the pursuit of Happiness (with a Y!)

I pose the questions put by Fr John Hardon in an article on happiness

How is it that what everyone is looking for, so few seem to find? And how is it that what all the wise men of history have been teaching, so few seem to have learned? It cannot be that people's desire for happiness is not strong enough. It is on examination the strongest impulse of human nature

As St Augustine (~late 4th, early 5th century) says,

"Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible."

It's interesting isn't it... this search for happiness drives all our interactions and relationships with others, so it's a bloody important thing to understand. Our own pursuit of happiness us actually a critical component to one's spiritual life! Let alone LIFE in general...!

So why is this the case? Why are the majority of people not happy? Do we just not have the right concept of happiness? Not willing to pay the price to achieve it? Or do we have so many desires now that we do not know how to be happy?

I'm of the view that it's probably all of the above, but importantly, maybe we just don't know where to look.

So we are all engaged in the pursuit of happiness but most are not sure where to start...

There are voices everywhere that beckon us to happiness.. lets take a look at a few of them:

- wealth
- relationships (romantic, platonic i.e., just friends
- sex (maybe this should come under entertainment?)
- entertainment and the pursuit of pleasure (hedonism)
- career
- reputation and fame
- knowledge
- power
- academic achievement
- physical beauty
- alcohol and drugs

On the list there, all of them are good in themselves, and have a place in our lives especially when used in the right context. (Maybe except illicit drugs which aren't used for pain-relief purposes... magic mushrooms he he ). However, to pursue them in order to fill a gap in our lives is a falsity that is proved by experience.

The best way to learn is through the mistakes of others, and it is quite evident that these things do not satisfy by themselves! They may cause temporary, transient feelings of pleasure and contentment, but eventually the drive for.... something MORE tugs at the heart again. There is more to life than these!

Usually, most people do not recognise that these are 'false' cures of happiness and interpret the feeling of lack, this "gap", as meaning they have not yet attained the pinnacle of that wealth, pleasure, relationships, career etc... so they go to more extremes in order to try fulfil this longing.


Part II later. I'll leave you with some thoughts...

true happiness will allow us to fully reflect the love of God to others and is part of the "peace that the world cannot give" that Jesus promises to his disciples.


and more in Augustine’s Commentary on Psalm 32.

All men love happiness, and therefore men are unreasonable in wanting to be wicked without being unhappy. And whereas unhappiness is the inseparable companion of wickedness, these perverse folk not only want wickedness without unhappiness, which is an impossibility, but they want to be wicked on purpose to avoid being unhappy. What do I mean by saying they want to be wicked on purpose to avoid being unhappy? Consider this point for a moment: in all the wickedness men commit, they always desire happiness. A man steals; you ask: “Why?” For hunger, for need. So he is wicked for fear of being unhappy, and all the more unhappy for being wicked. For the sake of driving away unhappiness and obtaining happiness, all men do whatever they do, good or bad; they invariably, you see, want to be happy. Whether they lead a good life or a bad one, they want to be happy; but not all attain to what all desire. All wish to be happy; none will be so but those who wish to be good. And then, lo and behold, someone or other, although doing wrong, wants to be happy. How? With money, with silver and gold, with estates and farms, with houses and servants, with worldly magnificence, with fleeting and perishable honors.