Happy even amid troubles?

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

YES, why not? We should throw away the notion that when we have troubles, we should be troubled and sad. No. It does not have to be that way. If we have faith in God, if our spiritual life is strong and healthy, we know that after all is said and done, God will always take care of everything.

 

Yes, we may not be spared from pain and suffering, physical, emotional, mental, etc. But then if our Christian faith is working, we would know how to handle all these and still manage to be happy and serene in a way that goes beyond the physical, emotional and mental, etc.

 

There is something in us that can accommodate the prescriptions of God’s grace that solves everything, even those things that we ourselves, with our human powers, are unable to solve. God’s grace can take care of everything! What is impossible with us is always possible with God.

 

We have to learn how not to be overly or even unduly affected by the unavoidable troubles we are going to have in this life. To be sad, depressed, worried, discouraged, etc., is simply not a healthy state for us to be in. We are meant to be happy, which does not mean that we simply ignore our problems and troubles.

 

Sadness restrains if not prevents us from doing our best in whatever we do. It’s a drag, a very toxic state to be in. It paints the world and life itself in dark, gloomy colors. It tends to make us hide, feel lonely and not face our responsibilities. It has to be eliminated early enough before it becomes worse, affecting our very soul.

 

Sadness can adversely affect our cognitive powers, our memory, our ability to make decisions. It can also affect us physically and our over-all health. It can leave us stressed and drained out.

 

To overcome sadness, we have to see to it that we feed our soul properly with prayers, strengthening our faith, hope and charity, so that all the assurances and ever-reliable promises of God would not be lost in us. When our soul is animated with the spirit of God, nothing can actually disturb or trouble us. And we can afford to be cheerful and at peace even amid huge difficulties.

 

With that outlook, we can see things more clearly, we can penetrate into the sphere of the spiritual and supernatural, we can work better. In fact, we would be in a much better condition to deal with our problems and troubles. There just are many advantages that we can enjoy when we manage to be truly happy and peaceful.

 

Everyday, we have to spend some time putting ourselves in a state of joy and peace. We have to take note of all the possible sources of troubles during the day so that we would be better prepared to deal with them without compromising our joy.

 

This, of course, will not spare us from some pain and suffering, and so we just have to learn to suffer by having the same spirit and attitude Christ had toward his passion and death. It is important that we meditate often on Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, so we would have a complete picture of things and understand better why there are troubles and why there is hope.

 

Let’s remember Christ saying, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)

 

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com