Happiness and Peace

If good news is really good, what is really good about it? We have a sample or two in today’s Sunday liturgy. Every human person is searching for happiness and peace. These seem to be the basic vocation of being human. God’s basic message for humans is the same: it is one of peace, joy and satisfaction in this world. Our achievements and possessions cannot give these, only our relationship with God.

In this first reading we have God’s promise: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” This passage compares Jerusalem to a mother nursing her infant. The image is one of peace, nourishment, and companionship. It also portrays what may be the most fulfilling and strongest of human relationships. The child plays and feels his or her mother’s embrace. The mother gives comfort and strength. The imagery conveys a simple message and yet powerful image: God’s people will be comforted, and they will flourish in Jerusalem. 

We Christians, too, are promised a form of Jerusalem, in fact if not in name. A Jerusalem for us is a place of utter safety and well-being. We are all entitled, for that is God’s wish for each person. We may find our Jerusalems in healthy relationships, often in loving families. We may find it in serving others, in easing the pain and hunger of persons less fortunate than ourselves. When we find our Jerusalems, we can help the world to see this real good and joyful news of God.

“The kingdom of God is at hand for you.” This is another message of joy and peace that God wants to give us today through our gospel reading.

In the reading, Jesus instructs the disciples to carry nothing, to go barefoot and to speak to no one on the way. They must offer peace and stay where they are welcomed. They are to heal the sick and announce the kingdom of God. If they are rejected anywhere, they must leave decisively. When the disciples return, Jesus assures them that the real value of their work is not in miraculous powers, but in the very act of going before him to announce his coming.

It is neither necessary nor appropriate for today’s Christians to follow to the letter Luke’s idealized account of Jesus’ missionary instructions. We are, however, responsible for announcing Jesus’ arrival, as well as the arrival of the kingdom of God. We cannot, and ought not, try to escape this most basic responsibility, for to do so would be to lose our identity. We need to find our own ways of announcing the kingdom. We must focus on the single purpose of announcing Jesus. We must offer genuine peace. We must heal, and we must point beyond ourselves to God, the source of all healing.

God is the source of all happiness and peace.

“There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him. Finding God and finding our True Self—which is letting go of our false self—are finally the same thing.” (Thomas Merton)