What are the “laws of happiness” as they are found and lived in Christian marriage?
Monsignor Burke: The first thing to bear in mind is that marriage cannot give perfect happiness, nor can anything else here on earth. The purpose of marriage is not to give the spouses such happiness, but to mature them for it. In everything here on earth, God is trying to teach us to love, which we will enjoy fully in heaven. Marriage is one of his most intensive schools of love, where he wishes to train most of his pupils. Happiness demands an effort. When a married person in difficulties allows the thought, “I’ll get a divorce and marry this other man or woman, because I’ll be happier with him or her,” they are really saying, “My happiness depends on not having too much demanded of me. I’ll be happy only if I don’t have to make much of an effort to love.” The person who chooses to think this way can never be happy, for happiness is above all a consequence of giving, as it says in Acts 20:35: “It is happier to give than to receive.” Happiness is not possible inside or outside marriag
