This happiness that is beatitude

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

At the end of the year and at the beginning of the new one we exchange greetings. We all wish happiness for ourselves and for the others: “Happy New Year; I wish you happiness and all what you deserve”. Certainly our purpose of life is happiness ans we try to get it in different ways. The idea of happiness can be different:some people think that money, health and power can make them happy... Maybe real happiness does not exist, there are only happy people. And one can be happy without having a lot of money or a high social standing. On the contrary; worries for business may destroy inner serenity. So how can we orientate to happiness? In reality Jesus never promised happiness but he indicated the way of beatitudes. In the Gospel the blessed ones have nothing to do with the dimension of human satisfaction, Jesus mentions situations that can be exactly the contrary: poorness, injustices, persecutions, illness... what kind of happiness may they give? On the contrary the beatitude is the awareness of having God’s same feelings, To feel, despite difficulties, that this is the path of a real humanisation. Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart,…