THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Third Sunday after Easter

30 April 2023

[Image]

The Sunday

Sermon

Click the button on the right to be told about updates. Your address will be kept strictly private.

Dear Friends in Christ,

"A little while…" Our lives here on earth are filled with change, but our hearts crave stability. Indeed, the young often burn with the desire for adulthood and independence, and the old long for a return to youth or health. However, change is not always positive, and this we fear. Children want maturity but are afraid of responsibility. The laborer longs for retirement but fears the pains and ills of old age. The old long for health and strength but shun the obligations and labors of their youth. While we desire change in unpleasant things, we fear losing or changing those things that bring comfort, peace, security, and contentment.

In his "Confessions," St. Augustine says: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, my God." When we find God, we find peace, comfort, joy, and happiness. What we are longing for is eternal — uninterrupted — peace and happiness. We long for God (Heaven) from the moment of our birth through the last breath we take. Too often, we become deceived or distracted by our worldly or bodily desires, which makes our hearts restless. We are looking for happiness and peace (God), but we are deceived into thinking that the pleasures experienced in our bodies are genuine happiness.

Pursuing bodily pleasure is deceiving because it never satisfies the desire of our souls. Pleasure promises happiness and peace but often ends in pain or suffering. Pleasure is physically pleasing but quite often spiritually painful. In spiritual maturity, we learn that happiness is not found in pleasure, but pleasure can be found in happiness. When pleasure is the goal, we are always restless and roaming — looking for something that is always elusive. When true happiness is the goal, we find contentment, peace, and happiness regardless of the experiences of our physical bodies.

True happiness is a state of our soul that stays with us despite pleasure or suffering. Only the soul in the state of grace and loving God is happy. Whatever happens to the body becomes a matter of indifference to those who love God. We can be happy in pleasure, and we can be happy in pain. The key to true happiness is detachment from selfish bodily wants and desires. Our bodies want and need many things, and it is good to desire them in moderation or modesty if they conform to reason and the Will of God. Selfishness is the problem. When we seek pleasure for pleasure's sake and not according to reason and moderation, we can never be satisfied, and then we find disgust and frustration. When we seek God's Will, we find that we do not have to seek pleasure, yet it occasionally finds us.

When we embrace our daily cross for the love of God, we find that He makes our cross light, sweet, and a joy. He transforms physical pain into spiritual happiness. The children of God find all life's daily pleasures in this world, but they are not what is longed for. We are not to seek them in themselves. We are made to seek God. When we long for God and to be with God, bodily pleasures are accepted and give rise to an even greater love for God — physical suffering is likewise accepted and gives rise to greater love of God. We love God in pain because we accept that God knows what is best and unreservedly put our bodies and souls in His Hands. The pains give rise to greater love because we see that the pain is the exact medicine we need when we receive it. Though the medicine may be bitter, we willingly and even eagerly accept it because we trust and believe this is just what we need to be made well again. In the spiritual sense, we trust and believe that this is what is necessary for us to follow Jesus and be with God eternally in Heaven.

God is always with us and is always watching over us. He wants to see our love for Him regardless of the changes in this world and our physical lives here on earth. Do we love Him when we are filled with pleasure as well as when we are filled with pain? Do we love Him when He gives us abundance in this life as well as when He gives us scarcity? In the inner recesses of our souls, do we love Him when He fills our hearts with joy and happiness, as well as when He fills our hearts with sadness and sorrow?

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!