True Happiness

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness, 

I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. Psalm 17:15

St. Patrick, the patron saint of the Irish, realized the great hope of a believer was beyond this world; they were with Christ in heaven, where God’s glory radiates from his face. Every Christian knows that when we see Jesus as he is, we will be like him. Until then we should be reminded of The Breastplate, Patrick’s poem of faith and trust in God: “Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

While the greatest happiness is to come, we are benefitted by great hope and happiness in the glorious face of Jesus the Christ. And we have the Word of God that reveals Christ’s glory on most every page.

We have no way of knowing what Jesus looked like. There have been many portrayals of Jesus that range from his being a blue-eyed Caucasian to a dark-skinned man with wild hair. However, his portraiture is not what’s important. We have to rely on the Scriptures to provide descriptions, and as we meditate on these descriptions and keep him in our thoughts and prayers, his face becomes much more vivid, clear, and transforming.

Worldly people concentrate on the riches they hope to obtain, especially their work achievements, which they hope will bring them prestige. Those who don’t focus on Christ allow their desires for worldly accomplishments and goods to consume their entire being. Instead of reading Scripture, they read books and magazines that they hope will hone their skills so that they can attain their worldly desires. Their world is consumed with the hope that they can achieve their self-esteem by their accomplishments.

People who pursue their worldly dreams can put us Christians to shame by their zeal and vision. We, as Christians, are invited to the joy and pleasures forevermore in the presence of our Lord, in meditating on his face. But we can find, in our visions of Christ, as much enthusiasm and delight as those who are “of the world.”

The question is not whether we will contemplate – whether we will allow our thoughts to concentrate on some great, hoped-for thing and dwell there. Rather, the question is whether we will focus our attention on Christ who can bring us fullness of joy and pleasures. It is in our vision of Christ that we find hope and transforming grace to perceive the charisma, promise and power of God’s kingdom, and therefore our true happiness.