THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS? BETWEEN THE HAPPINESS OF THE GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE HAPPINESS OF GOD THERE IS AN ABYSS

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The American Constitution, smelling of Masonic enlightenment and coming into force while in Europe it broke out in 1789 French Revolution, it also includes the right to happiness, complete with a reference to a Creator who, however, resembles the Great Architect of the Universe, rather than to God the Father.

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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In the fourth week of Lent, when the Sunday in Laetare, also known as Happiness Sunday, I wondered what happiness is, above all what can lead us to its discovery. It is a question that haunts many Christian souls, especially today, when hedonism and materialism are triumphing in the world.

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The year 2021 was born under the severe burden of the pandemic, with all the social and economic problems that follow. Problems we were filled with before; problems that I fear we will be plagued by again in the future, perhaps for a long time. Enough to complain about the subtraction of the ... "right to happiness".

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For many today, happiness is knowing if you can go out, enjoy the nightlife and meet up for an aperitif with friends, if it is possible to resume the usual habits, in a life without pain, disease, aging, physical decay and death. In short, the triumph of the world of the unreal, as we have often written and complained the Fathers de The Island of Patmos on these columns of ours. Of course, wanting to know when this nightmare is over and wanting it to end, it's understandable to say the least, less is the rejection of reality, in this society of ours of immortal young people who do not suffer, they do not get sick, they do not age, they do not physically decay and ultimately do not die.

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For many, happiness is having the latest smartphone, a season ticket in the stands of your favorite team's stadium, or win that girl like she was a trophy, if anything, just for a night of passion. And with this the world of the so-called "three S's" was painted: sex, money and success. For many, happiness is mainly constituted by the liquidity of money with which one can achieve success and have the best sexual satisfactions.. And precisely with regard to liquids, Jerome David Salinger wisely illustrated the substantial difference between happiness and joy:

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«[…] it is a fact that always appears obvious when it is too late, but the most marked difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid " [The blue period of De Daumier-Smith; in Nine Tales, 1953; Einaudi, 1962, translation of C. Fruttero].

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The American Constitution, smelling of Masonic enlightenment and coming into force while in Europe it broke out in 1789 French Revolution, it also includes the right to happiness, complete with a reference to a Creator who, however, resembles the Great Architect of the Universe, rather than to God the Father:

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“All men were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with some inalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Freedom and the pursuit of Happiness; in order to guarantee these rights, Governments are created among men, who derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; whenever any form of government, it tends to deny these ends, it is the right of the people to modify or destroy it, and create a new government, that it lays its foundations on these principles and organizes its powers in the form that it seems most likely to the people will bring Security and Happiness ".

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There is much to discuss, on the concept of subjective human happiness changed into positive law, for example wondering how it is possible to raise a subjective or collective emotional state of the person rightly. May man seek happiness understood as physical and psychological well-being, this has always been known. All the more reason we should understand what is meant by happiness on a legal and philosophical level, perhaps the cynical-Socratic virtue or perhaps the suppression of the desire instinct of the Epicurean school? What then the pursuit of happiness both the purpose of human life is a decidedly widespread philosophical position with noble and ancient origins. The question therefore requires understanding, first of all, what happiness is: it is perhaps the stoic and skeptical ataraxia transmitted as a virtue by the Socratic school, or the suppression of the desire of the Epicurean school?

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All this is in itself something very liquid, while instead the Lord guides us to the discovery of solid happiness, that is born and becomes stable through the encounter with him. Nicodemus, who had a long conversation with him at night, he could indeed experience true happiness in that way. Indeed Jesus, talking to him, he brought back his memory to the biblical events that had formed Jewish culture, recalling him with these words:

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«How Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of man must be raised up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. In fact, God so loved the world that he gave the only Son so that whoever believes in him would not be lost, but have eternal life " [GV 3, 14-16].

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Here Jesus mentions the episode present in the Book of Numbers [cf.. 21, 1–10], when the Lord tells Moses that by placing a snake on a pole, the Israelites will always recover from the bites of other poisonous snakes. However, the Lord does not stop at memory. Salvation, eternal healing are present now and now for Nicodemus. Eternal life is offered through faith in the Son of Man, Jesus Christ Son of the Father.

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The joy of the Trinitarian God you can live even today, it is enough to pass from the memory of the past to the faith of a present penetrated and inhabited by the redemption of Christ. To this, the Lord adds:

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"It gave, indeed, did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but for the world to be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned; but those who do not believe have already been sentenced, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God " [GV 3, 17-18].

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The happiness that the Father gives consists, materially, in receiving and giving Charity. In this context, there is no condemnation without appeal. Faith leads to this: make an act of justice and humility in the face of one's sins, weaknesses and errors and ask for the love of the Father in His Son, which will be poured out without limit. Solid joy is escaping the works of darkness and evil, that satisfy the ephemeral desire for revenge. Indeed:

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«And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, but men loved darkness more than light, because their works were evil. Anyone in fact does evil, He hates the light, and it does not come to light so that its works are not reproved. Instead, whoever does the truth comes towards the light, so that it appears clearly that his works were done in God " [GV 3, 19-21].

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Solid happiness it is therefore to carry out the works of the Light and to pour out this love of charity. God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, that is, God himself one and three, asks us to donate it to others. Because in these works of mercy we will be closely united with him. This is the great difference between the happiness that comes from God and the false happiness that comes from the Great Architect of the Universe, with all the consequences.

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Rome, 20 March 2021

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