Come Nearer to the Wedding Feast of Heaven
The goal of the Christian life is not suffering, but joy in the presence of God
One of the worst distortions perpetuated about the saints, by “pious” authors and enemies of the Church alike, is that the saints were a gloomy bunch, bent over under the weight of grim penances, banishing the sunlight from their chambers, closed off to joy, laughter, and playfulness.
Anyone who knows about the saints, or anyone who has met a saintly person, would never for a moment recognize them in such a description. In fact, one of the signs necessary for a person’s canonization is cheerfulness!
St. Francis of Assisi went into raptures over God’s goodness in creation, he played and did antics, singing out his joy as he walked the roads of Italy. St. Catherine of Siena, a stigmatist, had enough gumption to tell the Pope to keep his mouth shut for prudence’s sake. St. Lawrence made a joke on the gridiron: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.” And what of the sometimes mischievous St. Philip Neri, who shaved off half his beard for humility’s sake, and ordered a penitent to release a pillow’s worth of feathers? Or St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who teaches us “secrets of joy”? If one reads the Magnificat of Our Lady, there is not an ounce of gloominess there.
The saints knew one crucial secret that most people no longer know: joy is rooted in the love of God. Modern people try to be happy without God, but this is sheer folly, because God is happiness. God is identical to happiness, He is infinite blessedness, and whenever we attain any degree of joy or peace it is only because we have drawn nearer to Him. To seek happiness elsewhere is the result of an illusion, a deception.
We have to keep in mind that God did not create suffering and does not want His children to suffer. Suffering is an evil, it is not good for its own sake. The world as God made it is good through and through; it is man who introduces evil into this world, and the sins of certain men have proved to be the cause of great suffering for others. God does allow this suffering because through it He can purify us of our own sinfulness and make us more worthy of His boundless love.