Happiness is not in security, power or acceptance; it is unity with God

Published: August 25, 2007

By Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB

There is a story in the tradition of the Islamic Sufis about a man who lost the key to his house. His neighbor saw him hunting in the grass and when he found out what was wrong asked if he could help search for the key. “I would appreciate that,” he replied. Both men knelt on the ground and starting running their fingers through the grass. After awhile, as the sun grew hotter, the neighbor asked, “Have you any idea where you might have lost your key?” “I’m pretty sure I lost it in the house,” replied the man. The neighbor was astonished. “Then why are we searching for it out here?” he asked. “There’s more light out here,” replied the man. In commenting on this story, Father Thomas Keating says that the house in this parable represents happiness, and happiness comes from intimacy with God, the experience of God’s loving presence. Many people are desperately searching for the key to happiness where it cannot possibly be found, in things and activities outside themselves where there seems to be more light, in a search for security, power, pleasure and acceptance. But to find the key we must seek the Lord and master of our life who is very near us, and in fact indwells our heart. Jesus said, “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” (Matthew 6:6) The Catechism of the Catholic Church in speaking of contemplative prayer says that when we enter into this secret and intimate prayer, “we ‘gather up’ the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us.” (2711). Human beings are designed for unlimited happiness in love without end, and this hunger drives all of us. But because of original sin, we come into the world separated from God and disoriented. We look for love and happiness in the wrong places. St. Augustine made a classic statement of this in his “Confessions”: “You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things, which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.” “You were with me.” God is within us all the time, waiting for us. Finding him is the simplest thing in the world: it is a matter of turning to him in our heart. “My child, you are here with me always: everything I have is yours.” (Luke 15:31) We come as we are. “We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.” (catechism, 2711) “Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends,” said St. Teresa of Avila. “It means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.” The peasant of Ars described it very simply, “I look at him and he looks at me.” St. Augustine describes how God broke through his own self-made barricades. “You called, you shouted and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone and you dispelled my blindness ... . I have tasted you; now I hunger and thirst for more.” Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB, writes from Subiaco Abbey.

This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic August 25, 2007. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.