Week 541–The Sign Advent Series–Darren McDowell–Searching for Happiness

The Sign Advent Series–Darren McDowell–Searching for Happiness (Darren says that in Matthew’s Gospel for last Friday (15 December), in a rather vivid and somewhat sadly humorous image, Jesus describes the crowd as like children chiding one another. Nothing seems to please them. He uses this image to compare the negative reactions to both himself and John the Baptist. Like the children in the image, there are those who only seek to find fault—complaining about both of them. it could just as easily be a description of our own. How often do we only seek to find fault in others—to criticise and “cancel” them for not living up to our sometimes-fickle standards. Like the fickle crowd, we can lurch from one thing to another, searching for fulfilment. God’s voice, through the prophet Isaiah, gives us the answer to our fickleness and negativity. The Lord says, “If only you had been alert to my commandments, your happiness would have been like a river” (Is 48:18). It is he who teaches and shows us the path to happiness. During Advent, we are preparing to receive Jesus, the true image of God and of our own humanity. It is through becoming united with him and his body that we will truly find the happiness we seek.)