what made me happy: 3rd sunday of advent B 2011 in Assumption

If there is one thing my father told me which I have not forgotten, it is a quotation. I don’t know whether he this made up himself or he borrowed it from somebody else, but one day he told us something like this, “if you cannot find a solution to the problem, then change the problem and if you cannot find an answer to the question, then change the question.”

Last night this piece of wisdom came in handy. I was reflecting on our readings today which speak of rejoicing and of being joyful. In fact the readings on this third Sunday of Advent are not just asking us to rejoice but seem to compel us, force us to rejoice. And so I asked myself, what makes me happy, and what made me happy in life. To make it a little more relevant and interesting I asked myself, what were the things which made me happy when I was studying in Assumption.


First, it made me terribly unhappy then that I wore a locally made Edwardson tennis shoes for school when my classmates were wearing imported Adidas tennis shoes. Even when our social studies teacher called me in front of the class and made me and my shoes his visual aids in inculcating to those imported-loving classmates of mine, the value of using sariling atin, that event did nothing but further embarrassed an already embarrassing situation - what with all my classmates looking at my shoes and skinny legs while I stood there in front of them? I suffered this major embarrassment for 2 years, until one day in grade five, my mother finally bought me a pair of Adidas. It was the cheapest kind, but nevertheless since it was an Adidas I happily and proudly wore it to school. It made me happy because for the first time I felt I belonged and I felt I was no longer someone odd in Assumption. But then it lasted only for a week because the attention of the boys in our class was called when our adviser requested us rather forcefully, to wear long pants for uniform. Long or short was optional in Assumption then. 


 But actually only three of us were still wearing short pants for school and I love wearing short pants for it was more comfortable in the sense that you don’t have to change to anything when you play, and besides there was no dengue to worry about then. But I have to change, from short to long pants in the middle of the year because I don’t want again to go through the embarrassment of wearing something different from the rest.

Second, it made me terribly unhappy, in fact I cried, when my parents did not signify to attend this long tradition of family day, a day like this, but held in Assumption in the evening. I can still recall the date, December 8, and there was a raffle draw with a car as the first prize. But it was also the fiesta of Oton and my parents did not want to miss visiting their friends in our hometown. And so I cried, and for the first time I fought back shouting at my parents in between sobs, telling them, “family day gani, paano na ang family day kon wala akon family?” Aba, nagbato. They fell silent. I never knew what went on in their minds but we ended up with a compromise. They will come late, they said, but they will come. So they came an hour and thirty minutes after the program started and I was there all the while at the departure area waiting for their arrival. That simple gesture of coming to a school affair made me happy though I came to know later that it was a sacrifice for them trying to please two groups.

I can go on for another hour telling you what made me happy, but I believe hearing what made me happy for an hour would only make you unhappy. But you see the question when asked in the positive can become an endless statement of individual likes and preferences. I believe our readings today mean more than just the simple and sometimes distorted joys of our childhood. Added to this when asked in the positive the sources of our unhappiness can be confusing. What if I ask you what will make you happy, and you tell me, we will be happy if Assumption gives us 50% discount on tuition fees this coming exams. That would make the administration unhappy, I suppose. What if I ask the students what will make you happy, and you will tell me, finish the mass in 5 minutes so that we can start the games, I think that would also make some people unhappy including me. 

And so, as my father said, let us change the question. Let us ask ourselves instead: what prevents me from being happy? Why can’t I be happy, what makes me unhappy with my life? This line of question, though in the negative is important. It is important because if we want to be really happy we must investigate so to say the causes of our many unhappiness in life. This is the purpose of our readings today. What is there in your heart that is preventing and obstructing happiness? What is there in your priorities and values that prohibit you from attaining the kind of happiness you feel you deserve?

St. Paul in our second reading may have unknowingly outlined the reasons of our many unhappiness. When Paul says “pray without ceasing” it can mean that one source of our unhappiness comes from too much self-reliance. We become unhappy because it never occurred to us that we can only do as much and only God can do the rest. We become unhappy because we feel we are stifled in our need to control things; we feel we need to run our lives perfectly, when in reality only God can complete and only God can perfect things. Anxiety and depression are on the rise because more and more we have become dependent solely on our own powers rather that depend on the greater power who is God. The less of God in our lives, the higher is the degree of anxiety. We need to pray unceasingly, we need to be pray-ers in order to be happy. John the Baptist was a happy man. Why? Because he did not pretend, because he knew who he was, he knew his role and his place in the scheme of things. He was just a pointer, a voice, a messenger and one day he has to give way to the messiah. When there is too much pretension, there will be unhappiness. 

When Paul says, “in all circumstances give thanks” this means that another source of unhappiness is the lack of contentment. When we focus on our lack rather than focus on our blessings we will always feel unhappy. When we focus in our lack, we become envious, we will be filled with hatred and anger. There is no happiness for a greedy person for greed makes one insatiable. The desires of a greedy person can seldom be quenched. Things will never be enough, and even when he has already more, he would still want even more. Be thankful in all circumstances. Be thankful with what you have. Assumption has taught us to be simple. In fact it is our song - fidelity to duty, love of simplicity. Remember, the source of suffering is desire, incessant, unbridled and unyielding desires. Too many desires lead to unhappiness. Let us lessen our desires for the secret to happiness is contentment and you will find this in a grateful, thankful person.

John the Baptist was a happy man though he wore camel hair, lived in the desert and ate locust and honey. He was content with who he is and what he has.
When Paul says “Test everything and retain what is good,” he is calling us to acquire an adventurous spirit. This adventurous spirit is the capacity to adjust, the capacity to look beyond and see things and events as challenges calling for action. It is the ability to take risk and to respond to a situation believing that things happen for a purpose. It is the ability to discern God’s call in every event and in every situation.

You all know Sister Magdalena Pia. We fondly called her Magpie. A magpie actually is a noisy bird. She died last week. We will all die. But there is one thing Sr. Magpie did for us old boys for which she will not be easily forgotten by all of us. At the time the old boys where just an appendix in Assumption - an appendix by the way is some body part that does not affect anything whether it’s there or not. But then Magpie came into the picture and she encouraged us to go mainstream and join the old girls. I still ahve with me the homily I made when the old boys gathered for the first time in 1999 with Magpie at the helm. You have to understand that in Assumption the old boys were considered the weaker sex or at least that’s what we felt then. But Magpie was there and because of her adventurous spirit, she grabbed the situation and responded to it in her own natural and sometimes naive way of approaching things. Now thanks to her, that exclusive old girls day acquired a conjunction, a simple but very important conjunction and, making it, old girls and old boys day. Test everything, retain what is good. This too is the secret of happiness - continue to discover new things because when you rest you rust, when you do not grow you begin to die.
John the Baptist must have been a happy man. He never stopped searching for the Lord, he never tired of waiting for the messiah, he never paused nor did he interrupt his response to his mission to prepare the way of the Lord. He took the risk by saying what Herod needed to hear. He might have been ignored at times, he was persecuted but I believe he was a happy man knowing that he was fulfilling what he was sent for.

Today we gather for a family day. I have never said much about the family but I have said enough as to what every family seeks - happiness. We need to be happy, that is why we need to be prayerful and trusting, we need to be thankful and we need to be adventurous. Happiness in this life and in the next is always a matter of choice. It is not and can never be a given. It is up to us to be happy or not. That is why our readings today are compelling us to be happy for with the coming of the Lord there is every reason to be happy. Again I repeat what Paul is telling us today and what we sung when we sung then during morning prayers - rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.