By Ernesto Tinajero
The glory of God comes to us and this is the Gospel. God’s presence with us changes us and glorifies our daily life. I look into my wife’s eyes and can sense the reality of the glory of God. Yet, this Gospel has become rare. In consumer culture, it is not surprising that the Gospel gets turned into a consumer good of promising heaven for the simple price of of agreement with a set of propositions. Say the ‘sinner’s prayer’ and buy your way into heaven and find the road to happiness.
This a very good deal for the sinner, or so it seems. It also can lead to the harsh word that we see preached daily. John preach a harsh word, repent and live an austere life. Jesus preached joy. Joy differs from happiness. The American obsession with happiness really can really make us forget that at the root of happiness is the Old English word ‘Hap’ which means luck. Happiness retains the reality of luck. To be happy requires a good deal of luck and it goes to those who have the stars line up and their circumstances make them happy. They got the great job, the right person helped them and they found themselves rich and successful. Then, in happiness, comes the lie that somehow they deserved it and somehow earned their happiness.
A society that places emphasis on happiness, will start to place a premium on winners (those that got lucky and won) and blame those that failed to find luck. The poor people did not work hard enough and are lazy. The move toward success as the measure of life well lived becomes the norm. Then, in such a world, the promise of the Gospel becomes the promise of success in the end, and getting to heaven and all for the price and great deal of a simple deal of agreeing with propositions. It is not a leap to then much maligned but seldom analyzed Property Gospel. Why does the Posterity Gospel find such fertile ground in our culture? A society that values success sees a God who wants us rich, and if we agree to the sinner prayers, then we too will find success. If we don’t find success (be blessed by God) then, we need to try harder and agree more. The rat race becomes spiritual. We say the sinner prayer to get success and happiness and then it is not enough (it can never be enough) so we try harder or give up for another tool to make us successful.
Joy is different than happiness. Joy never depends on outside circumstances. St Paul was joyous in and out of prison. Joy is a state of being that depends on the presence of God. It also makes a shambles of the desires for success. The Gospel is about Jesus being with us now and always. Jesus’ presence arrives in the worst of times as well as the best. It renders the notions of success useless. Success has no need of the cross. Joy has no need of success. The Glory of God brings joy. Happiness is suckers game.
