Brothers and sisters! In the old Czech comedy School the Basis of Life, there is a well-known scene where an excerpt of the poem The Grandfather’s Legacy by Adolf Heyduk is heard in class: „Lucky! What’s lucky? A fly is only golden, which praises your head in the evening; it’s surrounded by a glass, it covers itself in the curler, you lower your head in the palm of your hand, your hand oppresses them.“ In it, the author expressed the transience of happiness, that it lasts only a moment.
But today’s celebration and the word of God we hear tell us about another happiness: permanent, eternal. We listen to the beatitudes of Jesus, with which the speech begins.
The Beatitudes offer us the way to eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven. In the Jerusalem Bible, the word blessed is translated as: happy. Each of us wants to be satisfied, not only for a while, but forever. That’s why we do everything. We build relationships, start a family, strengthen friendships, study, work, play sports, eat healthy, take vitamins, heal, or do the opposite— we enjoy every day to the fullest. Because for us, happiness is synonymous with health, family well-being, wealth, good status, popularity with people, that we will do well in everything, or vice versa, synonymous with carefree enjoyment. Simply that everything in our life will go as we plan. At the same time, we know that it does not work like this. There will also be health problems, financial difficulties, job failures, misunderstandings, and even wrongdoing by others.
The eternal happiness offered by the beatitudes of Jesus is not an unattainable ideal. The beatitudes do not even want to moralize cheaply that we must achieve their ideal by our own efforts. Benedict XVI in the work Jesus of Nazareth, states that „is as if a veiled inner biography of Jesus, as if a portrait of his character.“ It means that they pay for us „ thanks to the fact that they were first carried out on Christ himself as on the truth.“ So only Jesus really fulfilled them. And so they are an invitation to unity with him, because only in this way can they be realized in our lives. Only in union with Christ do we recognize what true happiness is, what true bliss is, and how poor is what is considered satisfaction and happiness by ordinary standards. What does that mean?
That we are the lucky ones who have obtained eternal life for free, only by God’s grace – that is, infinitely more than a monetary win or perfect health. Because while this is temporary, eternal life is a permanent value. That is why it is so important not only to hear the beatitudes, but today to believe this word anew, according to which one can suffer in life, not succeed, be in the background, cry, try injustice, be persecuted, slandered, and yet to be blessed, that is, happy. Do you perceive this undeserved grace? That the Lord invites us poor, weak sinners to become fellow citizens of the saints and belong to God’s family? ( Eph 2,19) This is no ordinary happiness; this is a blessing! We already participated in it in holy baptism. But it continues, even with today’s celebration. Jesus opened the way for us to the Father so that one day we could hear, like all the saints before us, his word: „ Come, blessed of my Father, take the kingdom, which is ready for you from the creation of the world“ (Mt 25, 34). What can we do to avoid losing this gift of eternal life?
St. Augustine says, „ Only Christ truly and perfectly realizes the Speech on top. We will always need Christ to wash and restore us. That is why we need constant conversion, which feeds on the humble knowledge that we are wandering sinners, until the Lord gives us a definitive hand and brings us into eternal life.“ Holiness is therefore God’s grace plus our constant conversion.
In neocatechumenate communities, there is a Pentecost song in which it is sung: „If you feel some whiff from the sky, a kind of wind that shakes the door, listen: it is a voice that calls, it is an invitation to walk into the distance. It is the flame that ignites in the one who knows how to wait, in the one who knows how to nurture the hope of love.“ We want everything right away and on our own. However, the way to holiness is to learn how to be patient in listening to God’s word, in receiving the sacraments, and in carrying the cross. It is not a fast course, but a long distance run. „Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved“ (Mk 13,13b). The most important thing is not to think that the path to holiness is the sum of some practices and exercises. The way to holiness is to know and believe that only „u of the Lord is salvation“ (Jon 2,10), that without him, we can do nothing ( Jn 15.5b), that is, that God’s grace is necessary for salvation. Let us allow God to fill us with his grace, let us listen carefully to his word, let us receive Christ in the sacraments, in the community of the Church, in weak and sinful brothers and sisters, knowing that they are better than us. And even though we often fail to do so, let us have patience on the path of our conversion, which is the daily calling of Christ’s disciple.
So hope can live in us that happiness is not just a Fly, only gold…“ You may know, or maybe not, that in the Greek Catholic Church, All Saints’ Day is not today, but on the first Sunday after the Sending of the Holy Spirit, to make it even more apparent that our path to holiness is connected to the power of the Holy Spirit. Only in union with him is the guarantee of our eternal happiness.
