St. Thomas Aquinas writes in the Summa I-II Q 2: Consequently man’s happiness cannot consist in fame or glory. On the other hand, man’s good depends on God’s knowledge as its cause. And therefore man’s beatitude depends, as on its cause, on the glory which man has with God; according to Ps. 90: “I will deliver him, and I will glorify him; I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him my salvation…”
Fr. David: On social-media, I frequently see Catholics post pictures of saints while misrepresenting Church history or true theology. Such a post of a saint with bad theology may have thousands of likes just because it included the picture of a saint. If I were a Protestant seeing such stupid theology, I would think the old-school accusation of Protestants against Catholics were true: Catholics just have a superstitious approach to the saints but know nothing about God. Indeed, such a conclusion would not be too far off-base if you were to look at Catholic X for just fifteen minutes. Thankfully, St. Thomas Aquinas brings us back to the basics here that man was made for ultimate union with God. Of course, I believe the saints lead us to God. But many Catholics who spend more time on X than in the Scriptures or adoration are in great danger of forgetting that every man and woman are Capax Dei. The Latin phrase Capax Dei literally means “capable of God” and it comes from St. Augustine. You see, because God made your soul, He made it capable to coordinate with His Divinity forever, and perfectly. But you can’t obtain this supernatural goal without supernatural grace. Not only were you not made for Instagram saints quotes all day, but you weren’t even made (ultimately) for union with an angel or a saint. You were made for union with God Himself in heaven. Although the saints certainly lead us to God (I pray all day to them) the human soul is only Capax Dei. This is because only God can satisfy the soul, not a person—not even your spouse. This is true Catholicism, as we just read in St. Thomas above: “Man’s happiness cannot consist in fame or glory. On the other hand, man’s good depends on God’s knowledge as its cause. And therefore man’s beatitude depends, as on its cause, on the glory which man has with God.”
St. Thomas: Man surpasses all other animals in regard to happiness. But in bodily goods he is surpassed by many animals; for instance, by the elephant in longevity, by the lion in strength, by the stag in fleetness. Therefore man’s happiness does not consist in goods of the body… Boethius says: “Any one that chooses to look back on his past excesses, will perceive that pleasures had a sad ending: and if they can render a man happy, there is no reason why we should not say that the very beasts are happy too… [And] Augustine says: “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’ (Ps. 143:15).”
I remember watching a documentary that stated that an adult male African lion can copulate for several hours a day in mating season. It hit me at that moment how many secular men would kill to have pleasure sustained for that long. (I literally mean “kill” when you look at what causes abortion.) Yet even the most carnal men today cannot attain what even a brute beast of the jungle can enjoy with no problem (again, lions having several hours of intercourse at once.) Thus, no one with an immortal soul could have ever been made to live a life of pursuing exclusively pleasure (or fame or glory.) We can’t be made for that. In fact, St. Thomas reminds us that not only do pleasure-pursuits or glory-pursuits fall short of our ultimate goal, but he quotes Boethius in indicating that they leave us deflated: “Any one that chooses to look back on his past excesses, will perceive that pleasures had a sad ending.” St. Thomas then quotes a short but profound statement from St. Augustine: “As the soul is the life of the body, so God is man’s life of happiness.” It reminds me of how St. Philip Neri once said “Anyone who does not want God does not know what He really wants.”
St. Thomas: “Every creature has goodness by participation [but] God alone can satisfy the will of man, according to the words of Ps. 102: ‘Who satisfieth thy desire with good things.’ Therefore God alone constitutes man’s happiness.”
Although I love the saints and pray dozens of times a day for their intercession, none of them will make me perfectly happy forever. This is obviously not because I am greater than them, but rather because every angel and saint and human (including you and me) will only be happy when we are fully immersed in total participation in the Divinity of the Blessed Trinity. Whether we deserve it or not (and of course we don’t—which is again why we need grace to get there) we must realize this: The creation of your soul in God’s image and likeness was still the prerogative of God. In fact, He made your soul when He could have made a trillion other souls—even better ones not made— but chose you out of love. The distance the Eternal Word has crossed in His incarnation and death to make this possible is dizzying. But Christ did it because He loves you and wants you with Him forever, precisely because you were originally Capax Dei, and even more so after attaining the fruits of the Redemption through baptism and confession. One additional step in letting God reach you in eternity is to realize no creature on earth can possibly satisfy the depths of your own deep soul. If (please God) we even make it to heaven, know that our union with the saints and angels will be so great that we’ll practically be inside of each other. But even that unity comes exclusively from “God Alone.” Indeed, as St. Thomas writes above: “God alone constitutes man’s happiness.”