Are people today truly happy? Are people ever satisfied? Have people stopped caring about each other? These are all questions that I constantly think about and which are discussed by Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation entitled Evangelii Gaudim , S.L. Harris in The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction and in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. In addressing the issue of happiness and a fulfilled life, all the texts concur in the notion that happiness is derived from spreading the word of God and living in the joy of the Gospel with Jesus. However, if we search for the meaning of the word happiness in an encyclopedia it does not include the idea of happiness relative to our relationship with God or our community. In fact, the definition is limited to …show more content…
The newspaper uses the Webster Online Dictionary of happiness which defines it as “good fortune/ prosperity; a state of well-being and contentment/ joy; a pleasurable or satisfying experience” (Shapter, 2011). They also use the definition found in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which says that happiness is a “state of well-being and contentment” (Huffington Post, 2013) Both articles believe that happiness is connected to an overall well-being. These articles, however, go further by polling people in order to see what the public’s view of happiness is. Most people explain that happiness to them is a sense of peace, not lacking anything, material items such as books or music, family, health, love and a select group mentioned God, a higher being or something related to spirituality. Overall, one could say that the modern definition of happiness is attainable precisely because of it subjectivity, that is tends to be dependent on material items and that there is not correct way of finding happiness because happiness is relative to each individual’s