In our pleasure loving world, we often hear people speak of happiness. They are so happy to have a new car, a new house, a new husband or wife. Or they are so happy to get a raise that will allow them more pleasure in their latest entertainment or amusement. But are they truly joyful? There seems to be an air of artificiality about it, a hollow ring in their laughter, a suspicion of boredom beneath all this pretense of happiness. It is a mask of merriment non-existent in their innermost hearts. It is that false joy, such as Dives had who rejoiced that he had plenty regarding material things and could therefore look to the future with complacency. Death showed him that his joy was deceptive and vain.

What is real happiness —genuine joy? And where can they be found? Too many people envision the pursuit of happiness as a flight from pain and sorrow. Our Lord tells us only he can be truly joyful who boldly confronts the fact of pain and sorrow and challenges it to rob him of his essential happiness. As strangers and pilgrims here on earth, only those are truly joyful who realize that suffering is a very large and necessary ingredient of all joy.

When our Lord speaks about the woman in labor who has sorrow because her hour has come He does not say that she is sad. Sadness, dejection and melancholy are sworn enemies of joy, while sorrow is but a necessary condition of all earthly joy.

Sorrow was blessed by Christ; sadness never was. "It has killed many, and there is no profit in it," says Holy Writ. St. Leonard tells us: "Leave sadness to the those in the world. We who work for God should be lighthearted." A woman’s essential happiness remains untouched by her sorrow or suffering. All the trouble, danger and pain of childbirth may cause no more than a quasi-sadness in the midst of real, permanent joy. She is a typical example of a Christian "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" (Rom., xii. 12). Mary the "Mother of Sorrows," is also the "Queen of Joy," and the cause of our joy, just as surely as her Son is at once the "Man of Sorrows" and the "God of Joy."

The world promises a veritable paradise of joy, finer homes, swifter autos, less work, more time for pleasure and recreation, but it forever remains a promise unfulfilled. True joy is forever found in the simple things of life —a sacrament received, truth understood, a cherished home, kind and loving parents, a kind deed done in God’s name.

St. Paul reveals the secret of joy, saying: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice" (Phil., iv. 4). He speaks of the great interior joy of our holy faith. In the shadow of the Cross God’s commandments become light and our burdens sweet. No cross, no crown!

There are various motives for rejoicing. In the first place, we rejoice because we possess the one true religion; founded by the only begotten Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Catholic religion is not a mixture of some truth with some error, as other religions, but it presents to us truth alone, without error. Supernatural truth, we must remember, is something that has always been and cannot change. This we firmly believe; and this belief is the source of our conviction. For if it were not for that, we might just as well belong to any other religion —it would be just as good as Catholicism. To be conscious of having the truth is the root of all other spiritual joy. As Catholics, then, professing our belief in the unchanging deposit of the Faith, we, unlike all others, can and ought to have true Christian joy in our hearts.

However, the mere fact of believing in Catholicism as the true religion, will not make us happy, except we at the same time actually live according to that belief, at least in as far as the ten commandments are concerned; then adding to the ten commandments those of the Church, the Sacraments, and the duties of our state of life. Without these additions, we are not able to fulfill our duties as Catholics, and hence to be supremely happy as Catholics. Faith is a sham if it is not living.

Another point that ought to make us joyful is this: as Catholics, we are not only enjoying the possession of truth ourselves, but we are helping to pass it along to others. Especially ought parents to feel a great consolation in this phase of the Faith; for they are raising children in the true Faith, which will thus be passed on from one generation to another. How different is this from what occurs in the world, where falsehoods are passed on from one to another, falsehoods that mislead not only individuals but whole groups, yes, whole nations and peoples. Nor should we be surprised, when Vatican II threw open the doors of the Church to the world, that errors (e.g. ecumenism and religious liberty) have entered in and continue to mislead large numbers of Catholics away from the solid truths of the true Faith.

Joy is an integral part of our relationship to God, the source of all good and all happiness, and is the fruit of His revelation. "These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (Jn. 15:11). The closer we are to the Kingdom of God, the more intense our sharing in the rejoicing that is an essential action of the divine nature. Saints experience more joy on earth than others do because they are closer to God and more open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A mark of great holiness is the ability to find happiness in the most unpromising circumstances, to rejoice in deprivation, pain, and sacrifice. Even saints who make penance and suffering a major part of their life must do so joyfully or lose the race. As St. Francis de Sales said: "A sad saint is a sorry saint."

As we examine our lives and see the many graces God has given us we certainly have cause to rejoice. Let us then, during this Lent, try to increase this joy by doing just a little bit more in the way of prayer and penance than we have in the past. God will certainly reward us by drawing us closer to Him and, if we remain faithful, as St. Paul tells us: "your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you."