Confirmation & Hapiness

Homily Given at St. Margaret's Retreat Center
On the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
to the 9th Grade Confirmation students from St. Christine's in Marshfield
By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Friends in Christ, There is a lie that we have been told since our youth a lie about what human life is about and about what will truly make us happy.

When you turn on the TV or look at the internet we are bombarded by images of excitement and glamor. Whether its Jack Bauer saving the world ever 24 hours and doing more in an hour than most people do in a life time or the fabulous cribs of famous celebrities or the made for TV drama of reality TV, if we are not careful, just because of the sheer volume of these images, we might get the idea that what we see in the media is normal and that our lives are boring in comparison.

So often in my parish I hear teens in my youth group complain about how boring Wareham is, maybe you feel the same, but the fact of the matter is that if you are bored with your life it's because you are looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Before entering seminary I lived in Washington, DC and worked for the US government,
and having spent five years after that living in the Vatican while doing my studies, I have had the chance to do all sorts of neat things, and to meet and get to know many interesting people, who live the lives that TV teaches us to envy.

I've met Admirals and Generals, spies and millionaires, Princesses, Senators, Cardinals, and Popes, I've met fighter pilots and soldiers, gypsies, and monks,
comedians, actors, and even a deposed Emperor or two.

I've been airlifted from the US Capitol in Marine Helicopter, fired machine guns and grenade launchers, eaten dinner with Ambassadors, worked with the Secret Service and the Swiss Guard, and even met Dick Cheney when he wasn't in an undisclosed location.

God blessed me with so many opportunities in my life, but none of it brought me happiness. I think its because, whether it's the first time you drive a car or the first time you ride in a limo or a helicopter or the first time you meet a president, rock star, or Pope your first time is always the most exciting. The feeling of Euphoria, of a type of happiness, that comes from doing something you have only dreamed about for the first time, often can deceive you into thinking that the next time will be as good as the first, but it's not so! The excitement of a rare first,
quickly becomes common place the second and third and fourth time you do something.

I remember when I first met the Pope I could barely bring myself to speak to him, I was so excited, and while I never became a close confident with the Holy Father
living in Rome, attending so many Papal events, and seeing the Pope so often I lost that nervous joy that I had the first time I met John Paul or the first time I served Mass for Pope Benedict.

I wouldn't know from personal experience, but I am told that it's the same between married people. That first time, especially when you have saved yourself for your spouse--is awesome--a true gift that you can only give to one person, but soon the martial act becomes less exciting, more common place, and yet when done with love also more rewarding, or so I'm told.

The world lies to us when it tells us that sex, or wealth, fame or power will make us happy. They can't because they all become old, tired, boring, almost as soon as we experience them.

Our God reveals the truth about what makes us happy in the life of Jesus Christ--
Jesus teaches that the stuff of life, the things and situations we experience that some people think will make us happy are really only a pretext, a stage, on which we have the opportunity to love.

As the Catechism teaches: we are made to know God, so that we can love Him, and because we love Him, serve Him. This Love of God is discovered, and learnt, and practiced, and perfected in and through the created world, most especially by our love for our fellow man.

True happiness comes from true love, because true love is never boring but always new. AND I am not talking about smoochie smoochie love but the type of love that makes two people want to be friends for life. When you love a person, human or divine
you are always interested in them, always discovering new things about them, always seeking new ways to help and care for them, because of this every situation of life whether it's your wedding night or the day you watch your beloved dies of old age
becomes an adventure and an opportunity to mine the depths of the mystery of love.

Jesus shows us that we can be happy even hanging on the cross because even there we can love, this is why St. Paul points to the Jesus on the Cross when trying to explain what true love is to married Christians. Love makes the boring everyday life that we all live an opportunity to love deeper, harder, and more faithfully.

The events of life are of secondary importance to the people because while every experience no matter how exciting eventually becomes common place, becomes boring, it's the people we love and who love us that gives even a boring experience joy.

Most especially, Jesus tells us, it's our God's loving presence in all the moments of our life that gives life meaning.

In His Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus shows us that God is willing to go down even into the waters of sin, into the darkest parts of the human experience and even enter into the death and suffering that sin causes. And by doing so he shows us what it means to truly love and He frees us from Sin, giving us the possibility to love selflessly.

In Baptism, Jesus shares in the repercussions of sin so that we can share in His love, His sonship, and His Spirit, which is the spirit of Love.

When Jesus was baptized the Heavens opened and a voice from heaven proclaimed: This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. God says this also about each of us because of our Baptism. We are His beloved sons and daughters and it is this love that makes life worth living. Our job, our vocation, is to respond to this love
each in our own unique way. But, Love is not easy and so our loving Father gives us the Spirit of His Son the Holy Spirit to strengthen us so that the Love of God which comes to dwell in our hearts in Baptism can blossom in our lives.

My friends I tell you from personal experience that no experience or material thing can make you happy. Your happiness doesn't even depend directly on a person. Happiness comes from within, when we accept the gift of God's life in us when we accept the gift of Love and live in the Spirit of God who is Love.

I hope you believe me now, but even if you don't, remember what I am telling you, because eventually we all realize that without true Love the world is boring. Sooner or later we all realize that nothing in the world can bring us true happiness, and it's in that moment that we are faced with a choice take the risk of loving God or despair.

The world is good, and there is nothing that exists that is totally evil, but only by living in total goodness, in the presence of our God who is Love, can we see and appreciate the goodness of the world.

Through the Sacraments given to the Church by Christ God is constantly entering into our lives, cleansing us from our sins and giving us the power to love. This is the power that He wants to give you in confirmation the power to be a heroic lover--the power to bear witness to love--the power to be a Saint.

God loves you--no matter what you do--no matter how you look--no matter what you own, or who you are, or what you can do for Him. God really does love you, just the way you are.

The world lies to us trying to convince us that we need something or someone else to be Happy. God wants you to know today, that happiness is simply accepting His Love and responding to it by choosing to live in the Spirit--by choosing to Love.

AS we go to God's altar today we pray that all those who are preparing to receive the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love don't listen to the lies the world tells us about happiness but find true happiness by living their life in the spirit, the spirit of Love.