How We Can Be Always Happy

Friday of the 2nd week in Advent 2024

When we try to learn God’s will from the daily readings given us by the Holy Spirit, it can be very useful to start with the Psalmist’s words. Today we are given psalm 1, which is chosen for that prominent position because it sums up everything in that collection of Temple songs. How can you be happy in this life AND in the life to come? That’s the question psalm 1 answers.

Blessed is the man or woman whose behavior is good. Note the three verbs in the first line: walks, stands, sits. Those are three public positions for any person. We walk according to a kind of road map in our mind, but we must be careful not to walk in a path that some wicked person wants. That person has his own interests at the top of his priorities, not yours. Avoid his counsel. We stand in positions that we wish to defend. But not with sinners, because they don’t hold God’s law in regard. And when we sit down—that’s the place where a judge passes judgement—it cannot be with “scoffers,” people who treat every good counsel cynically. No, instead, the happy man or woman is delighted in the law of the Lord and is constantly meditating on how to follow it. These happy people will stand firm in an adverse moral wind, when their contemporaries unversed in Christ’s law of love get blown aside.

The prophet Isaiah digs down a little deeper into the counsels of God. His commandments lead us on the way we should go on paths that yield goodness in our lives. If we heed God’s counsel, we will prosper. That’s not necessarily financial prosperity. If our hearts are pure, fixed on God’s goodness and direction, we will not fear anything. Each day will be better than the day before, because we are striving to imitate Christ in every thought and action. Moreover, our offspring will see how we act, will know that we always strive toward the good, and with that example they are most likely to do the same as they mature.

Finally, in Matthew’s Gospel we see a parable that also appears in Luke’s. In first-century Israel, there were no video games to distract children. They played games with each other, often in groups. Jesus paints a picture of two teams of kids in the public square. One team plays flute and expects the other to dance to their tune. It doesn’t happen. Then they sing a sad song, but the other team doesn’t respond to that either. Not much fun, is it? Depending on the children’s disposition, that game could end in a tussle.

Jesus compares his listeners to that scene. He tells them that John the Baptist was an ascetic, probably like the Essene community, who left us the Dead Sea scrolls. John never partied, and the other Jews called him possessed. They didn’t hear his call to repent and follow God’s law. Then Jesus came along, and He did like to party in moderation, with all the people who followed Him. He was called a reprobate, eating and drinking too much. And the people who followed the cultural icons of the day like Herod Antipas didn’t listen to Jesus, either. They showed no wisdom in either case.

The last line Jesus uttered is the most important: wisdom is vindicated by her works. The people Jesus condemned had none of it. Some people just won’t act on what they know they should be doing. That doesn’t “cut it” in the climb to God’s kingdom.