For some reason or other I came across my old Baltimore Catechism on my bookcase, so I started paging through it and needless to say, many memories of days gone by started flooding my mind. First of all, I remembered my first lessons in said catechism at old Sacred Heart School in the South Valley with Sister Juanita. She was a great teacher and she always managed to make us think as we learned the questions and answers. This time, I went to the first chapter and focused on the question, "Why did God make you?" and the answer, "God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the next." Since those early years and as I grew up, I kept wondering, Why did we focus so much on being happy in the next? What about being happy here and now in this life? Now as an old man, I realize that God made us to be happy not only then but here and now. So on this journey we call life, we try to know as much as possible about God so that we can really love him, and then of course, knowing God's love for all of us, we try to do his will. In this process we find that life can be and should be an experience of happiness. That said, I realize how different we all are and how we all have different sources of happiness.

     The last few days, prayerfully I have been reflecting on my life, and I must admit that I have had a very happy life. Of course not without all the challenges and difficulties that we create for ourselves and for each other. I remember I was a happy child with wonderful parents and great siblings who could, I must admit, be a bit of a challenge at times. Now in retrospect I realize that the many life enhancing relationships that started at home have been the main source of my happiness throughout life. I was born in the middle of the Roaring Twenties; of course I didn't realize what that meant until much later in life. I was only 4 years old when the stock market crashed in 1929. That didn't affect us much because we certainly didn't have any investments in the market, but that started the downswing and ended up in the Great Depression. In those days material things didn't mean too much because hardly anyone had anything. But then, we all had families, siblings and neighborhood kids. We never got bored and always had lots to do and fun games to play, most of which we created ourselves.

     Life is so different now that we all have so much and we see so many with their cell phones, wristwatches and of course, the smart phones. At the same time we see so much real poverty in our neighborhoods and throughout the world. Since I retired at age 75 I became involved with a small group of wonderful people who call themselves The Community at Prayer. The main purpose and activity of this group is raising money to provide food for all those in need. This effort has provided me with opportunities of meeting many people less fortunate than myself, but nonetheless, happy people.

     This brings me back to my original thought or question, What is it that really makes us happy? I can speak for myself, from my own experience that it is not things or possessions that bring us happiness but rather, the mutually life enhancing relationships. But nonetheless, I realize that God created the whole world for everyone to live with dignity and enjoy the basics of life: shelter, nourishment, security, health care, etc. Many people have all of this and there are those who have much more than enough. So my question now is, Are those who have more than enough and more than they will be able to use during their lifetime, happier than those who continually enjoy the little they have and still struggle for the basics. The word 'enough' has taken on a new meaning in my life because so often I have met so many people who have so little and yet feel they have enough; and then there are those who have so much and yet not enough.

     The words of the gospel, "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" sum up my thoughts for today. I can speak only for myself. I have had a long, happy life, I have never had much but always enough; and more often than not, something to share with others. I feel sorry for those who live in dire poverty but I also feel sorry for those who never have enough and yet have much more than those who need. As long as there are mutually life enhancing relationships, there is hope.