“A smile is one of nature’s best means of making people happy. One of the most delightful factors in a personality is a real heartwarming smile that comes from within. Actions speak louder than words, and a smile says, ‘I like you. You make me happy. I am glad to see you.’ If you do not feel like smiling, smile anyway; make yourself smile.” These are not the words of some sappy, let’s-all-be-nice-and-get-along New Age guru. These are the words of the zealous Fr. Lawrence Lovasik in his classic work, The Hidden Power of Kindness [HPK]. Author of thirty books and over seventy-five pamphlets which are widely read and cherished by traditional Catholics today, Fr. Lovasik is a priest whose words deserve to be taken seriously. Especially these ones.
This is a hard saying, though—“Smile anyway.” Does he mean all the time? Yes. Whether evident on the outside or kept on the inside as the circumstances may require, we Catholics are called to honor God by our joy all the time. “But how can I smile?” you wonder. “The world is a mess! The Church is a mess, the country’s a mess, my family’s a mess, and I am a mess! Am I supposed to be happy about that?” No. But we are supposed to smile anyway. The saints did, and we are supposed to be saints, too. If we were, the delight of knowing that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which shall be revealed in us would surely appear more easily and more often on our countenances. Until such time comes, though, let us make the effort, even if it feels a bit unnatural. This is not hypocrisy. There is nothing hypocritical about hiding one’s baser emotions, or, as Fr. Lovasik says, in “being ruled by the will rather than by feelings” (HPK, 40). In fact, such charitable self-control is actually far more important than we might think. Msgr. Vernon Johnson tells us that “Few people realize the importance of the expression on our faces. It gives us away long before we speak. We can make a whole room cheerful by our faces or by them cast gloom on everyone’s spirits. But to be always smiling and serene when we feel ill in body or sick at heart, depressed with ourselves and disappointed with others, is most difficult, and for that reason is one of the most important points to be mastered in the spiritual life” (Spiritual Childhood, 133).
Far from being a mere natural expression of good humor, lovely as that is, a smile means so much more supernaturally. “I want you to be always abandoned and happy,” Our Lord told Sr. Josefa Menendez, “because My Heart cares for you tenderly” (Words of Love, 1). Let us smile for His sake, then. But let us smile also for our neighbor, for Our Lord told Ven. Consolata Betrone, “Remember that a loving glance and a sweet smile have a greater influence on a soul than the loveliest sermon. Is it not true that feeling yourself loved and understood in a…holy manner can make the Way of Perfection seem a lighter one to travel?” (The Littlest Way of Love, 60). Let us smile because St. Therese said that perfect joy is the exquisite fruit of the flower of love, and we are so loved by God and our Blessed Mother. All we have to do to become the great saints God intends us to be is to love Them back—as a little child loves his mother and father, depends on them for everything, and sleeps in their arms blissfully content no matter what goes on around him. Finally, St. Francis de Sales would add, just as every time his mother awakens him, he extends to her his little arms, so should we “smile at every divine ordinance and embrace it with the tenderness of love” (Holy Abandonment, 47).
“The saints were saints because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, patient when it was difficult to be patient…agreeable when they felt an urge to scream” (HPK, 30). We can do that, too. We can smile anyway—or at least try. “Let all enjoy the beauty and inspiring cheer of your smiling face,” Fr. Lovasik encourages us. “Above all, smile at God in loving acceptance of whatever He sends into your life, and you will deserve to have the radiantly smiling face of Christ gaze on you with special love throughout all eternity” (HPK, 45).
