Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica.
In part 1, I wrote of Aristotle’s understanding of happiness as explained by classicist Edith Hall of King’s College, London. In doing so, I hinted at the enduring efforts of Thomas Aquinas in using Aristotelian philosophy as a framework for Christian theology. Whereas Aristotle believed happiness as being human action directed towards good ends, Aquinas taught further that perfect happiness is the enjoyment of God forever.
What does this mean?
Aquinas writes in the Summa Theologica that all persons, in desiring something for themselves, want what they consider beneficial and good. As a result, time and energy is expended in acquisition. Nothing transitory however, such as wealth, honor, power, fame, or even knowledge, can ever completely satisfy our yearnings, since all things are limited, susceptible to change, and desires infinite. The shortfall of anything is realized once we are able to possess what we have longed for with all our strength.
“It is the nature of happiness to satisfy itself; having gained happiness, a human person cannot lack any needful good” (ST Pt. 1-11, Q. 2 Art. 4).
What can bring happiness then? God alone satisfies completely since, “God is happiness by His essence” (ST Pt. 1-11, Q. 3 Art. 1). We become happy living (that is, participating) in God, who is the “First Truth” and “Uncreated Good.” Once you and I are united finally to God, we will have reached wholeness of being in a single unchanging and everlasting contemplation of Truth. We will know fully, and in knowing, come to rest. Having arrived at the Infinite, there will be nothing we lack. We will discover that all we can possibly want as persons is to be found in God. Receiving the gift of God, peace in the deepest part of our hearts will reign as every desire is extinguished.
Each person according to Thomas was created for this destiny. Every cramped, small, or distorted hoped-for-thing is an attempt to fill a space within us that is meant for God alone. This is not to say that there are not legitimate natural goods (the necessities of life, etc.) that can bring a relative degree of happiness now, as pointed out by Aristotle. The key for Aquinas however is that every moral and natural good is just a beginning, and is therefore incomplete. We are bound to be disappointed and frustrated if they are not understood rightly.
So in striving for happiness, we should attempt to master ourselves by directing all we choose and do as steps on the road to a supernatural future in God. We need not always think consciously about this final end as we go about our daily lives, but we should, as rational creatures, take seriously what comes next—after death—by putting our house, both spiritually and materially, in order first.
“As the soul is the life of the body, so God is man’s life of happiness: of Whom it is written, Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” (ST Pt. 1-11, Q. 2 Art. 8)
