently deceased multimillionaire. The older two siblings were contesting the will--a very generous will, I might add. What was their gripe? "We were his children longer than these other two who didn't come along until 10 and 12 years later. We feel that since we were our father's children longer, we ought to get a higher percentage of his estate." The judge sat and thought that one over for a few minutes. Then, shaking his head, he said, "What, are you goofy? Your father gave you everything that he had. It's a very generous settlement, with no strings attached and all taxes prepaid. You all get equal shares of his great wealth and you come in here complaining because one of you happened to be born 10 years earlier than the other?" God gives us everything in his power to give: Life itself, the ability to learn and grow and love, and eternal happiness in heaven. And yet we often find it easy to complain because of what we perceive we don't have, or that someone has more than us or should get less. To quote the judge, "What, are we goofy?"

Authors Tom McGrath

life Love happiness

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Homily stories

26 Sep 2010 - Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The boss strolled into his office and responded to a simple "How do you do?" from one of his employees with a moan and groan about how busy he was. "It's just been crazy. I have to play in this qualifying round tomorrow in order to be part of the tournament this weekend, but now a client called and wants to meet with me in the afternoon, so I'll be running from the golf course to his office. It's just nuts." The longtime employee couldn't help herself: "I'm sorry, sir, I find it hard to sympathize when you're talking about the woes of having to hurry your weekday golf game at the country club so you can squeeze in some work." "Oh, yes, you're right," he said with sarcasm in his voice. "I suppose I should offer my seat at the country club to some poor, pitiful slob who's never worked a day in his life. He deserves to play at the best courses more than I do." It was hard to determine the root of her boss' anger and resentment. It seemed his compassion diminished in direct proportion to his wealth increasing. The employee learned a valuable lesson working alongside this man for so many years: Having money doesn't make you happy. It just makes you rich. All in all, she'd rather be happy.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

Wealth happiness

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