Bill McGarvey
One of my new favorite paintings is a scene painted by Filippo Lippi called, “The Confirmation of the Carmelite Rule.” Filippo Lippi was a Carmelite painter from the early renaissance period whose works hang in many of the major art museums today. The painting itself isn’t particularly beautiful to be honest, but there is something in it that draws me to it. The scene involves a young brother who is apparently professing his vows to his superior. The superior happens to have a very distinct smile on his face. It is this smile that is so interesting to me. According to some writers, this might in fact be one of the first instances of a smile being depicted in renaissance art.
If you look up Filippo Lippi in the art history books, you would soon discover that he was not the holiest Carmelite that ever lived, in fact some might even be scandalized by certain aspects of his life. However, I believe that Lippi was on to an extremely important point concerning the spiritual life – in fact life itself. It is the fact that our internal desire for happiness must be taken seriously. Many of the ancient philosophers spoke about our need for happiness. Also, central to the Christian faith is the belief that the very reason for our existence is to be happy with God. Nevertheless, I think that in our daily lives we can lose sight of what really makes us happy. True happiness I do not think is getting the latest iPhone – although that joy is truly awesome! – or other passing satisfactions. But there is a happiness that lasts – a happiness that comes when you know that you are doing something you were meant to do.
I taught high school for four years in an all-girls inner city school. Although I enjoyed teaching, I soon came to realize that teaching teenagers was not my vocation in life. I did not have the patience to deal with the numerous disciplinary problems that came up every day. What was even more frustrating was that the parents simply didn’t seem to care about their daughters. A few of my students ended up in extremely unfortunate circumstances that could have possibly been avoided if their parents had actually shown interest in them. In my frustration, I realized that if I wanted to make a real difference in the lives of those girls, and other persons like them, I probably would be better able to do it as a religious. As a religious I believe that I would be able to dedicate myself fulltime to helping those in need. Additionally, it would most likely even enable me to work directly with troubled families, where the root of many of the problems I encountered while teaching seemed to arise.
About a year after I stopped teaching I went back to visit some of my old colleagues and to follow up on the progress of some of my past students. As soon as I entered the staffroom one of my friends, who hadn’t seen me since I left, said quite bluntly, “Brent you look different. You look happy!” What my friend said was very true, I was in fact happy. However, what was interesting to me was that I didn’t realize that my unhappiness while working there was so evident. I thought I did a good job plastering on my fake smile, but I guess that those who knew me well could recognize a real change.
I do not think that doing what one is meant to do will mean that you will always be in a state of ecstatic joy. However, being true to what is deep within one’s heart brings a happiness that you really can’t explain –you simply know it when you experience it. I do not have many religious pictures in my room but I do have two. The first is a picture of the painting by Filippo Lippi that I mentioned, and the second is a picture of Thomas Merton with a distinctly serene smile while standing in the midst of an open field. I placed those two pictures where I could see them every day because I wanted to be able to remember to daily ask myself the question, “Am I truly happy?” Thankfully, at the moment there is a smile on my face as I answer, “Yes!”
from http://www.carmelites.net/blog/
