Why Delay Happiness?
One
“I could have been seeing!”
The comedian Brian Regan has a bit where he talks about how long he put off going to the eye-doctor. Then he finally went, and got his prescription adjusted, and suddenly his vision improved dramatically. And so he says, “Hey, I could have been seeing this whole time!” And he realizes how dumb it was to put off going to the eye-doctor that long asking, “How can instantly improved vision not be on the top of your to-do list? ‘Awww, I’ll see tomorrow. I don’t have time, I don’t have time, to see today.’”
Well, if it’s crazy-stupid to put off improved vision, you know what’s even dumber? Putting off improved happiness. And yet that’s what we all do when we prioritize something other than prayer and virtue.
Two
Sin Makes You Miserable
The first reason to prioritize prayer and the pursuit of virtue is that if we don’t we’ll just sink deeper and deeper into sin and sin makes you miserable. It always does. Look at any sin, any vice. By the time you’re deep in it, you don’t even get any pleasure from it you just take it for a little relief from the craving.
Doesn’t matter if it’s drugs or sex or alcohol or food or gossip or buying stuff or trying to get attention. If you pursue these in a disordered way, not only do you forfeit all the other goods of life, but you eventually lose even the basic pleasure you used to get from that one petty thing for which you sacrificed everything else.
“Those who have not will lose even the little that they have,” says Jesus. And those who have not are sinners; and what they have not is delight, and even before hell opens its mouth to swallow them, they have already made themselves completely miserable on earth.
So why would you put off being less miserable? Why would you put off conversion, repentance, and a greater commitment to overcoming your vices?
Three
Virtue Brings you Happiness
Vice makes you miserable, and virtue makes you happy.
What do we mean by virtue? What do we mean by prudence, justice, and fortitude? What do we mean by faith, hope, and charity? We just mean the creative excellence of goodness. As a great painter is excellent at creating artwork, and as a great piano-player is excellent at creating music. So is a virtuous person excellent at creating happiness, for himself and others.
A virtuous person is a virtuoso of happiness, they take the most surprising notes, even some notes you might have thought were sour, and put them together for a stunning symphony. A virtuous person is a gourmet chef of happiness, they take the most surprising ingredients, even some that don’t at first look very appetizing, and make a rare and delightful meal.
So a virtuous person takes what life gives them, including the crosses and the unexpected challenges, and creates a life that is a joy to themselves and to others.
So why would you delay the pursuit of virtue? Why would you put off getting good at life, and all the joy that goes with that?
Four
The Encounter with God makes You Happiest of All
Of course, the ultimate happiness is the encounter with God, who is the supreme good, and even in this life, we know that this encounter makes us happier than anything else ever could. St. Alphonsus Liguori lists all the saints who, no matter what their circumstances, could barely stand the happiness that came from real intimacy with God.
He writes about how St. Philip Neri, after he had gone to bed, was so delighted with the goodness of God, that he would say, “Oh Lord, let me go to sleep!” While he was working tirelessly in the mission fields of India, St. Francis Xavier, filled with joy, would reach for his heart and shout, “Enough, Lord! No more consolation: my heart can bear no more!”
And then St. Alphonsus ends with this exhortation, “O, taste and see, says David, that the Lord is sweet (Psalm 33:9). My brother, begin to make meditation every day, to communicate frequently, to converse with God; and you will find that during the short time which you spend with him, he will give you greater consolation than the world, with all its amusements, has ever given you. O, taste and see! He who has not tasted cannot understand how God contents the soul that loves him.”
That’s not just what we’ll experience in Heaven. It’s what we may experience down here. Why would we not put that experience on the top of our to-do list? Why would we not strive for supreme happiness now, instead of later?
Five
Resolution
We started with the idea that it’s silly to put off instantly improved vision. But it’s sillier to put off instantly improved happiness. So let’s resolve now to do our meditation every day where we listen to the Word of God and think seriously about it, seeing where we don’t actually live up to what Jesus is saying.
Then make a the concrete resolution to practice what Jesus is saying. And at the end of the day or the beginning of the next day, do a brief examination of conscience.
By these three, daily meditation, a resolution and brief examination of conscience we don’t delay but hasten our happiness!