“Happiness in Heaven is for those who know how to be happy on earth.” (Saint Josemaría).
I have been reflecting on happiness. Not the sort of fleeting happiness that seems to drown out all that is generous and good. Instead, I have been thinking about the sort of spiritual happiness that is eternal…
Real Christians – those who truly believe in God are filled with joy. People who spend their lifetime basking in God’s Grace are souls who do not get bogged down or worried about things not working out. Instead, they go through life with a sort of optimism that is unending. And I have been thinking about those souls. Those people who know that everything will turn out alright in the end. Those people who do not stress about anything and instead think that everything has a way of sorting itself out…
Saint Josemaría taught that “happiness in Heaven is for those who know how to be happy on earth.” And I have been thinking about that too. When I was a little girl at school, one of my primary school teachers taught us that Christ said, “I tell you solemnly” a lot in the Gospels because He must have been a very happy and fun Man, always making jokes. And so that meant that when He wished to teach a certain point, He would have to remind people that He was being solemn in that moment.
And I have been reflecting on that today because Saint Josemaría also said, “How I wish your bearing and conversation (your smile!) were such that, on seeing or hearing you, people would say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.”
“John the Baptist said to his disciples: "He who comes from above is above all; He who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks; He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony; he who receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.” (John 3:31-36).
And I have been reflecting on those words of Scripture, because Saint John the Baptist was able to show that those who think of the earth are of the earth and nothing will ever satisfy them. Instead, he called his disciples (and me – and you too) to be of Heaven. To think with the mind attuned to Heaven and thereby interpret everything to Heaven – to TRUST in Heaven even on earth. Because when that is how we approach our lives and all the calamities and problems of the world, that is when we know that – just as in Heaven God’s Holy Will is done – on earth too, God’s Holy Will is done.
And once we understand that – truly in the depths of our small little human souls – then our conversation and our attitude in life will actually be a true reflection of our supernatural faith.
And then maybe the people that we meet in our everyday lives will realise that there is so much more in existence ABOVE the earth, and maybe then they too will be happy – just like Christ and the Saints…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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