Thursday, June 4, 2009

A matter of degrees

“What do I want in life?” It’s a question we all ask at some point in life. I’m willing to bet that the number one answer is, “To be ‘happy’”. Happiness is described in Webster’s as: good fortune; pleasure; contentment. Is this all we want? Seems like a pretty small goal to me.

Joy, however, is described as the emotion of great delight or extreme happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

We reach for joy, but settle for happy. Happy is not a bad thing, but it’s not as good as joy.

I think that “joy” is “happiness”, shared with someone else. I have a pretty good job, but it would mean nothing without Marilyn in my life to share my experiences with. Marilyn and I have a “happy” marriage, but Alicia and Sarah and Lorenzo and Lily bring “joy” to it. I am happy to attend Mass as often as I can—the Eucharist brings joy to the experience. So JOY is a higher degree of HAPPINESS.

But joy doesn’t come as easily as happiness. We have to DO something MORE to achieve joy.

What started me thinking about this today was the Gospel at Mass tonight.

Mk 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understandingwith all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

This was not the only time in the Gospels when Jesus told us to “love our neighbor as ourselves”. Today’s admonition was the “easy” version. The Lord gives the same admonition to the Apostles just before His Passion while washing their feet, but the second time He is more specific and telling us there is more than “just” loving our neighbors—

John 13:34
"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another."

Note the key words in this commandment: “As I have loved you….” That’s the real trick.
So you see, it’s all a matter of degrees.

No comments:

"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".