A sure guarantee of happiness

Bishop Scott Bullock
The Epiphany of the Lord
January 5, 2025

When I was in college, my parents moved from their home in Maryland to Northwest Indiana, to a small town called Lake Village after dad had been transferred to work out of Chicago. The whole family was planning to be home that first Christmas there and mom really “pulled out the stops” to make the house a holiday celebration, with her elaborate decorations and, that year, a superabundance of Christmas cookies. I remember the vision particularly vividly, because it was so fleeting, for as you know how it goes with Christmas cookies. Once everyone was home, Mom and Dad decided, with a couple of days before Christmas would arrive, that we would forgo the big family meal that night until the eve. So, we went out for a meal at a local restaurant. Little did we know that the bigger feast was happening at home, for when we returned home all of mom’s cookies were gone! Was it the Grinch who had come to steal Christmas? No — the elaborate Christmas decorations were still there, as was the Christmas tree.  And in front of the tree, lying there and breathing heavily, was our family dog, Brutus, with 16 dozen cookies inside him. I don’t know about you, but after this holiday season of 2024, I can relate to Brutus. Have I eaten 16 dozen cookies?  Probably not, but hopefully no one was counting along the way!  

Let’s meditate on the “cookie” moment of the family dog. Cookies, for him, look like the perfect delight. A sure guarantee of happiness! Chocolate, sugar, molasses — each its own delight. And yet, we know that that happiness is fleeting, isn’t it? As this happy season of Christmas comes toward its end and we loosen the notch of our belt one more, we can see how those goodies weren’t a lasting source of happiness. So, can we pause here and ask, what does bring happiness that lasts?

This is no small issue. The famous Greek Philosopher Aristotle made this sweeping claim. He said, “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Cookies don’t do it. At least in a last way. So, what does?

I would like to hold up the practice, the habit, and the way of happiness taught to us on this feast of the Epiphany by the Magi, whom we can see there in front of the altar and suggest they are perfect examples of the habit of happiness. For look what they do: they give. 

Very little is known about these mysterious figures from the East. We aren’t really sure about their names though tradition has handed down their names as Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar. We really don’t even know how old they were though our tradition says Melchior was an old man, Balthasar a middle aged, and Gaspar the young one. We don’t know what they looked like though, again our tradition suggests that Gaspar was a dark-skinned Arabian. 

But, what we do know about them is that they were gift givers.  When they confronted the joy of that first Christmas, their reaction was to give.  

The Gospel tells us they were persons of joy — for when they saw the star that led to the child, we’re told that “they were overjoyed.”  And, once seeing the child, their joy led them to give an expression of that joy.  So familiar are these figures that we probably have not stopped to ask, “Why did they give the gifts?” The Gospel suggests that their long search was one culminated with joy at the star and homage at the child to which the star directed them.  The perfect expression of their happiness, their joy, was to give.  The gifts they gave were extravagant ones — precious gifts for a precious king. Let us allow the magi to teach us how to arrive at the happiness that is the very purpose of our lives and the deepest longing of our hearts.  Let us allow them to teach us that happiness comes by giving. Giving as much as we can. Giving until it hurts — hurts with sheer and immense happiness.

Taking and consuming life as if it were like a radiant vision of fresh-baked cookies for our pleasure might seem to be the path to happiness. But, how many times do we need to try the empty grasping after things in a quest for happiness before we can follow the example of the magi and discover happiness, the deepest longing of our hearts, is found in giving — giving as much as we can. 

So, may the Lord fill us with the faith we need to trust that, when giving away what we have and giving our very selves, that we’ll discover life coming back at us with a fullness that we can barely imagine. Let’s take the magi’s path to the fullness of happiness — giving — and in doing so with joy, may life be given back to us in abundance.