Let us reflect for a minute on the practical meaning of pleasure and of happiness. Pleasure means enjoyment. It means the gratifying of some sense or faculty in which we take delight. Every one of our human faculties, whether of body or of soul, has its own particular craving. Our eyes are constantly longing to look and to see things that are beautiful, interesting, or agreeable. Our appetite for food is constantly craving the satisfaction of eating and drinking. The imagination craves amusements, stories, plays, movies, and pleasurable reading of every kind. Etc…. Such craving for pleasure is especially intense in our day, because there are so many things that stir it up, and so many means of gratifying this thirst for pleasure. Today’s methods of advertising over various media on the internet are continually urging people to satisfy their craving for pleasure and are developing new wants that are profitable to satisfy. The power of suggestion is immense, and you are constantly being tempted by suggestions to do things for the pleasure of doing them — things not wrong in themselves, perhaps, but which take just so much of your energy, your time, and your means. They are distractions from more important things in life. Pleasure in itself is a good thing, and a certain amount of lawful pleasure is necessary for us. We need a certain amount of exercise and a certain amount of amusement, just as we need a certain amount of sleep and of food. The need for pleasure is not so absolute as the need for food, but it is still very real, as we are however, constituted that we never get enough pleasure; pleasure always leaves us unsatisfied and begets a desire for more. Therefore, the temptation of our day is to pursue pleasure for its own sake, which means the tendency to neglect duty for the sake of pleasure. Those who seek pleasure for its own sake are somewhat like people who take drugs. At first, they experience some gratification, but after a while, they take the drug simply to satisfy a terrible craving. Pleasure is not a drug. It is a very useful thing in itself when employed as a means to an end. But when it is taken in excessive doses, for its own sake, it takes on some of the characteristics of a drug. Pleasure-seekers sacrifice more and more for the sake of pleasure, and, in the end, they find themselves broken down in character and sometimes broken down in health, and essentially unhappy, because they are essentially dissatisfied. The only thing that will keep them going is more pleasure, and pleasure itself has palled on them. Such is pleasure, but what is happiness? Happiness is an inward movement Happiness, as we understand it, is the inward contentment, the peace and satisfaction, the moral well-being that comes to a person of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, who does his work and discharges his duty to God and his fellowmen with patience, fidelity, uprightness, and kindness. Pleasure is merely the passing gratification of some faculty. One may get pleasure by eating and drinking, by going to a show, by reading an interesting book, or by engaging in sports, but happiness is a lasting state of inward contentment. Just as health of body requires a balance of the faculties — so that a person experiences a general sense of physical wellbeing — so happiness comes from health of soul and mind and heart. It results from a balance of moral qualities. A person cannot be happy if he has a bad conscience, lacks self-respect, or is aware that he is shirking his duty toward God and man. Hence, happiness of mind and soul, like health of body, must be secured by a balance of our faculties, by keeping in a state of spirit that will enable us to be happy. It is easy, then, to see the real conflict that exists between following pleasure for its own sake and seeking happiness. We are so constituted that, if a person deliberately seeks pleasure for its own sake, he is sure to neglect his duty, and this is true even of innocent pleasure. The time that he ought to give to work is stolen for pleasure. The effort and ambition that he ought to devote to doing his duty is spent in pleasure-seeking. If this is true even of innocent pleasures, it is tenfold true of pleasures that are wrong. To seek these in any degree is ruinous, because a man thereby loses his self-respect, neglects his duty, and goes directly against the requirements we have laid down for happiness. But even as regards innocent pleasures, you have to choose between using them moderately and with self-control and seeking happiness, or seeking them for their own sake and inevitably ceasing to be happy. This is a distinction of such tremendous importance that no one can calculate how many lives are ruined and how much is sacrificed by its neglect. You are quite free to choose one or the other, but choose you must. If you seek pleasure for its own sake, you cannot be happy. If you wish to be truly happy, then, you must moderate and control your thirst for pleasure. Therefore, as a guide to moderation and propriety for youth, may I recommend reading the following taken from THE YOUNG MAN’S GUIDE by Rev. F. L. Lasance, Chapter 42: Enjoy yourself with moderation and propriety. St. Philip Neri was a peculiarly cheerful saint; he was merry in the right sense of the word. He was never gloomy or fretful; he could not bear to see melancholy faces about him. He loved to be surrounded by young people, and delighted to see them indulging in harmless mirth. If, on the contrary, he perceived that any one was in a peevish, gloomy mood, he at once asked what was the matter with him. Occasionally he gave such a one a gentle tap on the cheek, and said: "Be cheerful!" I also say to you, my young friend, be cheerful! Who indeed ought to be merry, if not the young? Who would grudge their enjoyment of life to the lamb which gambols in the green meadow, and the young man who delights in the flowery fields of spring? Be of good cheer, be merry, enjoy yourself, but with moderation and in the right way. If in the preceding chapters I have so earnestly exhorted you to practise self-denial and renunciation, to bear and forbear, I am nevertheless very far from wishing to see you hang your head and look peevish and morose, as if you had something bitter in your mouth. No, nothing less than that! To appear as if you were a lamb being led to the slaughter is not only unnatural, but odious. I am sure that our Father in heaven prefers cheerful people, if only they are pious and well conducted. Sadness is the result of our fallen nature; therefore in no case does it come from heaven, or from God. "Rejoice in the Lord always," says the Apostle. The Royal Psalmist also encourages us to gladness. Faith and piety gladden the heart by inspiring trust in the goodness and mercy of God. "Thou, O Lord, art my protector and the lifter up of my head" (Ps. iii. 4). "Thou hast given gladness in my heart" (Ps. iv. 7). "Let all them be glad that hope in Thee; they shall rejoice forever, and Thou shalt dwell in them" (Ps. ix. 3). "I will be glad and rejoice in Thee, I will sing to Thy name, O Thou Most High" (Ps. ix. 3). "Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; Thou shalt fill me with joys with Thy countenance, at Thy right hand are delights even to the end" (Ps. xv. ii). "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my refuge and my deliverer. My God is my helper and in Him will I put my trust" (Ps. xvii. 3). "Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they have comforted me" (Ps. xxii. 4). "Rejoice to God our Helper" (Ps. ixxx. 2). "He will overshadow Thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust" (Ps. xc. 4). But it is only the virtuous man who can be merry in the right way, cheerful in the true sense of the word. Real cheerfulness is the inseparable companion of true virtue. Happiness is found in goodness. No one has a right to be cheerful who knows that he is not in the grace of God. The slave of sin, the enemy of God, can indeed lead a merry life in the sense in which the world understands these words, but he must tremble, lament, and shudder, whenever he thinks seriously of hell, which yawns beneath his feet. If you are truly cheerful at heart, then is your soul at peace. Trials may indeed arise, but the clouds will never be so heavy as to prevent the bright and cheering rays of confidence in God to pierce through them and lessen their gloom. Interior cheerfulness will show itself in your exterior. Your eye will be bright, your countenance serene, your brow unruffled, your bearing firm, your step light. Cheerfulness is recommended in many passages of Holy Writ. For instance, the Wise Man speaks thus; "Rejoice, therefore, 0 young man in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth; and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment." And if David, the royal psalmist, so frequently reminds us in his sacred poems to praise the Lord with joy, how should not the young man do this in the bloom of his youth? All the faithful should heed the admonition of St. Paul to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice." This saying applies, however, in a very particular manner, to young people. Let them strive to keep themselves in the grace and love of God and ever to be of good cheer—"to rejoice in the Lord." One day St. Aloysius found himself in the company with some young friends, and engaged in a game of chess. Some one suddenly asked what each member of the company would do if he knew he was to die within an hour. One said he should repair to the church and engage in prayer; another remarked that the best thing would be to go to confession. But St. Aloysius, whose conscience was completely at peace, quietly said: "I should continue the game, because I am playing in accordance with the will of God, and the wish of my superiors." That is what it means to be cheerful and merry in the right way, if one preserves at the same time so tranquil a state of conscience that even the unexpected appearance of death would not be able to cause too great alarm and apprehension. In this way judge the amusements, games, and merry-makings in which you like to indulge, the jokes, witticisms, conversations in which you take delight, the time and money which you sacrifice on your enjoyments. If your conscience does not reproach you, does not whisper to you that your favorite games and amusements are for you an occasion of sin, and the time and money you spend on them a piece of extravagance—then you are enjoying yourself in a proper manner. Continue to be cheerful and merry. If ought on earth shall give you pleasure
God doth that joy bestow: See that thou take it in due measure Or it may turn to woe. The human heart craves and seeks unceasingly for happiness. Many find but a small measure of happiness in this life because they lose sight of their eternal destiny—the object of their creation—which is to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be happy with Him. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 37, 39). The whole law depends on these two commandments; so Our Lord Himself assures us. The fullest measure of happiness even here on earth is attained by harmonizing one’s conduct with the commandments of God, by doing well one’s duties to God and man; for this means the possession of a peaceful conscience, a clean heart, a sinless soul; and this is essential to happiness; hence, St. Ignatius prays: "Give me, Lord, only Thy love and thy grace; with these I shall be rich enough; there is nothing more that I desire." To be in the state of grace—to have God’s love—that is essentially necessary to true happiness. "If God be for us, who is against us?" (Rom. viii. 31). The end of man’s creation is to glorify God. But in promoting God’s glory we are at the same time promoting our own happiness. Ergo, let our watch word be: "All for the greater glory of God!" J+M+J |
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January 2024
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