Beyond Happiness
New writer Benjamin Woods on joy through duty.
For decades, the West has been grappling with a sickness, an epidemic of youth suicide and self-harm, the symptoms of a crisis in meaning and belonging resulting from a societal lie. This lie, deeply ingrained in our culture, tells us that meaning and belonging can be found in happiness alone and the lifelong pursuit of the next fleeting endorphin high.
This deception, amplified by digital culture’s addictive pull, has grown out of the secular deification of individual desire and liberal fragmentation of society. Here, ‘your truth’ is more important than the truth, tolerance is always a virtue even when what is being tolerated is harmful, morality is subjective, and our perception of ourselves and others has been distorted by social media sensationalism.
The Search for True Meaning
Yet, if life’s purpose is not to be an endorphin junkie addicted to individual wants, what is the answer? What meaning can we derive from this mortal struggle in the valley of tears?
The answers do not lie in Nietzsche’s nihilism or in Douglas Adams’ ‘Deep Thought,’ which jests that 42 is life’s ultimate answer. Instead, they are found in one of the most common yet unfashionable symbols. A fuller understanding of meaning that eludes many seduced by the allure of materialism and promiscuity, that lies not in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure but rather the shouldering of responsibility. A meaning found within the internal battle against our inherently selfish and sinful Darwinistic natures. True meaning, revealed in the glorification of God, the love of our neighbour, the victory over the serpent, the passion on Calvary, and the Cross.
Finding Purpose in Darkness
Life is not all sunshine and cocktails on the beach. There will be times in our lives, and perhaps for some reading this, that time is now, where all around you find only darkness. Where hope feels distant. When those you love most have died or forsaken you. When it feels as though your God has abandoned you. When happiness has all but been extinguished.
In those moments, more than any other, you need meaning most, yet it is that moment when an endorphin-oriented life reveals its hollow nature. In contrast, lives built on the rock of responsibility endure. Even when you feel you’ve fallen for the third and final time, take inspiration from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who, despite her own spiritual dryness, found joy in small acts of love, showing us that even in darkness, purpose endures.
In moments of community grief and national strife, the communities and nations that prosper understand, as we once understood, that civic responsibility, duty, and obligation are prerequisites for the valuable yet far more fragile notions of rights, liberty, and freedom.
So, if the answer to meaning resides in these antiquated notions of duty and responsibility, could it be that the solution to living by them lies in the antiquated, regimented order and traditions of a two-thousand-year-old Jewish sect? Recent data from The Bible Society, showing a 12% rise in church attendance among Catholics aged 18–25 in England and Wales, quantifies the mounting qualitative data of recent years. A signal that others like me, whether cradle reverts or converts, have found strength through faith in their search for an antidote to the serpent’s venom.
Christianity’s vivid imagery of the passion, encapsulated in the Stations of the Cross, sends a clear message of perseverance, sacrifice and duty, which together comprise the greatest love story ever told. In the fifth station, we are greeted by Christ, his human nature beginning to fail him, supported by Simon of Cyrene. This sobering image depicting the frailty of the human condition serves as a reminder that the burden of the cross is not one we are required to carry alone. By embracing our responsibilities to church, family, community, and nation, we build strong communities that can help carry us in turn.
So too, St. John of the Cross teaches us that the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, a spiritual crisis in which God feels absent, is a purifying journey that calls us closer to Him. By persevering through these trials and embracing our duties through activities such as pastoral support, charitable volunteering, and community activism, we mirror Christ’s sacrifice by placing the needs of others above our individual wants. In doing so, we can find a purpose that endures past fleeting happiness.
Joy Through Duty
This responsibility-led perspective does not mean you should shun happiness; rather, you should embrace your responsibilities in ways that bring you joy and fulfilment. In his Epistle (James 1:2), St. James says, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face responsibilities of any kind, consider it nothing but joy”. The key is to ensure that bearing responsibility and not the pursuit of gratification remains the aim.
The Christian message is not simply a recollection of historical events but a command for future generations to take up the crosses assigned to each of us and stumble uphill in service of something greater than the individual. To find a truer, more profound sense of meaning than the one offered by modern society, discern the cross you must carry, pick it up, and keep going, even if you should stumble for a 42nd time.
By Benjamin Woods
A Catholic revert and communitarian conservative, Ben advocates for pro-natal, pro-family and pro-life causes, exploring Catholics’ place in modern secular politics. As a member of Catholics in the Conservative Party, he’s been a party activist and election agent. He currently works in the nuclear sector.
You can find him on his own substack @