Life, Liberty, and Bring Me Some of That Happines Too

For most of my life, I found the book of Hebrews confusing and, frankly, a bit weird. It didn't make much sense. I read it from time to time, and all I ever seemed to reap from the effort was the vague impression that this book didn't apply much to my life.

Today I would put Hebrews in my short-list of must-reads from the New Testament, and for one simple reason (if not several): Hebrews exposes the dark rot that seems to permeate every nook and cranny of American life. Americans have bought into the notion that a life without suffering is a well-lived life indeed, and not a few of us seem to think anything short of that (a pain-free life) is a violation of some inalienable human rights. Life, liberty, and happiness. (As for that bit about pursuing it, isn't that making us work just a bit too hard?)

Now here is an odd twist to this journal entry. I just now went in search of a quote from Malcolm Muggeridge which I had in mind to share here. I eventually found the quote, but not before finding two others which in this context simply cannot be ignored.

Here's the first quote: The pursuit of happiness... is without any question the most fatuous which could possibly be undertaken. This lamentable phrase ''the pursuit of happiness'' is responsible for a good part of the ills and miseries of the modern world.

Amen. Malcolm, you're making me look like a plagiarist, but I swear I'd never seen this quote before in my life.

The 2nd quote is not too family-friendly (unless you're trying to start one): "The orgasm has replaced the cross as the focus of longing and fulfillment."

Ouch! More on these in a second, but let's get down the original quote I originally set off in search of. Here it is: Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at that time seemed especially desolating and painful. I now look back upon them with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence has been through affliction and not through happiness whether pursued or attained. In other words, I say this, if it were possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo-jumbo, the results would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the cross signifies and it is the cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.

These quotes capture well the essence of why I love the book of Hebrews, and why it makes no sense to American eyes, by and large. For those (many) Americans who treat orgasms as pretty much the end-all be-all of human existence, the book of Hebrews might as well have been written in Sanscrit. (And no, that's not a new font from Microsoft.)

Hebrews doesn't start to make sense until we start to treat the cross with the kind of desire, affection and reverence that we Americans normally reserves for sex.

Any takers?