Come In By The Narrow Door

While on vacation (which was where I was all last week)  I had read a book by Father Stephen Rossetti, on the happiness of priests.  The book was written shortly after the priest scandal and includes much of the research used by the John Jay Committee.  The bottom line of the text is that priest are a very happy lot.  In some cases a lot happier than those in the secular field.  But here is the caveat: the happy priests embrace and live a priestly lifestyle.  This of course would include prayer, devotions, reading, friendships and maintaining a chaste life.

I couldn't help but wonder if these same 'happiness' indicators could be applied to all aspects of catholic life.  If we could say young and old married couples, parents, single men and women, can find happiness when they live a particular holy and faith-filled life.  I recall evaluating a FOCCUS with a young couple which the young woman had one problem indicator after another.  After I had spoken for a while about the sacramental, and emotional nature, of a relationship I asked if she had any questions.  She did - about the flower placement in the Church.

The Gospel for today is fairly blunt.  Simply knowing he 'name' Jesus, or going to church, does not guarantee a seat at the heavenly banquet.  Rather, and St. Paul would reiterate this, One's life needs to have an intimacy with Jesus Christ.  The is a story I had read some time ago in which two men were at a bar, and one ask the other if they were friends.  The second responded with an emphatic "yes."  The First asked, "Do you know where I hurt?"  The second admitted that he didn't even know he hurt.  The first then retorted, "How can you call yourself my friend."

More and more I have com to understand that we have to have a close and very intimate relationship with Jesus.  Like the psalmist of old, we have to long, mind, body, and soul, for union with Christ.  Perhaps it is my old age (53) but I believe that saying the 'words' and 'doing' the gestures can never be enough.  The Gospel that we preach and witness is not negotiable.  It is a radical statement of how we ought to be in the Kingdom of God.

Happiness comes at a price called the cross.  But for the faithful and determined it is a price worth paying by an intimacy with the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ.