Children, and adults as well, can have a lot of fun with simple things – things like blowing bubbles. However, there is just one problem with the happiness that comes from blowing bubbles: it just lasts a moment. We may want to hold onto a bubble, but the moment we reach out & touch it, poof, it bursts. Or when we can't reach the bubble in time, so it bursts anyways when it hits the ground or an object.
We can compare some of the happiness we reach for in life to the way a bubble lasts for only a short period of time. Sometime the happiness we try to grasp is out of reach or we just can’t get to it in time. Or, there are times when we think we have happiness in the palm of our hand, and the bubble suddenly bursts, much to our surprise, that happiness is gone.
What are some of the things people chase in their search for happiness, putting them above everything else? It could be money, food, pleasure, material possessions, career achievements, or being popular. Those things are not bad in themselves. In fact, these things bring great pleasure to our lives. They can be very positive and life-giving when not taken to the extreme. But if we make any of them our main priority in life and put them before God, if we see them as our key to happiness, then we’ll be disappointed.
Jesus knew that people often look for happiness and fulfillment in the wrong places. But then Jesus does something that might seems strange to us. In the beatitudes, Jesus suggests that we might be happy or blessed if we were poor in spirit, mourning, merciful, hungry for righteousness, and persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Why would Jesus suggest such a thing? We don’t usually look at those things as bringing us happiness or pleasure.
But, when we’re poor in spirit, it’s easier for us to trust God and to see what should truly be important to us in life. When we are poor in spirit, we don’t rely on our wealth, our material possessions, or the values of the secular world for happiness. When we’re poor in spirit, we can then turn everything over to God, making God the true foundation of our lives.
When we mourn, when we cry out of sadness or struggle or frustration, we then can put all of our trust in God to comfort us and to ease our pain. In our mourning, in the trust we put in God, we’ll have the opportunity to unite our sorrows to the sufferings that Christ endured as he endured his passion in his journey to the cross.
When we hunger for righteousness, we are better able to understand that there are many levels of hunger beyond our hunger for food. We hunger for justice, for meaning, and for a deeper personal relationship with God. As we recognize our physical hunger and the other hungers we have, we can then understand that the most basic hunger we have as human beings is a spiritual hunger to connect with God in our lives here on earth. Only God can satisfy this hunger that’s an essential part of our human condition.
When we’re merciful, when we show mercy to others, then we can truly understand and appreciate the mercy God freely offers us. God gives us this gift of mercy, waiting for us to respond, to accept it, to pass this mercy on to others.
When we’re persecuted for the sake of righteousness by strangers, by neighbors, or even by our own family and friends, we realize that we have a true friend in Jesus. Jesus as our companion never leaves us. He is always there for us in good times and bad times, in our joys and our persecutions.
All of us want to find happiness in life. That’s true for all of us, isn’t it? But we shouldn't waste our time chasing bubbles for a happiness that doesn’t last, for a happiness that doesn’t matter in the long run. We should look to God. He is our source of true happiness. And unlike a bubble, God is with us for our entire journey.
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