Did you know that there is an International Day of Happiness? I didn’t either until I began thinking about what I would write this week. The International Day of Happiness for 2021 Is March 20. Thinking about international happiness has been on the agenda since 2012 when the UN General Assembly “adopted a resolution that made it a ‘fundamental human goal ‘to give happiness as much priority as economic opportunity’.” Then, a year later all the member countries of the UN celebrated the first International Day of Happiness. I don’t think it makes much news in the USA. What we pay attention to is the Consumer Confidence Index® which measures “consumer attitude, buying intentions, vacation plans and consumer expectation for inflation, stock prices and interest rates.” Or, if you are really interested in socio-economic issues, you might check out the Misery Index which measures “how the average citizen is doing economically and it is calculated by simply adding the Annual inflation rate to the Seasonally Adjusted unemployment rate.” Oh, one more thing, “the theme for this year's International Day of Happiness is 'Keep Calm. Stay Wise. Be Kind' and is, of course, in response to the COVID pandemic.”
So, while we have a Consumer Confidence Index®, a Misery Index and a World Happiness Report, what do citizens of the Kingdom of God have to measure their spiritual success? This is a great question to ask on the 4th Sunday of Lent which is sometimes called Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word that means “rejoice.” Traditionally, Sundays are named after the first word of the liturgy's opening antiphon. On this Sunday, the antiphon is taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, be glad for her, all you who love her! Rejoice, rejoice with her, all you who mourned for her” (Is 66: 10).
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis tells us in Evangelii Gaudium that one of our “success” indicators is joy. He says, “Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved” (6). We all know the children’s song “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Yes, Jesus loves us and in today’s Gospel Jesus tells us about the vastness of God’s love for us in what is the most quoted verse in the New Testament, John 3: 16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
William Barclay writes that this text contains the “very essence of the gospel.” God loves us. God loves not just you and me, God loves the world. St. Augustine said: “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.” Our problem is accepting the enormity of this love. God loves us unconditionally, understanding our inadequacies, limitations and sinfulness. God does not condemn us; God forgives us out of love.
And so, on this 4th Sunday of Lent let’s not worry about the Consumer Confidence Index®, the Misery Index or the World Happiness Report. Rather, let’s focus on God’s love of the world. Pope Francis writes that “We have a treasure of life and love which cannot deceive, and a message which cannot mislead or disappoint. It penetrates to the depths of our hearts, sustaining and ennobling us. It is a truth which is never out of date because it reaches that part of us which nothing else can reach. Our infinite sadness can only be cured by an infinite love” (Evangelii Gaudium, 265).
Loving and gracious Father,
you still love the world so much
that you keep giving it Jesus your Son.
May his cross be the sign
that you are with us
in days of misery and pain.
May we look up to him and learn from him
to open our hands and hearts to one another
and to give ourselves with our talents.
May this help the world to see your light
and to accept the Son you have given us,
Jesus Christ, our Lord for ever.
Amen.
