Happy… says Basil
Fawlty, oh yes, I remember that… Sibyl
had just intercepted Basil arranging a bet on
Dragonfly in the 4.30 at Aintree. That particular
avenue of pleasure has been closed off, says Basil. Happiness
is a memory.
It is hard to say what happiness
is, except that we know when we’re not. The United
States Declaration of Independence of 1776 famously says that Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are our unalienable
rights[1]. These
days the popular assumption would be that happiness is getting what I want
– as though… what else could it be?... the satisfaction of my desires, my
expectations of life, the attainment of my dream. It is widely assumed…
firstly that I am entitled to get what I want, and secondly that I
will be happy if I do. Happiness
then is primarily about me.
And at this point I am really
puzzled to know what to say. A scholar
of the Christian scriptures would want to say that what we are calling happy,
for the Hebrew and Christian writers is commonly called blessed[2]. That is, blessed by God. But somehow popular religion has warped and
twisted that idea out of recognition. God
has blessed me raises all manner of problems. Who is this God who inscrutably blesses some but not others? If blessing is the reward of uprightness,
then we can easily produce many good people who are singularly unblessed… and we
can find some truly nasty characters who have all they want for their
happiness. Most of the world has realised, moreover, that
religious faith is no guarantee whatever of happiness. Can an atheist never be happy? Many Christian believers seem to be happy
because it is expected… I’m so happy, here’s the reason why / Jesus took my
burdens all away… we used to sing. But
we began to suspect before leaving adolescence that Jesus does not take all our
burdens all away.
Joy is another biblical word. The Greek chara (χαρά), joy, is the
second in Paul’s list of the fruits of the Spirit[3]. Chara however is not the ecstatic leaping
and jumping which seems now to be obligatory in the event of a triumph in sport,
or in the stranger regions of religious charismania. Paul sees joy as a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is given to us, even at times in the
midst of suffering – the joy that seekest me through pain[4]. It does not depend on everything
having gone right, or as we might have wanted.
But around this point I run short
on wisdom. Happiness certainly depends
on how I am feeling. But if you have
encountered joy… that sense of gift and wonder, the freedom of having
been able to set self aside, the presence of God in our anxiety or dismay… joy
awaits us in the silence and stillness, as a peaceful, gentle assurance, and a
lovely surprise. Paul knew it, and he
listed joy right there in that initial trio of gifts of the Spirit: Love…
Joy… Peace… Joy, bracketed by love
and peace.
[1] The
Declaration says… all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. “All men”
means not only the American people, but all men and women of whatever race,
colour or creed.
[2] In
Hebrew, barak (בּרךְ ). Barack
Obama’s parents named him blessed. In
Greek makarios (μακάριος), as in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12).
[3]
Galatians 5:22
[4] Hymn
by George Matheson: O Love that wilt not let me go.
No comments:
Post a Comment