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Buenos Aires, Sunday, January 30, 2005

Father Oscar Pezzarini

The way of Happiness

Everyone is pursueing Happiness and concerned about a happy life, but the issue is what we are talking about when we speak of Happiness. When we want things now, when the spirit of vengeance beats us or when we can' find any sense in suffering, reaching Happiness through sorrow, patience, or hunger and thirst for justice even seems contradictory. But the way Jesus proposes to us, the one He talks about in the Beatitudes, is the one which shall lead the human being to final joy and happiness.

There's no doubt that everybody's wish is the pursue of Happiness, the concern about a happy life, but the issue is what we are talking about when we speak of Happiness, is it just a temporary thing, a kind of “feeling well”, or do we refer to the aspiration of every human being of reaching full happiness, knowing that it often cannot be totally achieved in life?

In the Gospel Jesus talks about Beatitudes or Blessings when he refers to the “happy man” in chapter 5 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, when talking about the blessings of those who follow Him. But in our world those attitudes which Jesus denotes are often not understood as a true way to Happiness.

Jesus talks about “blessed are the poor” since theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, referring not only to the poor in a material sense, but to those who are humble and open to God, those who know they need Him in their lifes and who are not self-sufficient. Of course, in the current times where Man even tries to be “Godlike” believing he does not need Him, feeling entitled to set up his own standards and laws, understanding this attitude, this way of “poverty” as a “journey to Happiness” is difficult.

Jesus also talks about those who mourn, about patient people, about those who have hunger and thurst of justice, because they will be filled. How difficult is it to “wait”, to “be patient”, to accept suffering, and thinking about this as a way to Happiness, when we want things now, when the spirit of vengeance beats us or when we can't find any sense in suffering, even seems contradictory.

Jesus also tells us that the merciful shall be blessed, those with a pure heart, those who work for peace, because they will be called sons of God, but then, has modern Man any interest in being called Son of God? Is he really interested in being such?

It is true: The way to true, full Happiness such as the one proposed to us by Jesus Himself will seem contradictory to the world we live in, maybe this is so because we don't always think of full happiness, maybe we think of Happiness as the kind which only satisfies us for a while, and we think of it in the sphere we see and can reach in this life without thinking of the everlasting Happiness which is finally achieved after our “pilgrimage” through this world. This is the sense of Happiness, the one proposed by Jesus in the Gospel, in the Beatitudes, the one which leads human beings to final joy and happiness.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
General Commissioner of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina

Father Oscar Pezzarini makes us think on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 106.5 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, Julia Cansinos, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Little Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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