The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Do You Want to Be Happy?

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

How do you attain happiness? This question has been asked since the beginning of time. Using Scripture and personal experience, Jeff shares his thoughts on what we can do in order to be happy. Snippet from the Show It is faithfulness and gratitude which ultimately lead to happiness. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 319. Do you want to be happy? And a very joyous Easter season to you. I'm Jeff Kavans. Thanks for joining me. We're at the beginning of the Easter season right now. And I do hope that your Holy Week and Easter, did you go to the Trudeau? I hope it was really a memorable event and holy and meaningful in so many different ways. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Easter than to go to the Easter vigil. Did you get to do that this year? If you've never done that, put it on the calendar for next year already because it is

really an amazing experience. And in our parish, we had, I think it was 21 people, something like that. It was very impressive. And there were people that were receiving the sacraments of initiation. And there were those that were simply receiving one sacrament or two sacraments. And it was just great. And I really, I really appreciated it. And so I hope you had a wonderful experience as well. Well, today we're going to be talking about, do you want to be happy? Now that's a rhetorical question, isn't it? Because I've never run into anybody who has ever told me, no, I do not want to be happy. In fact, I want to be miserable. That's just not the way we're wired. Everybody is searching for happiness. And it's a matter of what we define happiness as and how do we go about obtaining it. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. I want to give you some real practical advice as well as some things from scripture that deal with happiness. And like all others, shows, it's not the answer to everything, obviously. In other words, as a result of listening to the show, you're not going to wake up tomorrow morning and say, man, was that a show?

And I am so happy now. Happiness really is the result of living a good life. And it's not a matter of pursuing something and saying, well, I'm searching for happiness. I'm going to try this, try that, or whatever. But happiness really is more the result of the choices that you make in the life that you live. And so listen with an open heart and see if there's a something in this show that you might be able to take with you into everyday life. And as always, if you do want the show notes, just text my name, Jeff Kaven's, one word, Jeff Kavens, and you can text it to the number 3377. 33777. By the way, we just opened up our pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and that's coming up in January, and it's sold out. It's sold out in about an hour. And we're

looking for more. More. That's coming up in January. We're looking for this January of 24. And we're looking for more space right now. So hang in there with me. If you were one of those people that didn't quite make it in, my apologies, we were just shocked at how many people wanted to go with Emily and myself to the Holy Land. And thank you. And we really are going to work on this, trying to get more space. So we can bring you along with us. You can be happy. You should be happy even if you can't. But I get it. So we're talking about, do you want to be happy? And I want to start off with a kind of a definition from the modern Catholic dictionary, the work of Father John Hardin, all of you in Detroit, it's one of your heroes, your homeboys there. And he is,

he was, I should say, an amazing man. And I had a really interesting experience with him back during the call to holiness conferences in Detroit. And I remember one time he was going up on the platform on the side steps, and I was coming up on the platform behind him. And he was right there right before, you know, he passed away. He was quite old. And he got to the top step, and he started falling backward. This is off of the platform. And I was right behind him coming up the steps, and he fell right into my arms. And that's my only claim to fame there with Father John Harden is he fell into my arms instead of onto the floor. And he, is a real hero to many of you, I know, and the work that he put out is unparalleled. He was an

amazing man. Well, in the modern Catholic dictionary, Father John Harden gives this definition of happiness, which I think is so good. He says, any, and this is about as pithy as you can get, any contentment in the possession of a good, any contentment in the possession of a good. And so what he's saying there is that if you are possessing a good, you've been doing good, you are a part of good, and you have contentment as a result of it, that's happiness. That is happiness. Happiness is not an elusive feeling that we're pursuing. And if we do the exact combination of things, so paha, we're going to experience it.

He says it's any contentment that you experience in the possession of a good, something that you are doing. It could be in marriage or work or at home anywhere. And then he goes on and says, implies a state of well-being and not some single experience and a relative permanence and constancy. So unpack that real quickly. He says that it implies a state of well-being. It is a state that you are in. It isn't the result of a single experience.

And I've heard people say so often. often. Maybe you have to, you know, they'll talk about how we'll talk to them about how life and happiness and joy comes from a relationship with the Lord. And they'll say, well, I tried that. I tried that. Have you heard of anybody talk like that before? I tried that. It was like it's right in the list of drugs and meditation and long distance running and mind control or something. I tried that. And I didn't work. Well, that's not what we're talking about. It is a permanence. It's a constancy. It's a state of well-being, not a single experience, but it is the fruit of a lifestyle. It goes on and the definition says, hence regularly used in scripture to describe the lot of those

who are blessed by God for doing his will and the reward of the just for their faithful service on earth. Unpack that now here a little bit. He says, hence regularly used in scripture. scripture to describe a lot of those who are blessed by God for doing his will. So the definition says that happiness is a state that is a permanent relative permanence and constancy that is the result of doing God's will, not trying God, not reading a book or just going on a pilgrimage or something like that. You certainly that can contribute to this state of permanent constancy, this joy that we have of being in the Lord, but it really is the cumulative of doing his will, the accumulation of doing his will, I should say, and the reward of the just for their faithful

service on earth. And so I've never quite thought of happiness that way before until I read out of the modern Catholic Dictionary that it defines happiness as the reward, the reward of the just for their faithful service on earth. Yay. That's a neat way of looking at it. You know, it's a reward for doing the will of God and your faithful service on earth in the kingdom of God. And then it concludes happiness is a divine gift, but requires man's cooperation to be gained. Now, that is a phenomenal. I'll put that in the show notes for you, too, so you don't have to pull over on the side of the road because I know you're thinking of it right now because that was such a good quote. But I'll give it to you.

free on the show notes. So let me put it all together for you here. And then we'll look at the catechism. It says any contentment in the possession of a good implies a state of well-being and not some single experience and a relative permanence and constancy, hence regularly used in scripture to describe the lot of those who are blessed by God for doing his will. And the reward of the just for their faithful service on earth. Happiness is a divine gift but requires man's cooperation to be gained. Boy, I haven't read something that good for a while, as far as a quote from somebody, you know, defining something, and in this case, it's happiness.

Now, the catechism has a little bit of a different take on this. In paragraph 868, and also you'll find this relates to paragraphs 1024 and 1721 of the catechism, but it says happiness or blessedness, especially the eternal happiness of heaven, which is described as the vision of God or entering into God's rest by those whom he makes partakers of the divine nature. That's a little bit more of a heady description there of happiness. But I think putting it all together, we could say that happiness is the byproduct of those who are enjoying a relative permanent state, a constant state of doing. doing God's will, and it's the fruit that comes from living that life. It's a reward,

if you will, for that faithful service on earth. And so we don't see happiness as a one-time experience and one-time reward, but more of the result of long-term faithfulness or faithfulness over a, of a period of time, more than just suddenly trying it. You know what I mean. so it's the same in a relationship in marriage you don't just suddenly become happy you work at it and after the honeymoon is over and everything you really have to work at at marriage and the result of that is a state of happiness if you really both people you know really do work at it now there's only a small percentage of people who who can say that they are happy because of the circumstances that they are in. It seems that the majority of people would say they're happy due to behavior and the

decisions that they make and how they control their thoughts and what they give their time to rather than just simply circumstances and the fact that you were born who you were. Maybe you were born into money or something. But the people who serve Jesus, I really do think, should be happier people than those who do not serve Jesus. And I think the reason for that is exactly what the definition gave us, and that is that it is a reward or it is the byproduct of those who do the will of God. We could say that doing the will of God ends in or produces happiness in the person who is doing the will of God.

So those who are wondering, well, how can I become happier? they will not experience that happiness unless they go down the road of asking, Lord, what is your will in the various areas of my life, at home, at work, my marriage, my children, the way I spend my money, the way I spend my time, and what I watch, what I read, all of it put together. So the question is, what determines happiness? Is it material things, personal accomplishments, or is it something else? Now, in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, the reward for faithfulness in Israel had a tendency to be related to material things, whether it was gold and silver property, that type of thing. And we don't see that in the New Testament, even though there are some today who have kind of a health and wealth gospel that say, well, the reward still is, you know, that you can have the gold and the silver and you're the head and not the tail and so forth.

But in the New Testament, there is, there seems to be a new way of looking at happiness or how we end up becoming happy. And one of the keys is the sermon on the Mount containing the teachings of Jesus and more specifically the beatitudes. And these are in Matthew chapter 5 versus 1 through, 1 through 14 actually. And in the beatitudes, we have this word blessed are, blessed are. and we see that over and over. It says that Jesus was seeing the crowds. He went up on the mountain. When he sat down with his disciples,

of course, they came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying. And then it starts in verse 3 of chapter 5 of Matthew. Blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure and heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then finally, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. And so we have all of these phrases, Blessed R. Now, that word blessed in Hebrew is the word Ashre. You could say, I guess, transliterated A-S-H-R-E-I, I guess, yeah, Ashre, or A-S-H-R-A-I, Asher-A-I, Asher-A-I, Asher-E. And Asher-E-E-N-H-E-R-A-I means happy. So what this is really, really saying is happy.

are the poor and spirit. Happy are those who mourn. Happy are the meek. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on. Happy are the merciful, where they shall obtain mercy. And so we have a new angle here, and that is that we first have to ask ourselves, what are all these things? And what these lines are, like happy are those who mourn or happy are the meek, it really is a job description or a personality description of Jesus. And it really is a description of Jesus. You know, plainly put. And so what we see in the New Testament is we see that the reward for faithfulness isn't necessarily land or gold and silver and that type of thing, physical things on this earth, but the reward for faithfulness and the reward for obedience in the kingdom of God is

nothing other than Jesus Christ. That is the reward. That is what makes us happy. And I would contend that as long as we continue to present a gospel in the United States or in some circles that says that the reward for faithfulness is things, you're missing the mark. You're totally missing the mark. You cannot find that in the New Testament, but you can in the old. But guess what? We've grown up and we're older. And the reward is greater.

It isn't silver. It's not gold. In fact, do you remember the guy that was blind at the gate beauty? in the Book of Acts. Remember what Peter and John said to him? The guy is holding out his hands like, hey, give me something. And what did they say?

They said, silver and gold, we do not have. But what we do have, we give to you. In the name of Jesus, Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. And he did. They got the best. And so, well, the guy wanted was silver and gold, and the disciples said, we don't have that,

to which I would say with the modern name, a claimant message, well, you guys just must not have had faith. All you had was healing. All you had was Jesus. You know, I'm being facetious there, but I think you get the idea. And then it goes on and says after these blessed R statements, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.

Or so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden that is beautiful so you can see that you do not seek happiness as much as it is the result of doing the word of god and the reward is jesus himself the greatest of rewards is the eucharist Now, we're going to look a little bit more into this and some practical things when we come back.

But I hope that this is helpful for you in realizing where our happiness comes from, rather than an experience or a one-time shot. It really is a life of living in the Word of God and doing the Word of God. So you're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am the host of the Catechism in the year podcast. If you've been following along with us, you know that. God's plan for us is a plan of sheer goodness that he wants to bring us into a relationship with him. You know that already. One of the ways that God actually brings us into this relationship

and keeps us, sustains us in this relationship is through the sacraments. Again, you might know that already. You might further know that so many of us miss out on the beauty and the power of the sacraments. But, Ascension has an answer to this. Ascension has created two new programs. One is called Renewed, your journey towards first reconciliation. The second is received your journey towards First Holy Communion. We know that our youth, they're our future. And yet at the same time, it's so hard oftentimes to reach them with this incredible news of God's love for them in reconciliation, God's love for them in the Eucharist. If you want to check out Ascension's new program, renewed your journey towards first reconciliation and received your journey towards first communion,

go to ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free preview. Thanks for coming back. We're talking about so you want to be happy do you really want to be happy and before the break we were looking at how the reward for us as Christians in the modern era is jesus and happiness is not a one-time experience but it is a life of obedience to god's word it's the reward for those who are obedient in the kingdom of god so happiness happiness now people who are happy tend to report. There's been studies on this. There's been many studies on it. They tend to report that they became happy when they gave themselves to certain things. And these certain things that they gave

themselves to have more to do with the Bible than wealth, power, and influence. This is typically how people think you would be happy. If you are wealthy and you're powerful and you have influence, then you're going to be happy. But it's interesting because a lot of the studies show that those people with wealth and power and influence are actually less likely to be happy. And there's a number of reasons for that that we could go into. But suffice it to say, some of the common areas that are important in happiness are things like devoting time to family and friends. Well, you can say, huh, I didn't know that. But yeah, it's actually biblical that you are to be with your family. And you're to make quality friendships. It's wisdom in scripture. And so it stands to reason

that you would be happier if you do what the Bible says to do, and that is to spend time with your spouse, spend time with your children, teach them, be together, make your home a small temple where God can dwell and you can enter into a school of love. It makes sense that you would be happy with that. One of the other common denominators that we find in these stuff, studies is the appreciating what they already have rather than spazzing out over what they don't have. I added the word spas. But if we would learn to appreciate what we have and realize that God has given us everything that we need to live a life of holiness, and we are content with that, then you're probably going to be a fairly happy person. Most happy people, they found,

maintained an optimistic outlook on life rather than a pessimistic outlook. Now, that's That's hard these days, isn't it? It's hard because you're getting all these tweets, you know, you're getting all these text messages from your friends who sit and watch cable news constantly, and then they're just bouncing everything over to you. Well, it's very hard to be happy when you're constantly immersing yourself in this kind of outlook.

And also a couple of other things that were synonymous with happy people. They had a feeling a sense of purpose in their life. They had a purpose that was bigger than themselves. and we have that in spades in the kingdom of God. We're following Jesus. We're part of a big church. We're part of a family. We have purpose in our lives.

And then the final one was people living in the moment. And this is an important one because people who live in the moment are people who can live life to the fullest. I have taught this for years, and I would argue this, that you and I are created in the image and likeness of God, and that is very good. but there's some aspects to that that can turn into very frustrating. I'll tell you what I mean. We're created in the image and likeness of God.

God is not bound by time. God is in the yesterday. God is in the tomorrow. God is with us today. And in that same vein of thought, I would say, you who are created in the image and likeness of God have the ability to dwell. in yesterday. You can be discouraged because of yesterday. You can live in your yesterdays and you can beat yourself up because of your yesterdays. In the same way, you can be fearful about tomorrow

and you can live in the tomorrow. You can live in a week from now or you can live 30 years from now in your retirement and you're all bummed out and stressed out and anxious. So we who are created in the image and likeness of God, have the capacity to dwell in yesterday and to dwell in tomorrow. And what happens, and you know where I'm going with this, what happens so often is we fail to live in the moment because we're all caught up in yesterday and tomorrow. And we're so sad about yesterday and so worried about tomorrow that we sit and wring our hands today. And life goes by. And before you know it, today will be. be yesterday. And there, you get to think about today, but only tomorrow. I guess. You know,

you know what I'm saying there. So the key is live in the moment today. Learn from yesterday, yes. Hope for tomorrow, yes. But we don't get crazy out of whack about yesterday or tomorrow. We live in the moment because we can do something about today. We can engage today. We can take the principles of the kingdom of God and apply them to our life today. that is a beautiful thing. Now, in order to be happy, you're going to have to practice for it. That's right. And again, I'll go back to what I was saying earlier.

The number of people that I have talked to, that I have witnessed to, that I have shared Christ with. And I say to them, look, if you want to be a happy person, then that is not something that you can pursue and really overtake. it's a byproduct of making the right choices and living the right life in the kingdom of God. You will be happy if you do that. I can almost guarantee it. You're going to be happy as a result of being obedient to Jesus. But it isn't a one-time decision. It's practice, practice, practice. You have to continue and continue on. And then there's going to come a point where you're going to realize the joy and the happiness that comes from this choice you've made, this life you are living.

So if you've been looking for happiness, the good news is that your choices, your thoughts, your actions can very much influence your level of happiness. In other words, you can do something about it. You can choose to live happy and practice this, living in the presence of God and making your decisions in light of the kingdom of God. So there's a few things that I would just recommend in the minutes that we have left together this week, and that is, number one, invest in relationships. That is a key in happiness, invest in relationships.

There was a big Harvard study done a few years ago. It concluded, I should say, and I think it was over 70 years. They took about 150 men who were Harvard students and about 150 men who were blue-collar workers from the Boston area, and they all signed up for a long-term study on happiness. So every year they had to report for a physical. They had to go through psychiatric, psychological tests and surveys and, you know, all that studies and all that type of thing. And so they kept up with these guys every year, and it concluded just a few years ago.

And the results came out, and here were the results. They said, there's a number of things. we found out in this study that you know that contributes to happiness what contributes to happiness but two of the things that might surprise you are number one they said number one was having a group of close-knit friends that was it that was it that's what the study yielded the second was avoid being an alcoholic so if you can avoid being an alcoholic and have some really good friends who have heaven in mind and will love you with that in mind. You're on your way there.

You've made some good decisions. Another key denominator was expressing gratitude, and I can't say enough about this. This is very important. All the studies show those who had an attitude of gratitude tended to be the happier people on planet Earth. They were the people who could always find something to be thankful for it. something to be thankful for. Each day they thought about something that made them thankful.

And you can do this as well. Think about it all day and repeatedly thank God for that which you are thankful. Develop a lifestyle of thankfulness, starting in the morning with the very first thing you think of when you get up in the morning. You should train yourself. The very first thing is to thank God for something the moment you wake up. Remember that story. of the ten lepers who were healed and they and they uh they walked on except for one of them one of them returned and said to jesus thank you thank you thank you and nine of them didn't nine of them had their life restored to them wow but only one of them turned around to say thank you now i know there is a natural inclination here to put yourself as that one i know that and me too i'm that one so if i'm that one

Can you be that one too? Because there's only 10. The truth of the matter is, if we really look at our lives, we're going to find that at times we're not the one. Oh, at times we may be, for sure. But there are times when we're not. We're not the one. And God is calling us to live a life of gratitude. Now, this is where you have to roll up your sleeves and work at this. You have to work at it. Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 10, he said, for though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war, or the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So this is an

important point in developing happiness in our lives, is that we take captive every thought that we have and make it obedient to Jesus. And that, my friend, will lead you to a life of Thanksgiving, a life of Thanksgiving. So, yeah, you know, I want to conclude with this. I had an experience a few years ago that kind of blew my mind. I was going to Mayo Clinic. I'm in Minnesota. And so for a lot of us in Minnesota, it's not unusual that our family doctor is at Mayo Clinic. It's kind of a nice little perk being in Minnesota. And I went and my, my doctor, great, great doctor, Dr. McCarthy retired now. What a wonderful man of God. I met him on a trip to Israel, he and his wife, and he was my doctor. And we set up all my appointments at Mayo. It's this deal where you go

in the morning, you give blood, and then you go to all these departments. And at the end of the day, you go back to your doctor and he gives you the results. Well, one of my appointments was with Dr. Emmett sued, who is in charge of alternative medicine at Mayo Clinic. This guy, he wrote a book called Train Your Brain, Engage Your Heart, Transform Your Life. Now, when I went in to talk to him, I had no idea who I was going to be meeting. And I went in there, and the assistant said, you're in room 23 or whatever. Doctor will be with you in a moment. I said, sure. So I sat in there. And after a few minutes, in comes this Dr. Sued. And he sits down, on the table opposite me and he looks at me he says so how are you doing i said pretty good i'm expecting

we're going to get into all the clinical stuff here really quick cardiology and everything else and he said good good um and then he starts asking me questions and he says do you have any unforgiveness towards anybody i'm like what's going on here did my spiritual director talk to this guy why do you want to know that he said well because unforgiveness has a lot to do with heart disease and cancers and other things. I said, wow, no, I don't think so, but that's such a good question. And he said, are you thankful? And do you have a heart of gratitude for the things in your life?

And I'm like, wow, is this different? And it turned out, he told me, he said, if you have a heart of gratitude, you're probably going to be a healthier person. And so he wasn't concerned with cholesterol or my heart beats or he wasn't. He wasn't concerned with any of this stuff. He wanted to know, do you forgive? Are you filled with gratitude? Are there any, is there any stress or anxiety in a relationship?

He wanted to know all about the things that you and I talk about all the time in the kingdom of God. And I thought, this is amazing. This is what Jesus talks about. This is what the church talks about. Ah, now there's a doctor saying, there's a reason for it, Jeff. There's a reason. And so that doctor really made a big difference in my life. And he said this.

He said in his book, train your brain, engage your heart, transform your life. He said, gratitude is a positive emotion and represents acknowledging the blessings you have received or might receive and showing appreciation for the same. Gratitude, he says, is a combination of humility, grace, love, and acceptance. Gratitude is your moral memory. Oh, put a fork in me. That was so good. I wanted to say to him, you know, you're not far from the kingdom of God here. This is amazing. Gratitude, he says, is a positive emotion and represents acknowledging the blessings. And he said, I love it. Gratitude is your moral memory. So, how's your memory? How's your memory doing lately? It's so good. And he went on to say this.

he said, and this was actually from his, I believe this was from his workbook. He has a workbook that goes along with it. He said, over the years, working with tens of thousands of patients, I have found one distinct predictor amongst a few others that helps me foresee which patients are likely to get better relatively sooner. It is their attitude of gratitude. The greater the appreciation I notice in a patient for the care they have received or for other little gifts of life in general, the better, the effective treatment.

This deeper feeling of gratitude reflects their interfaith and acceptance. Isn't that good? I thought you'd like that. So I brought that to the show today just for you. And so doing the Word of God is a great way to begin. So I want to leave you with that. And this week, I'd like you just to think, think. Lord, what is your will for these areas of my life?

Maybe there are even areas where you feel conflict and anxiety. Maybe you feel like you're going to fight with someone about something. What's your will, Lord? And then focus on doing that. You got problems at home. Figure it out before you get home. How are you going to act? How are you going to walk in God's will before you get home?

Before you get to work. Same thing. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you. you for my friend, and I lift them up to you right now, and I ask you, Lord, to help them in their pursuit of happiness. And I ask you, Lord, to show them in their life where they might be falling short in terms of living your divine will. And I pray, Lord, that you make it so obvious to them that they could grab that Bible, get a hold of that catechism, and begin to discover what your will is in that area

of their life. And then, Lord, more than anything else, that they would put your word into action. Amen. My friend, I'll leave you this last thing. I just saw this. I wanted to share with you, Acts 319. You know what it says? Here's something that deals with the will of God. Repent. Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. Get this, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. A lover. repentance. God bless you. You have a great week.