happiness

I have always loved Les Misérables – after all, I did study French literature.  But I first read it in English long before I could sing “Alouette.”  It was one of my mom’s favourite books so I read it partly out of curiosity, partly out of an ambitious desire to conquer the tome (the unabridged version is 1488 pages long – 202 pages longer than the complete Gutenberg Bible), and partly to understand the meaning of the title.

Les Misérables – a literal translation would be, “The Miserable Ones,” or the “The Wretched Ones.”  Who is Victor Hugo referring to?  Who are the miserable ones?

The most obvious answer is – the poor.  The masses in France that were driven to hunger and poverty during that time lived in a truly wretched reality that unfortunately still plays out in many parts of the world.

But are the rich exempt from misery?  No – heartless, they may be, but happy they are not.

How did Hugo define happiness? “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves–say rather, loved in spite of ourselves (p. 167).”

Misery, then, is living without that conviction that we are loved just as we are.  It’s the state of constant insecurity, of wanting approval and affirmation from others around us, even those we don’t particularly like or even know.  A mistake, a disappointment, a heartache can make our worlds come crashing down.

The poor and the disenfranchised know what misery feels like.  But so does anyone who has felt truly rejected, betrayed or abandoned.  Or anyone in soul turmoil wondering who we truly are, what we’re all about (like Javert).

It is to us wretched individuals that God says,

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:9-13, NIV).

“Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.  In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 16:20-23, NIV).

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV).

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

by: Jinha Kim

"But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14

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