An essential guideline for today’s apostles
“Happiness is a moral obligation. You cannot afflict people with your bad moods, any more than you can with your bad breath. Just as you brush away your bad breath and shower away your bad odor, so should you brush away your bad moods.” Dennis Prager, Founder of Prager University
“Lord, please save us from gloomy Saints!” St Theresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Jesus calls each one of us to holiness, to be saints, and in that pursuit of holiness to be joyful. He tells His disciples upon their return from an apostolic mission, “Rejoice rather in this, that your names are written in Heaven!” (Luke 10:20). It is in fulfilling our apostolic commission joyfully that we will uplift and strengthen our fellow Christians and draw others to Jesus Christ. “Be holy therefore, as your Heavenly Father is holy!” (Mt. 5: 48)
Now, you’ve heard of bats in your belfry and sand in your craw. But did you know you can be overrun with ANTs in your brain? It is upon these ANTs that I wish to reflect for the moment. They negatively impact our efforts to be holy, to witness to the world in a saintly and joyful fashion, to become saints. In a book that I’ve been reading, Conquer Your Negative Thoughts, by Dr. Daniel G Amen, Dr Daniel uses the acronym ANTs, which stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts.
He compares these ants or automatic negative thoughts to the ants at a picnic. One ant is not a great problem. Several ants become bothersome. 20 or 30 ants can chase you back to the car and ruin your lovely picnic. Like a real ant colony, left unchecked these automatic negative thoughts will continue to multiply and expand, taking over your mind, the way you think, act and even react. They become an ingrained bad habit.
As we allow these negative thoughts to circle around again and again in our minds, influencing our words and actions, they build ruts in the brain, making negative thoughts far more likely to dominate and control our lives in a very un-Christian way. They become addictive, a depressing mental and emotional blanket we throw over ourselves to block out the Son, inundating our souls with sludge and greatly disturbing those around us. We become angry, sad, depressed, and judgmental of others and of ourselves. So very, very sad.
We Christians need to understand clearly and unshakably that our happiness and inner peace, short of severe mental illness or some other disorder, is a choice we make … or not. The sooner and the more frequently we make the choice toward happiness, the more we are transformed into that joyful son or daughter that God desires us to be.
Honey, not vinegar, attracts the honey bee. Beautiful, colorful flowers attract the hummingbird. Jesus has loved us to the end, that His joy “may be in us, and our joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) When we are filled with God’s joy, it radiates from within us and invites others to seek the Source of our joy – our loving Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
Viva Cristo Rey!