HAPPY, FOR REAL!
I am glad to have worked for, and with, migrants both in the new and old worlds. They remain giants of silent heroism as far as I am concerned. I cannot forget one who worked for a former senator of a Western European country. Back in the Philippines, she was a qualified teacher, a well appreciated colleague, and a very responsible woman. One day, she thought she had had enough with her foreign employer. She was going to call it quits. She could not stand it anymore. She was poised to say goodbye to her employer and go right back home.
The two children of the very busy socialite couple learned to pray and go to church on Sundays on account of her. But they were becoming too unruly for her in many ways, and she got the full brunt of the stress-induced ire of her masters. She was distraught. The two kids got wind of her impending plans. And that was when she found the light. The two children came running and crying to her. In between sobs, they begged her, “Please do not go away. If you go away, we will die.”
Just recently, one of the teachers in my school approached me. She was in a dilemma. Her husband wanted her to go back to her engineering work in a private firm that would pay much more. He pitied her because, almost every day, she brought home papers to check and grades to complete. She asked me advice as to what to do, tears running down her cheeks.
Both decided to do what gave them happiness in the long run. Life is difficult everywhere. Life is complex here and there. There is no perfect place on earth. But it is never the place that matters, but what one really feels deep inside. Both women found what really made them truly happy. And it had nothing to do with riches, with being full and being satisfied always. It had nothing to do with mere shallow laughter or with surface adulation from people around.
The Lord defines being happy for real in His words that we now call the “beatitudes.” Remain blessed and stay happy — for real! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: What truly brings you happiness? Can you honestly say that you’re happy now — for real?
Let me seek You always, Lord, the source of all real happiness in life.
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