Do I want to be happy?
As Catholics, we often frame our faith around what we should not do. We know the Ten Commandments and the law given to the Israelites. Follow these, we tell ourselves, and we will live a good and moral life. While that is true, it is not enough. Avoiding sin alone does not necessarily make us holy. Sin has a way of quietly eroding us, wearing us down and weakening us, until we begin moving the goalposts for what we even consider sinful. Instead of seeking justice and humility, we can slip into justifying our actions. We know we are called to be like the remnant spoken of by the prophet Zephaniah: humble and doing no wrong. Yet living that way can feel difficult.
The commandments matter. Christ tells us he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. The law reveals what sin is and reminds us that turning away from God leaves us with nothing. Israel’s history shows us how easily we fall again and again, and we recognize ourselves in that story. We go to confession to be reconciled, but what are we hoping for when we do? Is our spiritual life simply about managing guilt and trying not to mess up again, or do we trust that Christ’s grace can truly transform us? When guilt is removed, do we consider what God desires to place there instead?
The Ten Commandments were not the last teaching God gave from a mountain. Christ also gave us the Beatitudes. Too often, they are misunderstood or diminished, treated as ideals meant only for Christ himself or for the spiritual elite. Sometimes they become pleasant words we hear at weddings or funerals, but not something meant to shape daily life. Yet the Beatitudes ask us something very close to home: do we want to be happy?
Christ did not come to make us hate our lives. He came to show us that true happiness is possible even now, and that it comes only through him. The Beatitudes are promises. They reveal what God’s grace will do in us if we allow it to work. They show us what we are called to and what we are made for, and they assure us that it is worth it.
No one wants to be truly poor or without. Even when we lack materially, we still cling to pride within our interior lives. This pride often becomes the greatest obstacle to letting Christ in. To be poor in spirit is to seek humility and trust that God will provide. When we entrust ourselves to him, his kingdom becomes alive within us. This humility is the foundation of every Beatitude.
We also resist real sadness. We allow ourselves controlled moments of sorrow, but we avoid genuine mourning. The Lord tells us we must mourn the loss of loved ones, the wounds in our families, and the brokenness in our hearts. If these sorrows are not mourned, they harden into walls that block God’s comfort. Our world glorifies aggression and self-assertion, teaching that if you want something, you must fight for it. Christ, however, tells us that the meek and gentle will inherit the land.
We often speak about justice and mercy, yet true righteousness inconveniences us, and true mercy costs us something. When we pray the Our Father, we are reminded that the mercy we ask for is the mercy we must give. Our culture also thrives on distraction, anything to avoid silence or reflection. Being clean of heart means more than avoiding impurity; it means creating space for God to reveal himself. If we want to see God at work in our lives, we must be willing to sit with him without distraction.
We pray for peace, but peacemaking has a cost. It often requires personal sacrifice so that others may be reconciled. Holding families together and healing divisions can be exhausting, yet there is no greater peace than the one that follows obedience to God’s will. We also know that faith brings opposition. Sometimes it is subtle, sometimes more direct, but it always requires humility to admit that the world cannot fulfill us, while Christ can.
The Beatitudes were given from a mountain to show us the summit of the Christian life. They are not easy, and we cannot reach them on our own. But Christ lived them fully and invites us to live them through his grace. Through him, with him, and in him, the commandments and the Beatitudes come together. Blessed are we if we listen, for our reward begins here and will be far greater in heaven.
So the questions remain: Do I believe Christ’s promises? And do I truly want to be happy?
Deacon Jacob McGuire