HAPPY? IN THIS WORLD?
Read Matthew 5
Undeniably, every human being’s deepest desire is to be happy.
The problem is that the human inner self is all mixed up, and the atmosphere people build up as their relational dwelling is merely a replication of what lies in their hearts.
Therefore, the world looks like ourselves, and is noticeable not as the place where hurricanes come about, floods disrupt some areas, and earthquakes shake the ground. Instead, it is visible as the place where humans exist as the beings that replicate the deserts, the poisoned rivers, the polluted air, the life shortages, the unbalances, the open-air dumps, the firing squads, the penitentiaries, the slaughters, and the cancer that eats away the entire body as the social corruption that lies inside it.
What’s more, in order to do so, this being puts on many masks and faces which appear as religious truths, moral patterns, social conventions, walls that make the Great Wall of China look like a mere mockup, and missiles that kill as quickly as this being’s own tongue does.
So, humans want to be happy, but they themselves make up a world that thwarts their own happiness.
That’s why Jesus taught us that in this fallen world, the blessedness is in not contributing to the world’s unhappiness; being unwavering in gladness and joy; never shedding tears that don’t carry solace in themselves nor standing for any causes other than peacemaking and justice. We should also carry within ourselves nothing but a teachable heart and a steadfast conscience regarding the Good of all Blessedness in this life.
Only in this way can one be happy in this world of confusion, where the search of happiness takes place as a desire that is killed by the humans themselves—both because they are the way they are and because of the atmosphere they create in order to look for such happiness.
Well, the Earth isn’t the problem. The Earth is good. With a good conscience and understanding in respect and reverence—not to mention love—, all humans could be very happy on this planet, in spite of all its accidents and incidents.
What prevents us from being happy is our heart’s inability to be open to the understanding that the less we put burdens on each other, the easier and the better life will be. When we stop keeping watch over our own happiness and other people’s, then, little by little, the blessedness will begin to blossom, quite subtly, quite moist, from the soil of our hearts.
Then, perhaps, from our hearts the blessedness will spread out and… get into others!
Caio
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From the original: “FELIZ? NESTE MUNDO?”
Translated by F. R. Castelo Branco | April 2007
