68. Don’t expect perfect happiness in this life
68. DON’T EXPECT PERFECT HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE
Can we be really happy in this world? How does St. Thomas avoid both the cynical pessimism of saying no and the naïve optimism of saying yes?
A certain participation in happiness can be had in this life, but perfect and true happiness cannot be had in this life. This can be seen from a twofold consideration.
First, from the general notion of happiness. For since happiness is a perfect and sufficient good, it (1) excludes every evil and (2) fulfills every desire. (1) But in this life every evil cannot be excluded. For this present life is subject to many unavoidable evils: to ignorance on the part of the intellect, to inordinate affection on the part of the appetite, and to many penalties on the part of the body. . . . (2) Likewise neither can the desire for good be satiated in this life. For man naturally desires the good which he has to be abiding. Now the goods of the present life pass away, since life itself passes away, which we naturally desire to have and would wish to hold abidingly, for man naturally shrinks from death. Wherefore it is impossible to have true happiness in this life.
Secondly, from a consideration of the specific nature of happiness, viz. the vision of the divine essence, which man cannot obtain in this life (I-II,5,3).
I’ve always had basset hounds because they look so sad that they make me feel happy. They do that by reminding me that this world is indeed a vale of tears, though it’s both beautiful, in its own way, and hilariously funny.
If we expect this world to be a palace, we will be constantly complaining, and miserable; if we expect it to be boot camp, we will be amazed at how comfortable it is and will be constantly thanking God for all the fun we have. We are, after all, supposed to offer Him all our “prayers, works, joys, and sufferings” in our Morning Offering. I think the joys are the hardest item of the four to offer up, because they tend to make us forget Him instead of making us remember Him with thanksgiving, which is what they’re supposed to do, and why they exist and why God gives them to us. Maybe that’s why He doesn’t give us more. Maybe the more grateful we are, the more things we will get to be grateful about. God will say: “Good; you’ve learned that lesson. I can trust you to learn another one.”
Pre-modern cultures had far fewer creature comforts than we do. They didn’t have science and technology to remake the world in the image of our own desires. They didn’t even have anesthetics! Think for a moment about the physical pains in the average life of a medieval peasant. And yet they were happier than we are—as the people in poor societies, like the Caribbean, are often happier than the people in the richest societies (Europe and North America). Want hard proof of that? Compare the suicide rates. What is the poorest continent in the world? The same one that smiles the most: Africa. Compare photos of Africans with photos of everyone else, and compare the smile count.
Expect the world to be Heaven, and it will feel like Hell. Expect it to be Purgatory, and it will feel like Heaven. The two most salient facts about Purgatory are pain and hope, suffering and meaning. It’s labor, travail, childbirth. It’s hard work, but it’s much more meaningful and fulfilling than pointless leisure. It’s even happier, even though it’s not more comfortable.
This world is a big womb, a giant nursery, an elaborate nativity set, a cosmic crèche. What the angel said to Mary, God says to us too, and in these words is the meaning of life—of our life as well as Mary’s: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Christ wants to be born in us too. He wants to become really present in our souls, as He becomes really present on the altars of all the Catholic churches in the world. In these two places, the extensions of the Incarnation keep happening again and again. We’re in labor. Come on now, push!