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St Augustine Says That All Men Agree in Desiring the Last End, the Overall Goal of Life, Which Is Happiness

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St Augustine Says That All Men Agree in Desiring the Last End, the Overall Goal of Life, Which Is Happiness Heaven Page 1 of 3 In the fall of 1622, in Japan, a tremendous persecution of the Catholics there took place. The priests, religious and sisters were especially sought out for torture and martyrdom. One day in Nagasaki, nine Catholics were martyred, among whom was a boy. This boy was tortured for eight days, to make him reveal the place where the religious were hidden; but he did nothing else than repeat the names of Jesus and Mary. The enraged executioners tore his skin and poured melted lead into his wounds. The boy suffered this cruelty while constantly saying, “Jesus and Mary! I desire to go to heaven and see my God. I desire to go to heaven and see my God.” The judges finally gave up and had him with his whole family burnt alive on October 2, 1622. I desire to go to heaven and see my God. What is the ultimate desire of our life, if not to go to heaven, to see God? We’re going to look a bit at the goal of our life, heaven, and we’re just barely going to be able to scratch the surface. The spiritual writer, Fr Jordan Aumann, points out that everything in creation, especially the human person, is ordained to the same ultimate end, the same goal: the glory of God. This is the reason for our existence. The means, however, by which we glorify God are twofold: our sanctification and our salvation. By taking these means, and giving glory to God we will find true happiness. St Augustine says that all men agree in desiring the last end, the overall goal of life, which is happiness. All creatures desire the fulfillment of their perfection – all creatures are attracted to things which are seen as good for them. Now there are many things that can appear to be good to men’s eyes out there, but only that good is best, is most perfect which the one with a well-ordered will desires for his last end, that is, the final goal of his life. (St Thomas, Summa Theologica, I-II q. 1 a. 7) Happiness, therefore, consists in the perfect good, which satisfies us altogether, eternally. (Summa, I-II q. 2 a. 8) What about that idea in the world that happiness consists in pleasure? Pleasure is a bodily delight, and a delight is the appetite’s rest in a good. Now the fitting good for man, if it be the perfect good, is precisely man’s happiness. But the goods pertaining to the body are transitory and limited to singular moments, just as the body itself is transitory and limited. However, the goods of the soul, which are known through the intellect, are universal, and the goods of the soul are above and not limited to matter: they are infinite. Therefore the goods which are fitting for the soul are so far above those of the body, and so the transitory goods which are fitting for the body cannot be man’s perfect good. Happiness, therefore, cannot consist in pleasure. Another way to put it is this: the things of this world never quite satisfy us fully, and often bring regret. No matter how much we think we may enjoy a created good, whether it is a work of art, a vacation, or even a person, there is always in every created good something that disappoints – something about them that never fully satisfies. Those who seek the created goods of this world over God, whether those goods be a pleasure, a person or a thing, ultimately become attached to the corruptible goods they have freely chosen, and will die with them, suffering their same corruptible end. The only good which is above every good, which completely satisfies us such that we don’t want to seek any other thing is God Himself. Man’s happiness, therefore, consists essentially in being united to the Uncreated Good, God Himself. So what will heaven be like? Heaven will consist in enjoying the perfect Good, which satisfies us completely, enjoying the Presence of the highest Good, and seeing Him face-to-face. We Heaven Page 2 of 3 call this seeing and enjoying God forever in heaven the beatific vision. Right now, in this life, God is hidden from us, precisely because He wants us to grow in faith and confidence in Him. However, in Heaven we will have a clear vision and enjoyment of God as He really is. Describing how the vision of God will perfectly and personally satisfy each person in heaven, even though they be of different personalities, the Carmelite Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen says, “No one of the blessed [in heaven] can express to another [one of the saints in heaven] what he most intimately experiences, for [in heaven] what is most profound in our [happiness] will take place between God and each of us, between the human person and the Divine Persons. That is the supreme grandeur of the human person: to be called to live eternally in intimate companionship with his God…Thus…the [company] of the blessed in heaven, however pleasant, constitutes only an accidental happiness, added to that essential one which we will experience by being with God and in enjoying Him. Oh, yes, truly God has made us for Himself, and how well they act who on earth already seek to live intimately with Him!” (Union with God, 11) Imagine… the essence of God, His goodness, cannot be expressed by any spoken word, so the joy we will experience in heaven will be so profound and intimate that we could not even explain it to another saint in heaven. There are three important Church declarations concerning the beatific vision in Heaven. Pope Benedict XII declared, “The souls of the just see the divine essence by an intuitive, face-to- face vision, with no creature as a medium of vision, but with the divine essence immediately manifesting itself to them, clearly and openly.” (DS 1000-02) With no creature as a medium of vision… what does that mean? It means that we are not going to experience God through some good like a tropical paradise, but we will experience Goodness Itself, clearly and openly! Who wants to have Goodness filtered out by some crummy creature when in Heaven we experience pure, unfiltered, Goodness and Joy themselves! The second important Church declaration concerning the beatific vision was a decree issued by the Council of Florence: “Souls immediately upon entrance into heaven see clearly the one and Triune God as He is, one more perfectly than another, depending on their merits.” (DS 1304-06) Souls see God as He is, one soul more perfectly than another depending on their merits. This is very important. This is why doing good works in the state of grace is important – good works done in the state of grace, that is, while God is dwelling in our soul so that He elevates the nature of the act that we are doing, will be rewarded with see God more perfectly in heaven! St Paul told the Romans 2:6, “God…will render to every man according to his works. To them indeed who, according to patience in good work, seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life.” (Rom 2:6) Our merits, that is, the good that we do when we are in the state of grace, will add to our enjoyment of heaven. The third important Church declaration concerning the beatific vision was from the Council of Vienne (1311-12). This Council condemned the opinion that denies the necessity of a special illumination of the intellect in heaven (DS 895). In other words, we can’t even see God in the beatific vision if our intellects were not raised up supernaturally, above our nature, to make it possible for our weak minds to see Him, Who is infinite above our nature. This is proven by what we already experience – if we could see God with our unaided human nature, then we would be seeing Him right now, because He is everywhere. We need something added to our nature, and this is sanctifying grace which we get from the sacraments. We can make a comparison to a man who wants to see a solar system light years away, who needs something added to his nature – a telescope – to help him do what is unaided nature can’t do. We need a special illumination of the intellect if Heaven Page 3 of 3 we are going to see God in heaven, just as we need to take the means that God gave us to get there, our sanctification through prayer and the sacraments. So what about the idea that you hear running around out there that ‘oh, we may be on different paths, but we’re all going to end up in the same place’? One is tempted to ask these people, if they have ever been to heaven. Then, we could ask, would they ever take a trip to a place they have never been to, without first getting directions from someone who knows how to get there, and then following those directions? Since none of us has ever been to heaven, would it make sense to ignore the directions given to us to get to heaven by God, Who has been to heaven, and then expect that everyone is still going to somehow end up there anyway? That doesn’t even work in nature – we all can’t just meander around and then expect that we’ll end up in the same spot: how much more when we are dealing with a super-natural destination.
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