I have met a lot of people and when I asked them about their aim in life, they answer me immediately and automatically, “What I want most and search in this life is…..to be happy”. And they repeat it making a solemn pause and try to fill with authenticity and transparency and that makes them believe that their effort is the noblest of all the imaginable aims.
Claret never belonged to this group of persons who are dedicated only to be happy. He understood that this was a wrong way, though it was certainly very seducing as if unachievable. The persons win happiness only when they love. And to love is to seek the good of the other person more than the self. When someone understands this and practices it, he has entered into the threshold of a straight and secured path that will lead him to its fullness, though the sorrows and contradictions of life may strike him all of a sudden.
“To make my neighbour happy”, Claret repeats as a recurring echo. He found in this mission one of the most powerful motivations of his missionary action. He was happy making his neighbour happy. It is a strange paradox where he uses the verb “to do”. This active and singular verb means to apply oneself to the concrete action, to be dedicated to the other, to realize something for others with or without expectations. On the lips of Claret it is a solitary verb that does not need others like “to feel”, “to receive”, and “to get” etc.
Ruminating on words like these, you are also invited to look at your surroundings and look at the people with whom you normally live. Ask yourself what you have to do to make them happy. You will certainly realize that by your ACTIONS according to your capacity you can bring out a spark of a smile on their faces and a little bit of peace in your soul.
Dear reader friend, where do you seek happiness? Do you seek it really or simply or do you confuse it with a boring comfort?