65. Happiness is the “Beatific Vision”
65. HAPPINESS IS THE “BEATIFIC VISION”
Isn’t St. Thomas too intellectualistic when he says that the essence of our happiness is an intellectual vision of God? He makes our ultimate end and happiness center on contemplation rather than action, knowing rather than loving. Doesn’t that demote love from the highest place, and isn’t that pagan Greek philosophy rather than Christian religion? Isn’t that Aristotle rather than Christ?
Our Lord said (Jn 17:3): This is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God. Now eternal life is the last end. . . . Therefore man’s happiness consists in the knowledge of God, which is an act of the intellect.
As stated above, two things are needed for happiness: one, which is the essence of happiness; the other, that is as it were its proper accident, i.e., the delight connected with it.
I say then that as to the very essence of happiness, it is impossible for it to consist in an act of the will. . . . For the will is directed to the end, both (1) absent, when it desires it, and (2) present, when it is delighted by resting therein. (1) Now it is evident that the desire itself of the end is not the attainment of the end, but is a movement towards the end; while (2) delight comes to the will from the end being present, and not conversely: a thing is not made present by the fact that the will delights in it. Therefore, that the end be present to him who desires it, must be due to something else than an act of the will.
This is evidently the case in regard to sensible ends. For if the acquisition of money were through an act of the will, the covetous man would have it from the very moment that he wished for it. But (1) at that moment it is far from him, and (2) he attains it by grasping it in his hand, or in some like manner, and (3) then he delights in the money got. And so it is with the intelligible end. For (1) at first we desire to attain an intelligible end; (2) we attain it, through it being made present to us by an act of the intellect; and (3) then the delighted will rests in the end when attained.
So therefore the essence of happiness consists in an act of the intellect, but the delight that results from happiness pertains to the will. In this sense Augustine says that happiness is joy in truth (I-II,3,4).
The cause is greater than its effect. But vision is the cause of delight. Therefore vision ranks before delight (I-II,4,2).
Now man’s highest operation is that of his highest power in respect of its highest object; and his highest power is the intellect whose highest object is the divine good (I-II,3,5).
It is written (1 Jn 3:2): When He shall appear we shall be like to Him because we shall see Him as He is. Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the divine essence (I-II,3,8).
Love (desire) is the only vehicle that can get us there, and love (joy) is the song we will sing forever when we get there, but the glue that actually sticks us to God is knowing, seeing Him face to face. Christ Himself tells us that: “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God” (Jn 17:3). It’s personal knowledge, of course, not theory; acquaintance, not description; experience, not expertise; God, not theology. But it’s knowledge: the kind of knowledge Adam had of Eve (Gen 4:1).
If all that is not convincing to you, then let’s just say that when we get to Heaven we will all laugh at the very question whether our ultimate eternal joy is a matter of the knowing intellect or the loving will. For it may well be that that question is like whether we bought twelve eggs or a dozen, or like the question whether the moon is smaller than the sun or the sun is bigger than the moon. Ultimate knowing is the highest kind of loving and ultimate loving is the highest kind of knowing.