 Good afternoon, everyone I Made it to you. I'm so happy that I did I wanted to If my voice sounds crazy, that's because it is and it's okay for you to tell me that I just came off of An entire month of craziness think of this think of organizing this conference and multiplying it to the tenfold from July 1st to Today or to today I suppose It's been an ongoing Every single day humongous event leading to today. That's because our parish I'm the pastor of St. Ian's Cathedral in Osavo, which is a commune in the Department of neeps a department in Hades kind of like a state and It is the 300th anniversary of the town and of the parish It was supposed to be celebrated last year 2021 But because of COVID and insecurity, we had to postpone. I'm sorry. You can't hear Turn it down. Oh I don't know how to Production are we good? I Guess yeah Speakers in in a room like this can be difficult because they don't want it to echo too much But at the same time which means I have to speak more slowly so that you can catch every word and I will articulate better But if I do that, I think they're recording aren't they yeah, if I if I do that they can't record It's a tricky situation We'll just have to bear together this you can offer it up. How about that? I? Promise to go slowly. I Can tend to speed up just slow me down. Okay. Who wants to be my slower downer? Thank you. You just raise your hand just be like and then I'll know to do that I won't get offended. I will not get offended because I get excited When I speak and especially about the gospel, it's so beautiful and especially About today's topic. So anyway July 1st to the 3rd. We had a big charismatic Congress that I was organizing was beautiful And then the 4th to the 10th We had a huge prayer service every single day called God's plans from Jeremiah 29 11 my plan for you is for your welfare for your goodness, etc And we had a team come in from Port-au-Prince to come put it on and Then the 11th to the 16th if you can tell every single day is filled so far We had what's called the Bible and the Catholic Church in the public square Yes in the public square we put a big speakers loud and We pumped out the music So we could gather people and then every night we spoke on a different Topic of the gospel. The first day was the particularity of Jesus Why we need Jesus and why he is the only savior of humanity because I realized in Catholic apologetics, we usually just assume everyone knows that we are Jesus centered that we are Crystal-centric it's all about Jesus. We assume it and so we don't talk about it But then other people really think of us. They don't care about Jesus For them is always Mary. It's always the Pope. It's always the statues. It's always the communion of saints And then I realize huh What we assume they don't know because they can't read our minds So I start now with Proclaiming Christ in the Korygma and letting them know that everything we do With the saints and the Pope and the statues and everything else is all because of Jesus And then we went on to speak of baptism and confession because the first day We invited people to stand publicly To acknowledge Christ and commit themselves to him either for the first time or as a renewal It was beautiful and so baptism for the first timers was proposed to them and then Confession for the those who are renewing and so the next day we spoke of the apologetics of confession and baptism and then we spoke of the papacy and one of the days actually was really fun because right before the Congress somebody a group from from the seventh day Adventist Church put together a pamphlet to attack the Pope and And to spread lies They say that you know the Pope just signed the law with the Protestants it in order to Declare son an obligatory Sunday law for everybody They said that we tricked everyone we went on the Internet and switched all calendars to make it look Like Sunday was the seventh day and therefore the new Sabbath It was so weird out there and they passed out hundreds of copies in the town and They made the mistake of putting the phone number in the back Inviting people to call them if they want to study the Bible so we called them and At first I thought it might be intimidating if I did so I had my secretary call and say We would like to discuss with you your pamphlet that you passed out and they said oh, we'd be happy to do that It's a great. Would you like to do it on the public square? Because that's where they passed it all out and they said we'd like to discuss some questions on the flyer They said oh on the public square. Yeah with our priest like oh well We live far away. We don't think we can make it because fuel is very scarce at this point So I offered to pay for the transportation and Then they said oh Well, it looks like even with transportation. We have some other issues So I offered to do it by phone. Oh well What time is it gonna be done? We're really punctual if you say a time and 15 minutes later. It hasn't started. We're out. So it will be punctual and Then we never heard from them again. I think they thought we were too enthusiastic About speaking with them because they don't get that they don't usually get any pushback Right and so I did a teaching on that very pamphlet and on the Sabbath as to why we don't Submit to the Sabbath anymore and not because we changed the day. That's not true Sabbath is the seventh day But we are no longer bound to keep it just like we're no longer bound to be Circumcised but that's for a different topic and we've got a way more competent teacher on that topic than I whom I hope you will hear later on and is Mr. Norman Who's sitting back there who's actually a former servant? They have on his pastor and he is speaking for the first time at these conferences. Let's give it up for Norman Thank You Norman and So after that event you would think we would stop no we went further we had a whole week from the 17th To the 23rd of a Jericho prayer every night We read the story of Jericho and we Lived it out Materialized it. We did a walk around the town Every day it took an hour and a half and then on the seventh day we walked around the town seven times Yeah, we ended around 1 a.m. That night, but the people loved it It was to proclaim the gospel and then we continued after the Jericho through the novena Leading up to St. Anne's feast on the 26th and we just did that feast and then the next morning at 5 a.m. I had to get up To fly out to get here. I missed my first flight. So I had to get the later flight Laid over in New York and then this morning flew straight here just to come to you The Lord has something for you. He's got a beautiful surprise for you amen God wants you to be happy. Let that sit with you God wants you to be happy. It is his desire It is his plan. It is your vocation to be happy That is the simplest topic Yet I have found that it's not always clear for people and so today I want to Lay down I want to destroy the heresy That says that God doesn't care about your happiness. I want to beat it up kill it slay it What's another word and I elated It's heresy and it is a heresy. I say that of course I speak passionately because in Catholic circles We often hear that very phrase even from higher ups God doesn't care about your happiness He cares about you to be great or he wants you to be holy not happy What a sad news What a terrible lie to tell people That is not the gospel And I will prove it to you if I can prove to you that God wants you to be happy. Will you be happy? Okay, good. Good. That is the purpose of my talk There's way more to it than that But if I can do that alone then I will have fulfilled the purpose of this talk So you never see that lie again What is happiness? Why don't we start with Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica part 2? Question 1 article 8 He says this it is impossible for any created good to constitute man's happiness For happiness is that is that perfect good which entirely satisfies one's desire Otherwise it would not be the ultimate end if something yet remained to be desired Now the object of the will i.e. of man's desire is what is universally good The will is ordered to the good just as the intellect is ordered to the truth. Okay, so Just as the object of the intellect is what is universally true Hence it is evident that nothing can satisfy man's will except what is universally good That is to be found not in any creature, but in God alone Because every creature has only participated goodness Therefore God alone can satisfy the will of man according to the words of the Psalms one or two verse five Who alone satisfies your desire with good things? Therefore God alone Constitutes man's happiness So happiness is found in God and God alone. It is perfect fulfillment. It is total bliss G.K. Chesterton defines happiness as such and Chesterton of course is a very interesting character. He lived life fully Both in his body his spirit his heart He would eat well drink well and then get up and dance on the table after a night of eating and drinking He says happiness is a state of the soul a State in which our natures are full of the wine of an ancient youth in which banquets last forever and roads lead everywhere Where all things are under the exuberant leadership of faith hope and charity He said this in Charles Dickens a critical study The catechism of the Catholic Church in the third part as you know There are four parts in the catechism the first part is on the profession of faith and it goes through the creed and Defines what we believe the second part is on the Celebration of the Christian mystery so the liturgy the sacraments the third part is life in Christ So the moral life the good life the fourth part is on prayer Now the third part on the moral life What do you think it is about? The first part is about the creed the second is the liturgy and The the sacraments the fourth part is on prayer specifically the our father and then everything else What about the third part on the life in life in Christ the moral life? What do you think it defines? What do you think it begins with? The ten commandments. Okay. Yes, that would be a natural understanding of it. That's part of it However, that is not where it starts Because the moral life does not begin with the commandments the moral life does not begin with the rules or the prohibitions so We are told in the Catechism 1720 That the New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man The coming of the kingdom of God That expresses the beatitude or the blessedness or the happiness of man the vision of God Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God entering into the joy of the Lord Or entering into God's rest All of these are expressions of the beatitude or of everlasting happiness There we shall rest and see we shall see and love we shall love and praise Behold what will be at the end without end for what other end do we have if not to reach the kingdom which has no end God has put us in the world to know to love and to serve him and so to come the paradise Beatitude makes us partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life With Beatitude man enters into the glory of Christ and into the joy of the Trinitarian life And that's another distinction without a difference that people usually make they'll say no You don't really want to be happy. You want joy as if that was a very profound statement. It's not joy and happiness are Intrinsically intertwined. They're almost synonyms It's like happiness is for the pagans and joy is for the Christians. No Happiness is for you and I will show you After defining it how it is indeed of divine origin this desire to be happy We go back to the Catechism in 1718 We hear that the Beatitudes Respond to the natural desire for happiness this desire is of divine origin God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man To the one who alone can fulfill it So who put the desire for happiness in our hearts Okay, you could be more confident than that who put the desire for happiness in our hearts God did not paganism God did it is right for you to Want to be happy. I remind you that this is under article 2 in Chapter 1 of the Section on man's vocation Life in Christ in part 3 of the Catechism Article 2 is called our vocation to be attitude. It is your calling. We all want to live happily Continuous 1718 of the catechism as it quotes now send a gustin. We all want to live happily in The whole human race There is no one who does not assent to this proposition Even before it is fully articulated This is the symbol gussin who said My heart will not rest. Oh Lord until it rests in thee and that is perfect happiness for a gustin There is no one before the proposition is say, you know, we all want to live happily If you were to ask somebody do you want to be happy? At the beginning of the word happy before you end the word they'd be like yes That is the entire human race. It is in a universal human experience Everyone wants to be happy and everyone acts accordingly By that I mean they act according to what they believe will make them happy That's where it gets tricky is That there are counterfeits to the paths that lead to happiness But in just a moment we can get to that How was it then that I seek you Lord since in seeking you my God I seek a happy life Let me seek you so that my soul may live For my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you That is not from a pagan who says he seeks the Lord so that he can be happy. I Seek a happy life in seeking you my God Yes, it's not selfish It is according to your nature. You are built like that Augustine said that as well in confessions God alone satisfies See the beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence the ultimate end of human acts God calls us to his own beatitude his own happiness. This vocation is addressed to each individual personally 1719 of the catechism that vocation is addressed to each individual Personally a vocation to God's beatitude to his happiness But also to the church as a whole the new people made up of those who have accepted the promise and live From it in faith desire for true happiness Continues the catechism 2548 Desire for true happiness frees man From his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world So that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and be attitude of God The promise of seeing God Surpasses all the attitude in scripture to see is to possess So the beatific vision is the beatific possession You possess God Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive I don't know if I need to prove it anymore that God wants you to be happy And this is straight from the doctrine of the church But fine if you want me to continue Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness Placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength But on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit number 1817 Number 1718 is pretty awesome and in 1817 is pretty awesome as well The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness Which God has placed in the heart of every man That's 1818 The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, several popes have spoken of this call to happiness And John Paul II during his apostolic visit to Toronto to in the 17th world youth day In the papal welcoming ceremony he had an address on July 25th of 2002 He said dear friends The aged pope Full of years, but still young at heart Answers your youthful desire for happiness With words that are not his own There are words that rang out two thousand years ago Words that we have heard again tonight Blessed are they The key word in Jesus' teaching is a proclamation of joy Blessed are they People are made for What? Yes, you can say it loudly and confidently People are made for happiness It is true It is not in contradiction to the phrase that people are made for greatness It is one and the same thing. In fact, you can't be great if you're not happy You can't be happy if you're not great It's one and the same Yes, the pope continues. He says people are made for happiness Rightly then you thirst for happiness Rightly, he says Christ has the answer to this desire of yours But he asks you to trust him true joy is a victory something which cannot be obtained without a long and difficult struggle Christ holds a secret of this victory So happiness does not preclude struggle We see why Pope Benedict the 16th also said to some children he told children gathered in Leon's plaza to pass on march 24th God wants us to be happy always God wants us to be happy always That sounds like some some modern day Pundit or something right from the left No, that's from the holy father. That's from pope Benedict the 16th God wants us to be happy always. He knows us and he loves us If we allow the love of christ to change our heart, then we can change the world This is the secret of authentic happiness The pope said in his evening message delivered to a crowd of thousands gathered Since the early morning that day C. S. Lewis in mere christianity He makes an argument Actually for god In happiness. He says that creatures are not born with desires Unless satisfaction for these desires exists Interesting, isn't it? You don't have a desire A true desire that cannot be satisfied A baby feels hunger Well, there is such a thing as food A duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water Men feel sexual desire. Well, there is such a thing as sex If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy The most probable explanation is that I was made for another world So my desire for total happiness For total fulfillment does exist. It is out of this world. It is in god himself Now st. Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between Two types of happiness both are good by the way Not a good and bad But what he calls a perfect happiness Which is be a to do be a to do be attitude Be a to do and imperfect happiness felicitas Felicity Be attitude Is obtained in the final beatific vision in god and it is that which Orders everything else in this life Since perfect happiness is the perfect possession of god or the perfect seeing of god or the beatific That is obtained in heaven and therefore that is obtained in heaven However, st. Thomas says there is imperfect happiness imperfect in the sense that it is in this world Happiness in the sense that of course it leads to and participates in the perfect fulfillment that god wants to give us And to which he has called us from the very beginning Felicitas he says can be obtained through the virtues Because felicitas has to do with the fulfillment of our nature as human beings See It doesn't just lie in pleasures in bodily pleasure because we share that with the animal kingdom Dogs get pleasure Cats get pleasure Birds get pleasure But there's something more though to us Our nature is different what makes us distinct is our intellect and will and so That is why the virtues the intellectual the moral Virtues and then the theological virtues are the paths to our happiness in this world The intellectual moral And theological virtues are the paths to felicitas to happiness in this world prudence temperance justice Fortitude the human virtues the cardinal virtues The theological virtues faith hope and love They perfect the will because we are creatures of the intellect and will that makes us distinct and special So in our distinctness We can be fulfilled in those virtues So the good life is a virtuous life That's why the catechism And that's why Aquinas He spent 60 questions almost Speaking of happiness And the virtues before he goes on to speak of the commandments and the prohibitions Because the reason for these things Is happiness? That is the ultimate end of human life. He says Everything else we do there they can't be good, but they are not the ultimate ends Making money is a good thing But you don't make money for its own sake You make money for the sake of something else Until you reach happiness If you ask me, why do you want to be happy? There is no other explanation, but that I want to be happy That is why it is the last end the last purpose And it is not Interferical to Who God is and the beatific vision It is one and the same My happiness lies in the beatific vision I want to be happy and therefore I seek the paths to that happiness St. Thomas goes along to show How certain counterfeits to the paths that lead to happiness do not work because they are all creaturely And he goes to speak about certain things such as power fame honor These things are not the paths to happiness because the more you get of it the more you want You are never quite fulfilled in it and you never get it for its own sake You get it for the sake of something else until you get to The true happiness which can be obtained through the virtues in this world And the beatific vision and the world to come He also speaks of other goods such as wealth Whether it's created wealth A special kind of wealth such as your health that's a sort of richness and Thomas says Or money to get things to to gold or whatever But these things also they're all finite And none of them can satisfy fully But many people though seek their total satisfaction in these things that are finite And therefore they are left wanting more Obviously and that more that they want is God That is why everyone acts for happiness Every single person acts for happiness you do your neighbor does the conservative does the liberal does the republican does The democrat does the catholic does the partisan does the voodoo practitioner does Everyone acts for happiness But not everyone follows the same path to happiness and not every path to happiness is created equal Many will lead astray If you want the true path to happiness in this world, you live the life of virtue And so that would be a great motivation for me to learn about the virtues also the moral law Is there to protect that virtue and therefore to protect my attainment of happiness is like Oh my gosh. Okay. Tell me about the think commandments then But if I just start with You didn't just stop sinning I shall not use the law's name in vain stop committing adultery. God doesn't care about your happiness You just need to be holy No one wants to follow that no one is excited about that But if you tell me that I can be happy, but not only can I be happy? God wants me to be happy. I will say tell me how Then I can tell you about the virtues and then About the commandments and such then it falls into place things must must be presented in the right order Otherwise, it's moralism And that's bad as bad news That is bad news In the law God is trying to show us how to be like him saying If you do this, you'll be like me If you want to be like me, don't do that You want to be faithful like I am? Then don't come in adultery because then that's unlike me And the likeness of me is joy The likeness of me is fulfillment I want to be fulfilled. I want to be happy. So I don't want adultery But you see because of the fall Our inelix have been darkened and our wills have been weakened and our passions disordered The gospel and grace come to rescue those To first repair them Then to perfect them and then to elevate them into the divine realm And that's why we have the gospel We can know for example certain truths by reason alone even that god exists But faith comes to our aid so that we can effortlessly know these things and with great certainty to perfect our knowledge And our love in the will as we love There's a story that in world war two Certain soldiers would be so Thirsty They ran out of water That when they came to a body of salt water ocean water They would all try to rush to it They had to be physically stopped Because they see water and they truly believe that it can satiate their thirst But of course we all know it would only make it worse So too the things in this world that we think would lead us to happiness Sins especially sins are very attractive. There is no sin that is not attractive Every single sin is attractive. That's why you do it It would be so much easier if sins Were ugly in the sense of apparently ugly and stink Like physically stink that you got to the same like like oh gosh, I don't want to do that It would be so much easier Wouldn't it But sin is attractive. It's that ocean water. It promises To satiate your thirst, but it never does And I am 100% sure that every single person in this room Has experienced that truth You have tried out sin And you have found it wanting The only reason we continue to sense because we're stupid And weak We're stupid and weak We don't learn We do not learn Yet god is the source of all happiness and he says it's hard to walk the path of virtue But it is the path to happiness Everything else even the good things They cannot be the substitute for happiness Blaise Pascal said that there are three types of people in the world There are those who have sought the truth about god and have found it There are those who are seeking the truth about god, but have not yet found it Then there are those who neither seek nor find god The first group is wise because they knew to seek god And are happy because they have now found him The second group the second group is wise because they knew to seek god But they are unhappy because they have not yet found him Of the third group Pascal said I have no words to describe so silly a creature And Matt Fraud continues in his little book on happiness the secrets to happiness we sent Thomas Aquinas I believe it's called the author is Matt Fraud f r a d d He said it wasn't until I read the Summa Theology that I thought about the water Our blessed lord speaks of As signifying temporal goods But it's a wonderful point Christ says to the woman who has come to draw water at the well in John 4 13 Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again Every created good That you try to find And if you try to enjoy it in a way that is not proportionate to its nature as creature It will leave you disappointed You will thirst again It cannot satisfy only god can We distinguish between authentic happiness and mere enjoyment Aquinas does as well Doctor Pop check Gregory pop check who is a catholic psychologist He and his wife they wrote an article called does god want you to be happy or yes And read Pope Francis's 10-point happiness plan Does god want you to be happy read? Pope Francis's 10-point happiness plan They say psychologists define authentic happiness As the stable experience of joy that comes from pursuing a life that is meaningful i.e Uses one's gifts to benefit others a life that is intimate i.e having a healthy rich loving relationships And virtuous i.e exhibiting the strength to use whatever life throws at you as an opportunity for growth and development Authentic happiness is differentiated From mere enjoyment Which is transient and rooted in the pursuit of pleasure And the avoidance of conflict The answer to the question of whether god desires our happiness I would argue Depends on whether you define happiness as authentic happiness What we christians call the virtue of joy or mere enjoyment Man mere enjoyment is not sufficient. Perhaps that's what people Are thinking of when they say god doesn't care about your happiness But we can't do that disservice to the theological tradition on happiness We can't just give up the word Just like we can't give up the word love. Can you imagine? God doesn't care about you loving people Just because love has been hijacked as a word to say love is love is love But just because it has it there isn't a tip to hijack it doesn't mean you give it up So too just because people misunderstand what true happiness is Doesn't mean you don't define it for them properly And so the solution is not to give it up or to bash it But to define it properly and to teach it and it's good news Who doesn't want to be happy who doesn't want to hear that god the god of the universe cares about their happiness they do So my dear friends I believe I have succeeded in showing you that It isn't just I who say it but The scriptures saint Thomas Aquinas G.K. Chesterton pope jumbo the 2nd pope Barrett the 16th pope Francis the catechism of the catholic church Your own experience tell you That god wants your happiness amen