Does He want us live a joyous, peaceful life? I see Religious Sisters/Nuns be so busy that I’ve received a look that says, “And I have time for that?” I’ve seen Sisters that always have a smile on their face!
I know there’s a difference between a lay person & a professed Sister/Nun. Does God want us to be happy in this life, lay person or religious?
This is almost identical to the question posted several hours later , and which received a reply from LumenGent.
Most of us have heard or read the maxim
“don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” It isn’t always that easy to tell how happy or joyous someone else is in this life . We even end up running after things ourselves sometimes, which we may have initially thought were going to make us happy - only to discover . . . :nope:
A lot of people’s personal definitions of “happy”, "joyful "- tend to be limited solely to that - a subjective perception, which can be constrictive in that it fails to take in the larger, more complete salvific picture.
If the focus ( not reference point) is to (momentarily) be placed on grumpy looking nuns, or grumpy looking religiously minded people,
St Theresa of Avila offered one terse commentary on that particular subject, which went this way :
" May God protect us from gloomy saints."
Many of the Church’s martyrs experienced a profound “joy” during their actual martyrdom.
Yet we would be deceiving ourselves were we to imagine there might not be any sorrows for us during this earthly pilgrimage :
**John 16: 20,22 **[NAB]
** Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you**.
Does God want us to be happy in this life ?
Yes .
But we can only be truly happy if we live this life with Him - as St. Augustine says : “Our hearts are restless untill they rest in you, O Lord.”
The transcription of *The Divine Attributes * retreat -
The Attributes of God, God the Creator , given by Fr. John Hardon, S.J., provides several valuable insights into the aforementioned and into the theological basis confirming “God wants us to be happy”.
The link to that article and several excerpts from it follow:
The Divine Attributes Retreat ;The Attributes of God ,God the Creator ; Fr. John Hardon, S.J.
. . . He does not leave anything. He is not impoverished or deprived. God is no less God after creating than before. Why? Why finally has God created the Universe? In order to make His rational creatures happy. That’s why He made the angels. That’s why he has made and continues making human beings.
He wants us to be HAPPY. He wants to satisfy all our desires. But now, an important qualification. That is indeed God’s purpose in creating. But, and how we need to still ourselves to believe it that this happiness is conditional. And no less than God used His Free Will in creating us, in bringing us out of nothing into being and we had no choice. We didn’t tell God before we existed, “Lord, how about making me?” “Who are you to tell me what to do, you NOTHING!?” Contradiction. God made us without consulting us. God made us without asking us. God made us without our asking Him! Our creation was absolutely unconditional on the part of God. Ah, but this is a retreat. So it was. So was our creation absolutely unconditional on the part of God. But having come into existence, our destiny is NOT conditional.
God made us because HE wanted us to be happy. But God will not give us that happiness for which we were made unless (listen!), unless we WANT it! We must want to be happy. And this is no sterile, meaningless desire. “So you want to be happy,” the Lord says. “I sure do.” “Are you sure you want to be happy?” “Lord, let me repeat. I want to be happy.” Third time like asking Peter: “Do you really want to be happy?” “Lord you know all things. You know I want to be happy.” “Now, I’ll tell you. You want to be happy. I want you to be happy. But you’ll be happy in this life and perfectly happy in the life to come ONLY if you fulfill the conditions I who am your creator set down for your happiness.” That in one, I hope not too long a sentence is what life in this world is all about. How we need to be crystal clear in God’s purpose for creating us. I would like to quote from the Old Testament where time and again the ancient Prophets make a strange comparison. Said the prophets: “Yahweh blesses those who bless Him.” Or in one mysterious statement, and when I say it people will challenge me: “I’ve never seen that in the Bible,” I tell them, “Look it up.” Says God: “I Yahweh love those who love Me.” And that’s all. When all the books in the book have been read, and all the speeches listened to, that’s all happen it’s consisting - being loved by God. AH, but notice when God says “I love those who love ME!” That is why we have a free will so with our free will, we might give to God whatever He asks of us (change the verb), whatever He demands of us, (change the verb), whatever He requires of us for happiness in this world and our beatitude in the world to come.
