Does God want us to be 'happy'?

[Sheeniac]

I’ve been chatting a little with a Cradle Catholic friend that I think is in danger of falling away from the faith. She’s complained a lot about the Mass, and said that she didn’t think reverence in Mass was important, that instead, God wanted us to be happy. She had mentioned that the Mass was boring, and she got nothing out of it.

She’s been attending a Prot. Bible Study, although they don’t really study the Bible, but rather Christian books. I’m trying to put together a reply that would draw upon the Bible. I lean ‘traddy’, and much prefer a very reverent NO or even the EF.

I don’t even know where to begin…

Thanks for any help!

 

[the_7th_one]

I’ve been chatting a little with a Cradle Catholic friend that I think is in danger of falling away from the faith. She’s complained a lot about the Mass, and said that she didn’t think reverence in Mass was important, that instead, God wanted us to be happy. She had mentioned that the Mass was boring, and she got nothing out of it.

She’s been attending a Prot. Bible Study, although they don’t really study the Bible, but rather Christian books. I’m trying to put together a reply that would draw upon the Bible. I lean ‘traddy’, and much prefer a very reverent NO or even the EF.

I don’t even know where to begin…

Thanks for any help!

I would say first deal with the question of God wanting us to be “Happy”. Many Americans these days have a view of God like a kind old Grandfather who just wants his grandkids to be happy. That is not the Father of the New Testament. That father is a full active loving parent. A parent wants their kids to be happy, but they want them to achive it via growing up right and true. They then find happyness once they graduate and go off as adults. We are children of God, this life is our schooling, we will fall as we learn to walk and even hurt ourselves trying. God is there to wipe out tears and help us back up so we can try again. His grace is what fuels our effort toward graduation when we die and meet him face to face. As a kid I sat through many a boaring lecture from my parents and thought it was a waste. As a parent now, I find myself giving the same lecture to my teens (who look very pained to have to listen) that I had to listen too.
So the question is does she mean happy as right now feeling joy, or happyness as is reaching the point and purpose for being?
It is answer we must each find. God knows what is the right one

 

[Trishie]

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

“Gladness of heart gives life…Console your heart, chase sorrow far away: for sorrow has been the ruin of many…and worry brings premature old age.” [Ecclesiasticus 30 22-24]

“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7)

“If you have hope this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying.” [Romans 12:12]

 

[surritter]

Of course God wants us to be happy. But then the obvious question is to define “happy.”

Your friend’s perception of happy might be only what she thinks of as happy – i.e., a perfect home life, comfortable income, no health issues, etc.

That’s not necessarily God’s definition! In fact, sometimes God denies us those materially happy things as a chance for us to participate in His cross, and thus lead us closer to the true happiness of heaven.

Also remind her that Mass is important because of what God wants to give to us: Himself! She must learn the importance of the Eucharist and how it is the true source of happiness.

 

[tlimon]

God wants us to be happy. But, above all, God wants us to be holy. Our life will not always lend itself to happiness but rather invite struggle. Despite the struggle,however, one may persist in happiness anyway. Holiness is prayer. Holiness is attending mass. Holiness is recognizing our defects and forging toward virtue. Does you friend really understand what is happening at mass? Does she have a clear concept of the real presence?

My suggestion(s) is three fold:

1)Educate your friend about what is happening at the mass - the holy feast!
2) Get your friend some reading material on the real presence (e.g. Scott Hahn’s "The Lord’s Supper)
3) Maybe get your friend a copy of Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

 

[sallybutler]

We often confuse happiness with an easy life. I know I do. However, Jesus did not promise us an easy life, but He did promise us wonderful joy.

In John 15:18-20, He tells us we will be persecuted. This is a physical reality we can expect.

However, in John 16:20, He tells us that grief will be turned to joy. This is an emotional reality that can exist in spite of the physical reality.

Being a follower of Christ is not an easy thing, but it is can be joyful (happy doesn’t sound big enough).

 

[fhansen]

I’ve been chatting a little with a Cradle Catholic friend that I think is in danger of falling away from the faith. She’s complained a lot about the Mass, and said that she didn’t think reverence in Mass was important, that instead, God wanted us to be happy. She had mentioned that the Mass was boring, and she got nothing out of it.

She’s been attending a Prot. Bible Study, although they don’t really study the Bible, but rather Christian books. I’m trying to put together a reply that would draw upon the Bible. I lean ‘traddy’, and much prefer a very reverent NO or even the EF.

I don’t even know where to begin…

Thanks for any help!

The entire purpose of our faith-and of God for us-is our happiness. Of course He wants us happy, it’s man that makes himself miserable. The “Beatific” in Beatific Vision means happiness, as does the term beatitude for Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. The whole reason man does almost anything, and particularly in seeking God, is to find peace and happiness-in fact it’s a tacit admission that we don’t already have it.
From the Catechism:

**1718 The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:

We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated.13
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.14
God alone satisfies.15

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for

30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."5 Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, “an upright heart”, as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.6

33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material”,9 can have its origin only in God.

384 Revelation makes known to us the state of original holiness and justice of man and woman before sin: from their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their existence in paradise.

1028 Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory “the beatific vision”:
How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God’s friends.604

1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.

2548 Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude. . . . In Scripture, to see is to possess. . . . Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive."344**

 

[InspiritCarol]

Don’t forget to pray for your friend as well.

Is there any way for you to invite her to share prayer with you?

Until she learns to be “prayerful”, she will miss out.

It’s possible that, on a spiritual level, she has never even been to Mass.