St Agnes High School - Agnita Yearbook (West Chester, PA)

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EDITORIALS

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THE AGNITA THE WHITE OF PURITY By Elizabeth M. Smith In a world so torn by strife and hatreds, it may seem almost ridiculous to mention the fact that man is forever seeking happiness. In truth, however, these very conflicts prove our point, because the desire for happiness is actually a cause of man's many difficulties with his fellow man. It should not be this way, but selfish-thinking and greedy, crafty people, in their search for the best which life has to offer, have forced countless false or misdirected means upon themselves and everyone else. In the never-ending struggle man is seeking happiness, a gift from God, but he wants to seek it in his own way and not in the way God directs him to seek it. In this respect, man acts like a very dull and slow-thinking child who wants to play a game according to his own plan and not according to the recognized rules that make the game what it is. In spite of world conflict, national and international differences, and individual likes and dislikes, it is possible to find joy on this earth, for joy, in its perfection, can be found only in God, in whom all possible happiness, as it were, is fused into one Supreme Being. Happiness, then, springs from right living: that is, the acquiring of the virtues that lead to perfection. Perfection brings with it the quality of purity. White is used to signify absolute purity, for, as white comprises all colors, so purity blends virtues. The possibility of our possess- ing the characteristics that engender and strengthen purity is al- ways present, but we must work and make sacrifices to obtain them. We are all familiar with the illustration of the prism. A beam of sunlight passing through it is broken up into its component colors, even though we see only some of these colors, and these but dimly. Let us suppose—to carry out the illustration of the prism that the white ray of God's perfect purity, the only true happiness, were to be broken up through the prism of this world, and give us a view, a rather dim view, of the colors which represent the joys of life, just as no one, seeing one color in the prism, regards it as the only color existing, so no thinking person, experiencing a single joy of life, considers it total joy and happiness. At times, however, while groping in the gloom of sorrow for something bright, for some kind of hope to lift the clouds, we give too much attention to minor pleasures and disregard the more sure avenues to happiness. Today, perhaps because of world con- ditions, trivialities are over-emphasized and given too prominent a place in the minds of our people: thus, they crowd out the more important things that lead to the happiness for which we are really seeking. 8