Jul 4 Fri
Is the egoist happy?
Recently, the Pope joked that the Jubilee of Sport coincided with the feast of the Holy Trinity; both have a similarity. He recalled that the Trinity is a relationship, and that sport, too, puts one in relation to another.
"That is why sport can help us to encounter the Trinitarian God: because it involves a movement of the self towards the other, outgoing, certainly external, but also and above all interior. Without this, it is reduced to a sterile competition of selfishness," the Pope said.
Indeed, the ego is never the way; it is the opposite of happiness. St. Augustine shows this in his Treatise on the Gospel of St. John 14:2.
Let us analyze this thought of St. Augustine in two parts:
1.- "Whoever wants to rejoice in himself and of himself, will always be sad"
Seeking joy or satisfaction only within oneself, based on one's own abilities, achievements, or even on merely personal and short-lived pleasure, inevitably leads to sadness or dissatisfaction.
People are finite, our resources are limited, our abilities imperfect, and our lives transitory. Basing happiness on something as fragile and changing as one's own self is to build on sand. The ego often seeks more and more, and it is never completely satisfied. The constant search for approval, pleasure, or personal power can become an exhausting and empty cycle. Without transcendence -looking beyond ourselves- we lose sight of the meaning of our life, which leads to a feeling of existential emptiness.
In addition, life is always full of challenges, losses, and disappointments. If joy depends on what is short-lived, and trusting that everything will go well in our personal world, any new problem will show us that our joy is without basis.
2. "But whoever wants to rejoice in God and about God will be happy forever, because God is everlasting."
St. Augustine gives us the solution. He proposes that true and lasting joy is found in our relationship with God. "Rejoicing in God and of God" tells us that God is the inexhaustible Source of joy. God is the inexhaustible source of goodness, love, peace, and joy. He is the Fountain of Living Water that fills us with Hope. United to him, who is the Source, joy does not depend on the changing circumstances of the world or our ego. Existence ceases to be just looking at our navel and feeling empty of all meaning. God offers us the foundations of a Hope that transcends the harshness of life and death itself. In God, we find deep peace. Christ greeted the Apostles, saying: "Peace be with you", because His Peace is fullness.
This thought invites us to reorient our goal: What do I seek in life? It challenges us to look beyond ourselves and our selfish desires. It is not about finding a superficial joy based on pleasure. It invites us to find the true Source of infinite, unchangeable, and supreme fullness.
Excerpts from Néstor Mora Núñez