Our Calling to Complete
Happiness
(E.J.Tyler)
1. Man desires to be happy
As we look out on the world in which we live, as we listen to the daily
reports of what is happening around the globe day by day, as we observe
what occupies most of the time and space in news bulletins, it is
obvious that it is bad news that holds the field. There is a great deal
of unhappiness in our world. Consider what occupied most of the news on
television that you have recently viewed. Most of it would have been
news of things that are causing many people unhappiness and much
sorrow. It could be some great accident, or the killing of someone, or
the ongoing wars in trouble spots of the world, or some natural
disaster, or whatever. And yet it is equally obvious that every man and
woman has a deep desire to be happy. It is a tremendous paradox in our
world, that every man and woman is born into the world with the desire
to be happy, and yet so relatively few gain the happiness they
naturally seek. We ought therefore give real thought to our desire for
happiness, which amounts to a calling to it, and how it is to be
attained despite our living in a world little conducive to happiness.
2. The varied images of
happiness
There are many notions about happiness which people unconsciously pick
up from various sources. Everywhere there is advertising, and
advertising in itself is good because it enables people to know what
services are being offered, and it enables those who offer the services
to make headway in their enterprises. Just how products and services
are advertised is another matter, and there is plenty of advanced
thought and technology devoted to tricking customers into thinking that
happiness will be theirs if the product is bought. And so notions of
happiness become widespread that are hollow, such as that happiness
lies in wealth, or notoriety, popularity, good looks, constant good
health, power and sway over others, and pleasure of various kinds.
Consider the car that is advertised. It is a beautiful car, and next to
it is a young woman of attractive looks, and it leads to further images
that suggest a successful career. It is insinuated that by buying the
car the purchaser will gain happiness from possessing wealth, pleasure
and influence. The images are lodged in the imagination of the viewers
and there they do their silent work of suggesting notions that are
never evaluated. The images are accepted and the notions about
happiness which they suggest are silently embraced. It reminds us that
the mind of man must rule his imagination and not be governed by it.
3. Happiness will not come
simply from having what we want
The fact is, of course, that a degree of happiness does come from these
things. A certain kind of happiness comes from possessing material
means because it gives a person security and various options.
Pleasure brings a certain kind of happiness, as does being in a
position of influence. Indeed it is probably true to say that without
some of these things in life it would be difficult to be happy -
difficult but not at all impossible. There are prudent and deeply
religious people have attained happiness without these things. However,
examples such as those I have mentioned suggest to us that happiness
comes from possessing what we have set our hearts on. But obviously
this is not enough because we could set our hearts on things which will
bring us happiness that is very short lived and hollow. In fact, a
person could set his heart on something which he imagines will bring
him happiness but which he finds brings unhappiness when he possesses
it. A drug addict thinks that the drug will bring him happiness, but in
fact it brings unhappiness. If I set my heart on making plenty of money
with the scarcely conscious and poorly thought-out notion that simply
having money will bring me happiness, I may end up with a lot of money,
but disappointed and unhappy. It will be the same with mere pleasure
and being in positions of influence and status. In the process of
pursuing these goals under the impression that they will bring real
happiness other things that are critically necessary for happiness
could be entirely neglected, and some things could be pursued which
will actually bring great unhappiness. Let us think of a famous
actress, say, Marilyn Monroe. She was a great celebrity for her looks
and her style, and yet she gradually sunk into drug abuse and finally
committed suicide. She sought happiness in things that could not bring
much of it, and in the process followed a path that brought with it
unbearable unhappiness. I could be suffering from someone having
greatly insulted me, and I may unconsciously imagine that I will be
happy if only I can get revenge for that and insult that person in my
turn. Many people imagine that revenge for wrongs that have been done
will bring happiness. If not revenge, it could be envy that is
motivating a person’s quest for happiness. The trouble spots of the
world are instances of this. These are not the paths to happiness, but
many are under the illusion that they are. So it is possible to be very
mistaken over what will bring happiness in life.
4. Doing what is right
brings happiness
Indeed, the question of human happiness has been one of the great and
perennial questions in the history of man. Philosophers have grappled
with it, as have the founders of the great religions. Buddha centuries
before our Lord set out on a quest for happiness and finally arrived at
the conclusion that it lies in detachment from all desire and in
attaining enlightenment, or nirvana. One of the leading philosophers of
our day, an Australian by the name of Peter Singer is a utilitarian,
which is to say that he thinks the moral thing is simply whatever is
useful in bringing the greatest happiness to the most people. Apart
from allowing something immoral to be done in order to achieve
something desirable, this theory does not determine in what this
happiness consists. It is the common experience of mankind that we all
want to be happy, but the perennial question is, what will make us
happy? It is not enough to say that morality consists in doing what
brings happiness to most. What is true happiness? Well, our own
experience suggests a few things, quite apart from what God has
revealed. As I have already said, sooner or later most of us learn that
pleasure alone will not bring happiness, nor will mere possessions, nor
will authority and power of themselves. Often these things bring
anxiety and worry. What most of us learn is that by acting in accord
with our conscience, our sense of what is right, we will be happy even
if it causes inconvenience and great difficulty. We find too that when
we do what we know is wrong we are not happy, unless we succeed in
blocking out the voice of our conscience. That is to say, our sense of
what is right points the way to true happiness.
5. How do we know what is
right?
The problem is that very often we are not at all certain what is the
right thing to do. The judgment of our conscience, if left to itself,
is often uncertain. If we are honest with ourselves and have a healthy
awareness of the limitations of our own sense of what is right, we will
be saying what the Ethiopian said to Philip when Philip asked him if he
was understanding the Scriptures he was reading. The Ethiopian
answered, how can I unless some man show me? We will not know what is
right, we will not know the path to true happiness, unless God sends us
someone to show us. He has sent that person. It is his only-begotten
Son. He is the way to happiness, he is the truth about it, and he is
the life which brings happiness. Christ is the embodiment of all that
is right and good and holy because he is God himself incarnate. If
doing what is right is the path to authentic happiness then we must
look to the person of Jesus and contemplate him because he alone knows
fully and entirely what is right, and he is the perfect embodiment of
all that is right. But the happiness he embodies is not the happiness
promised by the world or which the masters of this world regard highly.
It is a different happiness and for this we must look to the teaching
and the example of our Lord. No one was as profoundly happy as the Lord
Jesus, but it was a happiness able to be present in the midst of the
worst of sufferings. That opens up an extraordinary light. It is
possible to be happy amid suffering.
6. Christ’s teaching and
example on happiness
Our Lord’s charter and statement of happiness is contained in the
Beatitudes. Blessed, fortunate, happy are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they
shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the cause of right, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of calumny against you on my account.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. All of these
pointers show the way to the happiness our Lord possessed and which he
promises to those who follow in his footsteps. They can be seen as the
fulfilment of the happiness promised by God in the Old Testament to his
chosen people. He pointed to the promised land and to his friendship
and protection, and time and again he threatened to take it away from
them if they persisted in their infidelity to his commandments. Our
Lord promises a new and much greater promised land, life in God now and
forever hereafter. The beatitudes describe the path to this, they set
forth what was important for the heart of our Lord, what he put store
on.
7. Some modern
findings on happiness
It is interesting to note the result of work that researchers have done
on happiness. On July 3, 2006, the Washington Post reported on a study
published in the Science journal in which researchers concluded that
people with above-average income are barely happier than others, and in
fact they tend to be more stressed. According to the Washington Post,
an abundance of data over the last years shows that once personal
wealth exceeds a certain very limited level annually, more money
produces virtually no increase in life satisfaction. More information
on the subject comes from Scotland, where researchers from Aberdeen
University concluded that job satisfaction is the key to personal
happiness. In respect to job satisfaction, in the June 30 report in the
Scotsman, leading researcher Ioannis Theodossiou said that job
satisfaction does not exclusively depend on wages, though this does
have an important role. Other factors such as job security and control
over working hours also play an important role in determining
satisfaction, and therefore personal happiness.
8. Sanctifying
our work and doing God’s will
The point to notice is that researchers have found that in some way our
work in life is connected with one’s happiness. Of course it is obvious
that if one has good work, satisfying work, work that remunerates well,
and so forth, these elements of our work will contribute to our
happiness. But Christian teaching has something to say about this. It
is that we are placed on this earth by God to do his will and his will
is embodied in the work in life which we are called to do, our
responsibilities and duties. Our happiness will in large measure come
from sanctifying our daily work and doing it for God and doing it well
for him. It is true that we work in order to live, but there is a
deeper sense in which one may say one lives in order to do one’s work.
Our Lord often referred to the work that had been given him to do, and
at the end he said that he had completed the work he was assigned by
his heavenly Father. Our Lord’s profound happiness would have consisted
very largely in the communion with his heavenly Father that was
maintained in the midst of his daily work. He was doing the will of his
Father and giving himself over to it. On one occasion too our Lord said
in reply to Pharisees who were criticising him that “My Father is
working, and so therefore do I.” God is always at work and the work
that is his is the work of creation and redemption, and this is
ultimately ordered to his glory. All this means that our happiness
derives from doing the will of God and in that way contributing to his
glory. This was very much the basis of our Lord’s happiness.
9. Happiness in the midst of
suffering
On the basis of doing God’s will in union with Jesus it is possible to
be happy in the midst of suffering. We hear of priests and bishops who
are arrested and imprisoned and spend years in that situation in China.
They have had their best years cut off and their freedom entirely taken
away. But in their confinement they are doing the work that God wants
them to do in that situation, and doing it in union with Jesus, knowing
that their work such as it is will bear fruit in him. They are doing
God’s will and witnessing to the Faith. Their happiness remains. During
the last few years of the life of Pope John Paul II we saw him
suffering greatly from illness of various kinds. But he knew that was
the situation God had placed him in and that situation manifested the
will of God. He had his work and it was to offer up his sufferings in
union with the crucified Jesus. He attained joy in the midst of
suffering.
10. Union with Christ in
doing God’s will
If we wish to embark on a life of happiness, the best thing is to set
aside the pursuit of happiness as such and to seek to do the right
thing. The pagan philosopher Aristotle taught that it is impossible to
be happy without being virtuous. We cannot be happy if we are not doing
the right thing. We know what is right by looking and listening to
Jesus. We will do what is right by following his path in union with
him. He is the key to happiness. He sets out the path to happiness in
the beatitudes which ask of his disciples that they be detached from
everything and totally attached to him and to his work. We were made to
know and love him and to follow in his path of doing the will of the
Father in the midst of our daily responsibilities and work. The deepest
happiness attainable in this life will come through the deepest
possible union with our Lord in constantly endeavouring to do God’s
will in our daily life and in our work in life. Our complete happiness
will come hereafter in heaven when we are united to God the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit entirely and given over entirely to his divine
will. It is in the glory of God that the happiness of man lies, and
Jesus is the path to God’s glory.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postscript: I invite you to read the
following article by Andrew Mullins:
Virtue rediscovered by
Andrew Mullins | Friday, 13 July 2007
After an eclipse which has lasted decades, modern psychology says
that happiness comes from living a virtuous life.
Two of the biggest names in modern psychology are focusing their
work on the development of virtues. Their work validates the
Aristotelian vision of character, of the human person brought to
maturity by virtues understood as good habits. The virtue-based model
underpinned upbringing in the West for almost 2,500 years… until child
rearing lost its way several decades ago.
Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson, under the auspices of
the Values in Action Institute, have produced a major work which is an
analytical framework for discussion of character which they define as a
composite of positive traits or habits. Seligman is a past president of
the American Psychological Association and professor of psychology at
University of Pennsylvania. His fame was established by groundbreaking
work on resilience for young people. Peterson is professor of
psychology at University of Michigan. Together they make a formidable
psychological duo. Their work is entitled Character Strengths
and Virtues. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2004.
Their avowed aim is to "reclaim the study of character and virtue
as legitimate topics of psychological inquiry and societal discourse".
They state, "We believe good character can be cultivated, but to do so
we need conceptual and empirical tools to craft and evaluate
interventions."
Character Strengths and Virtues is comprehensively researched,
draws together major authors in the field, and all importantly, is
clinically oriented. The importance of this work must not
underestimated. It is indeed a modern day Nichomachean Ethics.
Virtue: a philosopher's gift
to his son
Some 2,500 years earlier Aristotle produced his Nicomachean
Ethics, one of the great texts of Western civilisation. It is named
after his son, Nicomachus, for whom the book is said to have been
composed. It laid down the principles followed by practically every
study of business, medical and legal ethics up to our own day. But it
is much more than even this. It is a systematic demonstration of what
fulfills a human being, of what makes a human being happy. It draws a
direct line, demonstrated from philosophical foundations, between
virtuous conduct and happiness in life. If one accepts Aristotle’s
reasoned first principles about the nature of man, his argument is
irrefutable.
In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle outlined the path all human
beings must follow if they wish to be happy. Clearly he regarded this
as the greatest gift he could give his son. The work hinges on the
crucial link between habit and virtue: "Moral virtue comes about as a
result of habit".
Aristotle realised too that we need to become experts at fostering
virtue. He wished to teach his son how to raise his own children well,
emphasising the importance of building habits in the early years of a
child’s life,
"It makes no small difference whether we form habits of one kind
or of another from our very youth; it makes a very great difference, or
rather all the difference."
It is difficult to overestimate the contribution to Western
thought of Aristotle. He was the tutor of Alexander the Great… but his
fame should not hinge on the achievements of a hyperactive pupil. As
the Britannica puts it, Aristotle "perhaps more than any other thinker
has characterised the orientation and content of all that is termed
Western Civilisation." High praise indeed. The man who never lifted a
sword contributed more to the civilisation than his student who never
lost a battle and united the known world.
Aristotle’s thought was so revolutionary and original that his
coming utterly changed the course of civilisation. Our contemporary
world would be very different place had he not lived. The great German
poet Goethe described his work as "a pyramid rising on high from a
broad base on earth", thus stressing that his philosophy was founded on
the rock of reality but reaching to celestial insights.
This intellectual colossus was also regarded as a kind and
affectionate man. There are references in his will to the happy family
life he had enjoyed. He provided with solicitous care for his children
and servants. He paid tribute to Herpyllis, his wife, for the "constant
love she has shown me". It is no surprise that this wonderful man
wished to leave to his son guidelines for a happy life, as a precious
legacy.
Virtue is not Victorian
Nevertheless Aristotle's notion of virtue has had more than its
fair share of detractors. Virtue has had a bad name ever since the
Victorian era. Mud sticks. Time magazine some years ago coined the
disparaging phrase "the virtue industry" referring among other writings
to the much publicized Book of Virtue of William Bennett, a former US
Secretary for Education. This best-seller was light on theory and did
little to win over the hearts and minds of the unconverted.
All too often even those who write about virtue have a woolly
understanding of the word. They use the term interchangeably with
values, as if virtue had nothing to do with established behaviour and
instead belonged with values back in the realm of good intentions. And
while contemporary philosophy has developed a niche area of study
called virtue ethics its proponents have won scant recognition in the
plethora of mainstream parenting books. But Seligman and Peterson have
done what a thousand philosophers could not do; they have elevated
discussion of virtues to a clinical basis through an evidence-based
methodology.
Seligman and Peterson identify six umbrella virtues: wisdom,
courage, justice, temperance, humanity and transcendence and a further
list of character strengths subordinate to the virtues. It is no
coincidence that their list resembles core virtues of the various
traditions of man. For example the four cardinal virtues of prudence
(sound judgement), justice, temperance, and fortitude that date back to
Socrates and Plato align closely with the six of Seligman and Peterson.
Possibly the Greeks would have rolled wisdom, humanity and
transcendence into prudence, which Aristotle described as the "power of
forming right judgements".
Under the six virtue headings the authors drill down to 24
character strengths, or stable traits of character. For example, wisdom
is the umbrella virtue for creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love
of learning, and perspective. The authors suggest that one can further
descend to what they call "situational themes", habits manifesting the
character strengths in specific circumstances. The whole process is
thus from the abstract to the specific habits that manifest the virtues.
They are at pains to remind us that theirs is not the final word,
but the work is most impressive nonetheless. Major sections in the book
discuss aims and methodology of the project, the character strengths in
detail, and assessment processes. Chapters on each character strength
are the work of contributing experts in their own specific fields.
Discussion of each strength follows a standard template: definitions,
traditional approaches, measures, benefits, manifestations,
cross-gender and cross-cultural variations, interventions for
fostering, areas for future study, and bibliography.
Both the Nicomachean Ethics and Character Strengths and Virtues go
to lengths to explain that virtues are deeply rooted habits of action,
not wishful thinking or nice sentiments. Both argue that good habits
can be cultivated and that these habits are foundation for the
happiness of the individual. Aristotle summarises the general argument
of his work in once sentence: "Happiness is the reward of virtue."
Seligman and Peterson reflect an identical vision, "This handbook
focuses on … the strengths of character that make the good life
possible." May mankind be richer, and happier, for this rediscovery.
Andrew Mullins is headmaster of Redfield College, a school in
Sydney for boys in Years 2 to 12. He is the author of Parenting for
Character.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------