Help!

The greatest obstacle to truth is a reluctance to face the facts! A woman who was very much overweight stepped off the scale and said, “According to the ‘Height-Weight’ chart on this scale, I should be seven inches taller.” Actually, that same woman finally got around to doing something about her weight: she stopped stepping on the scales.

A business executive was feeling empty inside. He wanted more out of life. He decided to seek help from a pious old monk. “What is the secret of successful living?” The troubled man asked. “Each day make one person happy,” the monk replied. Then, after a moment’s reflection, the monk added, “Even if that one person is yourself.” Another moment passed, and again he added, “Especially if that one person is yourself.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson — the opening lines of the “Sermon on the Mount” — Jesus tells us the Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in the matter of making ourselves happy.