we don't run after happiness, happiness pursues us...6th sunday easter B

When I was assigned in the cathedral as a young priest we have this pastoral program of celebrating mass for the dead in their homes during the wake.  No stipend is required.  The mass was rendered freely by the parish for the family of the bereaved.  This program was borne out of a seeming injustice when only the rich, those who can afford and those with priest-friends, have masses held in their homes during the wake.  So in the parish of Jaro, rich or poor you have a mass celebrated during the wake. 

I have to admit that saying masses on those occasions were not always a duty I would happily and enthusiastically respond to, especially when there were several wakes in a week.  Many times I would silently complain and grumble, but I would always make it a point to go even with a heavy heart.  But then I noticed that every time I finished the mass, after the merienda and the small conversation with the family, I would always go back home to the convent feeling light-hearted and happy.  It is the same feeling when I go to sick calls and hear confessions.  You start off with a heavy heart but you always come out fulfilled and joyful afterward.

I believe this is what Jesus is telling us in the gospel.  He said, Remain in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.” 

What then is this joy which the gospel offers us today? The joy which Jesus offers is a by-product, it is a consequence when we have remained in the love of Jesus, joy is a by-product when we have kept his commandments and when we have done something right and noble.  It is the feeling that one gets when we have achieved a goal, when we have helped somebody in need.  It is a feeling when we have been honest and trustworthy, when we go out of our way to console people and to alleviate or at the very least share in their pain.  Joy is a gift when we do something right.

Now this is where we fail many times.  We run after happiness.  We pursue joy.  Kon diin sadya didto man.  Kon saan ka masaya doon ka.  But we don’t run after happiness, we don’t pursue joy.  No, in our gospel it is the other way around – it is happiness that runs after us, it joy that pursues us, when we do something right. 

Remember Psalm 23 when the psalmist ended his prayer saying, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” – goodness and mercy shall pursue me, they shall pursue me who have my trust on the Lord who is my shepherd.

So it is not right to say that we cannot be joyful when we are burdened or when we suffer greatly.  In another part of the gospel of John Jesus spoke of joy comparing it to “a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.  So it is not true that Joy is the absence of pain and struggles and suffering.  Remember, this dialogue of Jesus in our gospel today was said a day before he was to die on the cross.  There is joy because joy is the consequence, it is a gift when we do something right and noble.

I chose to become a priest not because I want to be happy but because I believe this is what God wants me to do and as a consequence I am happy.  These Carmelite nuns became Carmelite nuns confined for the rest of their lives in this small corner of the world not because they want to be happy, but because they believe that this is what God calls them to become and as a consequence they are happy.

I do not pursue happiness.  Happiness is never the goal.  I pursue the good and because I pursue the good in God, consequently I am happy with my life.  It’s not the other way around.  So go ahead steal, steal money and become filthy rich  – will you be happy?  Go ahead be unfaithful to your wife – will you be happy?  Go ahead be dishonest, tell a lie, will you be happy?  Go ahead do injustice, harm the people you hate, will you be happy.

I do not choose happiness.  It is God’s gift to me when I do the good that he wants me to do.