This past Monday, as Dymphna (my dog) cuddled under the blankets trying to ward off the arctic blast, I was listening to “Alexa” read me my morning update. One item struck me. “Alexa” said it was “Blue Monday – the unhappiest day of the year.”

Apparently a number of years ago, a teacher named Cliff Arnall came up with a formula for calculating “unhappiness.” The formula looks impressive looking at factors such as weather, debt, monthly salary, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year's resolutions, low motivational levels, and the feeling of a need to take action. Using his formula Mr. Arnall determined that the third Monday of January is the unhappiest day of the year.

Now I should point out, there has been no scientific research to support Mr. Arnall’s formula, but “Blue Monday” has caught on in the press and in the culture (only here in the Northern hemisphere because that is the only place the formula works). 

I don’t know why that report stuck in my mind, but it did. It got me thinking, “What is happiness?” All of us could probably name quite a few things which might make us happy. I asked this question to a group of students a few years ago at a school Mass shortly before Christmas. They easy told me what was the one present they wanted most for Christmas. I asked them if they would be happy if they got it and they all said “yes.” Then I said, “So, if you get that gift your parents will not have to get you another present for the rest of your life because you will already be happy.” Naturally, that got a resounding “NO!” Is happiness just a fleeting thing, something we feel for a while, but then soon have to chase it again?

As Christians we should say “no, there is a happiness that is forever.” The Catechism of the Catholic Churchsays, “that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement – however beneficial it may be – such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love” (#1723).

As disciples of Christ Jesus, happiness is related to the virtue of Hope. For us, hope is not some wishful thinking about the future, but rather it is a certainty about our future based on a relationship we have in the present. It is our relationship with Jesus, knowing that He loves us unconditionally, that He has saved us, and that He longs for us to be with Him forever. “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity” (CCC#1818).

Keeping our eyes on God, assured that He is a Father that keeps His promises, the disciple of Jesus finds happiness everywhere and in all circumstances. There are no “Blue Mondays.”