70. Happiness is unattainable by human power
70. HAPPINESS IS UNATTAINABLE BY HUMAN POWER
Shouldn’t human happiness and fulfillment be attainable by human nature, just as the happiness and fulfillment and end of any other creature—dog or angel or bird or even plant—is attainable by its nature?
It would seem that man can attain happiness by his natural powers. For nature does not fail in necessary things.
Just as nature does not fail man in necessaries, although it has not provided him with weapons and clothing, as it provided other animals, because it gave him reason and hands, with which he is able to get these things for himself; so neither did it fail man in things necessary although it gave him not the wherewithal to attain (perfect) happiness, since this it could not do. But it did give him free-will, with which he can turn to God, that He may make him happy.
Imperfect happiness that can be had in this life can be acquired by man by his natural powers. . . . But man’s perfect happiness, as stated above, consists in the vision of the divine essence. Now the vision of God’s essence surpasses the nature not only of man but also of every creature (I-II,5,5).
Man is different. There is nothing in the nature of a dog that demands anything more than doggy satisfactions. A dog does not, by nature, desire to become a human being, or even to be adopted into a human family—although when it is adopted into a good human family it is happier than it was in its mere doggy life. A plant does not want to become an animal, nor is there anything to suggest that it could. In fact, the only way this happens is by the animal eating the plant; but then the plant loses its plant life. The dog, on the other hand, when adopted into a human family and allowed to share a little bit of our human life, does not lose anything doggy. So our adopting a dog is a better image or analogy than an animal eating a plant for God adopting us into His life, into the divine family of the Trinity.
Man is different because God put into him Augustine’s “restless heart”, which cannot find its rest anywhere except in Him. There has never existed, and never will exist, any such thing as a purely natural human being, a man in his merely natural state, with no relation to the supernatural. Man is the only creature that transcends his own nature. He is more than he is.
The “imperfect happiness” that “can be had in this life” does not satisfy us, as it does to every animal. We are the only animal that simply cannot, deep down, obey the first and greatest commandment of our modern-day prophets, the pop psychologists, viz. to “accept yourself as you are”. We are the ones who are blessed not when we are satisfied but only when we are dissatisfied, only when we “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, a perfect righteousness that cannot be attained in this life. And without that true righteousness we can never be our true selves and truly happy.
You are the King of Heaven’s kid, not King Kong’s kid. You are destined to sit on the lap of the King of Kings. Don’t settle for less. You are a Prince of Heaven; if you have true self-respect, you will say “Hmph!” or “Pooh!” to the toys of earth. (St. Paul dared to use an even stronger epithet for them in Philippians 3:8: “skubala.” It’s the s-word in English. Look it up.)
You see, detachment from worldly goods isn’t onerous but fun once you see truly. It can become a game. We can take all the gold-plated skubala as a joke if we know the perfect happiness we are being readied for.
Don’t grovel. Don’t grovel to the pretty toys the Devil dangles on the string for you. Your Heavenly Father doesn’t even want you to grovel to Him, but to love Him. Grovelers don’t smile; lovers do.