Integration III Fr. Sandberg Moreau First-Year Experience March 4, 2022 Reflection is the Road to Joy There is a crisis of conviction in our world. In this modern, technological society, we are constantly bombarded with distractions of every kind: if we aren’t working our butts off, we’re sitting on them, watching television or eating fast food or looking at social media. I think the term “rat race” describes our world pretty well. Most people don’t even bother stopping to ask why they’re running! They avoid all of the really hard but really important questions: “Am I doing the right thing with my life? Do I believe the things I was taught as a child? What do the words I live by--words like duty, honor, and country--really mean? Am I happy?” (Deresiewicz 2010). This is especially true for people my age. The phrase “work hard, play hard” is like Notre Dame’s unofficial motto: students work incredibly hard during the week, rushing to finish their homework as well as making time for chores, activities, clubs, etc., and when the weekend rolls around, they drink until they’ve put the week behind them. In other words, students are either too busy to think or too drunk to think! In the popular imagination, there seems to be this image (less than a stereotype, but definitely a sort of generalization) of the college student as someone who doesn’t really know what they stand for. They go through the motions of college, they work hard and make friends, but they don’t really know where they’re going next; they just go with the flow. There is definitely some truth to this image: William Deresiewicz mentions in his book Excellent Sheep that “many students, perhaps after a year or two spent using college as a treadmill to nowhere, wake up in crisis, not knowing why they have worked so hard” (Deresiewicz, 2014). His point was more that students in elite universities have sacrificed their passions for the sake of success, but I think that the words apply here as well. I certainly don’t claim to be above all of that, nor do I say that I’m entirely outside of the rat race. What I do say is that I’ve made a strong effort to pause every now and ask “what’s the point?” I’ve considered my own values and convictions, on my own, in prayer, and certainly within classes such as the Moreau First-Year Experience, and I think that a few of my core convictions can be summarized as follows: I am convinced that there is a God, that existence has meaning, that there is truth. I am convinced that we are meant to be happy—not just cheerful or momentarily satisfied, but truly joyful. I am convinced that nothing in this world can give us that joy, and I am convinced that what can give us that joy is a life of virtue and reflection. I will go through these one by one, and describe how I intend to better understand and follow each one. My first conviction is that God exists. I was raised Roman Catholic, and today I take my faith very seriously. Many people would say that I’m just a sheep, that I’m doing what I was raised to do and that I’ve never really thought critically about questions of religion. But anyone who says something like this is dead wrong: I’ve been thinking critically about my religion for as long as I’ve been able to think. There was a period of time in my early childhood when I completely rejected the idea of God: I was convinced that he was just a myth made up in order to make people behave well, sort of like Santa Claus. Thus, I am wholly unimpressed by adults who arrive at the quasi-Marxist conclusion that religion is just a lie designed to control people: I discovered and rejected the idea before I hit puberty. But here, I am not so focused on my Catholic faith, or even on God as known by Christians. I simply emphasize that there is a creator, and the reason for this is that I refuse to let go of the belief that existence has meaning. And there is no way to hold that belief without being a theist: I fully reject the materialist conception of the universe, because no matter how eloquently it is put, the bottom line is that the universe and everything in it (including you) is a cosmic accident. People comfort themselves by “making their own meaning” out of the things of this world, but this is the saddest lie of all, for reasons that I will discuss later on. But if there is a creator, then there is a design, there is a purpose; if there is a creator, then someone (or at least something) intended for you to exist. It takes courage to hold such a conviction, much more to live in accordance with it. We live in a world that condemns theism as a ridiculous superstition at best, and corrupt dogmatism at worst. But I shall muster up the courage necessary to believe in God; for though theism takes some courage, no amount of courage would allow me to believe in nothing. And for what purpose did that creator intend you? That brings me to my second conviction. The first line of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” In other words, man is supposed to be joyful! And how is this joy attained? Well, we can look at several things. I know that personally, some of the things that make me feel happy are warm summer nights, eating out at a good restaurant, going fishing, looking at the stars, reading books, etc. And on a higher plane than all of that, we can speak of friends and family. I know that some of my happiest memories were of time spent with my friends back home, and as a college student, I have begun to appreciate more and more how much my family means to me. I am really looking forward to seeing my family for Easter, and I am already anticipating spending the summer with them. I have been trying to think of creative ways to live out my love for them; I would like to spend some one-on-one time with my siblings, maybe taking Joe for a fishing trip or driving to Portland with Sam. And of course, perhaps one of the most important factors that we can look at in living a happy life is how that life is spent. In his “Three Key Questions,” Fr. Micheal Himes says that this is one of the most important criteria in discerning one’s vocation: does it bring you joy? All of those things make me happy, and happiness is a good thing; but it is not joy. Fr. Michael distinguishes between the two, saying that “Happiness changes from moment to moment, day to day. Joy, on the other hand, is much deeper and much more central, it comes from within” (Himes, 2014). I agree with this definition, but I disagree with the idea that he connects it to (or at least, I would reject a certain way of understanding the idea). Fr. Michael claims that in searching for his or her vocation, a person should try to do whatever brings them joy. But I will maintain that in of themselves, none of these things can bring you real joy. You cannot base your joy off of anything in this world, because everything in this world is fleeting and inconstant. The things of this world, even the very best things, will fail you. The stars cannot satisfy your deepest longings forever. There will be fighting and division in your family. And sometimes, no matter what job you work, work is going to suck. I know this from my own memory: every time I have ever tried to fill the God-sized hole in my heart with anything but God, it has ended in pain. Romantic relationships, academic achievement, deep friendship—in of themselves, none of these things have ever been able to satisfy me. You cannot root your joy in anything in this world, yet just like happiness, it must be rooted in something. Happiness comes and goes because it is rooted in worldly things which come and go; does it not make sense that joy, which is much more permanent, would be rooted in something which does not change? To find that which does not change, we need to look up from the earth into heaven—we must look for God. To root our joy in God, we must come to know and love him; we must live in right relationship with him. And what does it mean to live in right relationship with God? How do we do this? I argue that at the most basic level, a life lived in union with God is a life of prayer, reflection, and virtuous living. Fr. Himes supports my thought once more, when he defines joy as “the sense of the rightness of the way in which one is living one’s life” (Himes 2014), though again, he is more focused on vocations. I could speak at length about virtuous living, but here I will devote my time principally to exploring prayer and especially reflection (seeing as though these are the things that we discussed in class). In “The Right Way to be Introspective,” we hear that “University of Sydney psychologist Anthony M. Grant discovered that people who possess greater insight—which he defines as an intuitive understanding of ourselves—enjoy stronger relationships, a clearer sense of purpose and greater well-being, self-acceptance and happiness” (Eurich 2017). It is said that the unexamined life is not worth living, and the old proverb “know thyself” is as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece. Introspection and prayer go hand in hand, because the one who does not know himself cannot bring himself before God. I once heard a beautiful commentary on Genesis 32, in which Jacob wrestles with God. When Jacob demands a blessing, God asks him his name, and Jacob tells him; he gives God the name that defines who he is, the name that means “supplanter.” God hears the name, and gives him a new one: Israel. When we bring ourselves before God—when we are completely honest with him—then he is able to transform us, to make us more like himself, and enable us to live a life of virtue, a life of joy. This too I know from experience: my prayer life has grown incredibly over the past five years or so; and I have found that it is in prayer that my faults are exposed. I cannot kneel in http://sydney.edu.au/science/people/anthony.grant.php https://www.sbp-journal.com/index.php/sbp/article/view/1219 peace before God while living a life of unrepentant sin; I am forced to change my life. And truly, my life has been so much happier in these years than it ever was before. God exists, and therefore life has meaning. We are all meant to be joyful. The road to joy is not to be found in the things of this world; even the best things in life, taken by themselves, can never satisfy the deep longing that is inside of us all. What can satisfy that longing is a life lived in union with God, a life of self reflection and honest prayer which will allow God to transform us. These are my convictions; this is the philosophy of life that I have arrived at. Knowing these things and being firmly rooted in them, I can live my life, not as a mindless unit in the rat race, but as a man who is living intentionally; and when called upon, I can serve as a genuinely reflective leader. God exists / Truth is real MCC We are meant to be happy - The students, three key questions MCC This world cannot satisfy MCC Live life well - The right way to be introspective, quiet leadership thing MCC