RECENTLY I was discussing people’s reliance on psychology for the problems they experience in life. Psychology and counselling as new buzz words give people hope to find a way out of their difficulties. They expect these therapeutic sessions to bring them happiness, joy and peace. What God explicitly promises them escapes them. As the saying goes, “people without vision are stuck in the mud!”
In past decades, people have discovered the many benefits of psychology, counselling, therapies and analysis. Great discoveries have been made. But are we not throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Are we forgetting and losing what is absolute, the eternal perspective and the source of life? Are we oblivious of Jesus’ word “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)?
My basic issue is: Are we forgetting the Scriptures, the wisdom of the Church, the treasure of writings and prayer of the saints, replacing it with relatively new science and its theories? Are we not called to rediscover the superb and genuine healing benefits of the Sacraments? The theology of the Sacraments is highly developed but since they are in dire need of pastoral renewal reaching the sheep who are looking for shepherds, they are not well used.
Vision, dreams and hope are crucial elements for happiness in life. When the Spirit of God is poured out “upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”, there will be wonders and signs, for “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:17-21).
The prophet Isaiah likewise says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near …for he will abundantly pardon”. The same prophet tells us what God says “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6-8)
The “Exsultet” is the great proclamation of the Church during the Easter Vigil when the cantor sings: “O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”
In the face of all modern sciences, we need to hear St Paul “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” This truth is the heart of the good news. It gives vision and brings healing.
Let me give one example. When Jesus meets his disciples for breakfast at the Lake of Galilee, he teaches them about the resurrection. They had been fishing without success. “When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.” (John 21:9-14)
Jewish mystics, Kabbalists, are fond of the use of numbers to explain the deeper realities of faith. They are often frowned upon by many, but this type of thinking was probably more common at the time. In the above gospel, we find this number 153. Now I found a beautiful explanation of this number by St Augustine and other saints giving us a vision and context to the proclamation “O happy fault”.
Words for Kabbalists can be translated as numbers. The Hebrew word for good is “tov” or the number 17. Now when God created, he says at the end of each day “It is good”, he does so until the last day when he says all is “very good”. You cannot get a very good result if on the way you have messed things up. Therefore, if 17 is good, so must be 16, 15 …. all the way down to zero. When you add up 1+2+3…17, it gives the sum of 153.
The scene from John’s Gospel, as I said, offers us a vision of our resurrection. The disciples had fished (i.e. worked) unsuccessfully, as Jesus had preached but died on the cross as a criminal. His final defeat turned out to be his glorious victory. When we come to our resurrection and look back on our life, we may not see much success. But were it not for our difficulties and failures, we would not be there at all. Thus, we will proclaim O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!” who, having taken away the sins of the world and healed us, led us to our glorious resurrection.
This is the real road to happiness!
