Francis’s
Ten Step Program to Happiness without God
Not long ago,
ABC News enumerated the “10 Steps to Being
Happy, According [to] Pope Francis”.
This is significant in two ways: first,
it provides us — at last — with the erstwhile cryptic formula
for being happy that had eluded all the philosophers and all the oracles
from classical antiquity to the present. We are speaking here of man’s
ultimate ambition! His happiness! This is no small achievement.
The
second way, however, in which it is significant is that this formula
— articulated by no less than a Roman Catholic Pontiff,
as the means to attain happiness itself … neither mentions nor
invokes:
THE FORMULA FOR HAPPINESS — according to
Francis:
1. “Live and let live.”
2.
“Be giving of yourself to others.”
3.
“Proceed calmly” in life.
4.
Have “a healthy sense of leisure.”
5. “Sundays should be holidays.” Spend Sundays with
family and friends.
6.
“Create dignified jobs for young people.”
7.
“Respect and take care of nature.”
8.
“Stop being negative.”
9.
“Respect others' beliefs.”
10.
“Work for peace.”
No, this
is not “fake news”.
You are
not experiencing a psychotic episode.
Presumably
you are not in a drug-induced state of aphasia.
For the
head of the Roman Catholic Church of over 1 billion souls, the fulfillment
of these 10 “steps” constitutes happiness. Contrary
to what the Church has taught from its inception over 2000 years ago,
for Francis, apparently, God is not man’s happiness. In fact, He is
not even alluded to.
“And no religion, too”
Does it sound familiar? “Why, now that you mention it!” It
is an enervated reiteration of the lyrics of the Beatles’ John Lennon’s
song Imagine. You can find the lyrics
here
. It is, arguably, the anthem of post-Christian man.
“Imagine”!
Different — by a
Quantum Leap
Quite
different, yes? … I mean, from anything that you may have once learned
(or heard rumor of) from that “outdated” Baltimore Catechism
that put things in clear and unambiguous perspective, distinctly Catholic,
Scriptural, Patristic, and relevant. Here, let us help you. Below
are THREE QUESTIONS concerning happiness, its nature and the means of
its attainment that vastly differ from what Francis would
have us believe to the contrary.
Question
3. Why did God make us?
Answer:
God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His
everlasting happiness in Heaven.
Question
4. What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven?
Answer:
To gain the happiness of Heaven we must know, love, and serve God
in this world.
Question 6. Q.
Why did God make you?
Answer:
God made me to know Him, to love Him,
and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever
in Heaven.
If you wonder
to whom you should defer, we would suggest that tens of thousands
of Saints stand as a pure testimony, often indited in the blood
of martyrdom, that happiness is to be found in God alone — to
the tedious meanderings of one man in the Church who appears to find
happiness elsewhere than God — when he ought not, nor encourage others
to.
Do we maintain that Pope Francis does not hold that authentic
happiness is to be found in God? Not only is that implausible, but
it is absurd — as many utterances of Francis have been — and perhaps
that is why we find it so troubling. We merely observe that he fails
to mention it, or exhort us to it. And that, given his
Petrine office, is deeply troubling indeed.
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
May 27 2017
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editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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