Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard boldy proclaims “In the last analysis the only thing that moves men is the desire of happiness.” One of our Life Teen board members calls himself by the nickname “Happy”. He talks to the high school teens at our Life Teen Camps at Covecrest each summer. He is happy and glows as he gives his inspiring testimony. These days the word happy is carelessly thrown around. Even Switchfoot wrote a song entitled “Happy is a Yuppie Word” that speaks of the emptiness of the word happy. For Catholics, happy is something much more. Here is why I believe it is key to our Evangelizing others.

As Catholics we are called to appear to souls as a reflection of Christ, and His life in the Church. Before people can put their trust in this faith there needs to around our brow a glow of Moses’ halo like when he came down from Sinai and approached the children. It was a glow that reflected the nearness of God. Chautard goes on to ask us all “Has anyone seen in you recently the reflected light of the eternal and infinite happiness of God because of your union with Him?”

Jesus for His part after the last supper and feeding His Apostles with the food of joy, said to them “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and your joy may be filled.” This was said after the Last Supper, to remind them to what extent the Eucharist was going to be the source of all great joys of this life.

As Catholics we acquire this glow from our relationship with Christ particularly with the Eucharist. For those Catholics for whom the Tabernacle has become voiceless and hushed, the Host merely a respected but unexciting souvenir: they may find themselves unable to turn souls to Christ. If this is the posture, how can they change the lives of people being drawn by the lure of so many things? Unless we all learn to quench our thirst at the living waters of Christ we will end up standing in front of people and merely stumbling for the right words to talk about joy. We aren’t able to talk with people about the heart of God who loves them because we have often approached God with a hardness in our own hearts.

May we all turn to the Eucharist for the true version of happy that Christ seeks us all to live. The words of St. Francis of Assisi apply to us all when he says “Prayer is the source of grace, Preaching is the channel that pours out the graces we ourselves have received from Heaven. The ministers of the word of God have been chosen by the Great King to carry to the people of the earth what they themselves have learned and gathered from His lips, especially before the Tabernacle.”

Are you spending enough time each day with the Eucharist in order to radiate with a joy that will turn souls to Christ?