The Supreme Good
one
Nothing on Earth Satisfies
Our will was given to us so that we could follow the guidance of the intellect in pursuing our happiness. That’s the function of the will, to seek satisfaction in some good thing that can really give us what we need; rest, delight, and contentment. Yet we know every good thing on earth, and there are an awful lot of really good things down here, still leave us wanting more.
St. Augustine wrote volumes and volumes of brilliantly insightful theology, philosophy and biography but his most famous sentence is the one where he says, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Yes. That’s because our will was made for the good and when it reaches anything less than the Supreme Good it knows it hasn’t reached its destination yet.
two
What Everybody Wants
St. Thomas Aquinas points out that every human being desires perfect and abiding happiness and it’s true. If you could ask anybody, “Would you like perfect happiness, a happiness where there’s nothing more you could ask for? And abiding happiness, a happiness where your joy and contentment was never lacking?” Just about everyone would say yes, that sounds great. But just about everyone would also admit that you don’t get perfect and abiding happiness in this life. There’s always something which would make our situation better. Some strained relationship, some internal tension, some physical issue, some financial concern, there’s always some fly in the ointment, even in the best of times, there’s always something.
Even in the best times, and even especially at the best times, we know the good thing we’re enjoying won’t last. Our health, the respect we get at work, our wife’s beauty or our husband’s strength, not having any fires that we need to put out. We know that doesn’t last. So here is a human conundrum: we all want something, but we can’t get it. We all want perfect and permanent happiness, but it’s nowhere to be found. What does that mean?
three
Universal Human Urges
Every other universal human urge has some object that corresponds to it. Hunger is a universal human urge, and there is food. Thirst is a universal human urge, and there is water. Fatigue is a universal human experience, and there is sleep. Loneliness is a universal human experience, and there is friendship. The desire to know is a universal human urge, and there is truth.
So if there is a universal human desire for perfect and permanent happiness, for a perfect delight that corresponds to a perfect Good, wouldn’t that imply that there exists a perfect and permanent happiness? Doesn’t that mean there is a perfect delight and a Perfect, Supreme Good? And if that Perfect Good and Perfect and Permanent Happiness aren’t to be had in this life, they must exist somewhere beyond this life.
four
The Disproportion Between Our Environment and Ourselves
The disproportion between the nature of our will, which desires perfect goodness, and what is available to us in this life is actually part of a broader pattern.
When we stop and think about it, we see that over and over again we find indications that there is some disproportion between ourselves and the earthly environment.
Take time, for instance. As CS Lewis says, if this earthly time were our natural environment, we presumably wouldn’t find it odd anymore than a fish would find water odd. But we do find time odd. We constantly say, “Where does the time go?” and “It’s amazing how much time has passed.” Or sometimes “It’s like this day will never end.” Maybe that indicates we’re not meant for the time of this universe long-term.
Or take Fr. Spitzer’s example of what happens when a young couple falls in love for the first time, and they foolishly believe that they are now in a relationship with a perfect person that will make them completely happy. We laugh at them, because we know that they are going to get really disillusioned really fast. But we should ask ourselves: What makes people look for a relationship with a perfect person that will make them completely happy in the first place? Why do we all seem to be hardwired with that expectation, even though it’s obviously not something available in any relationship in this life?
Then we add this insight of St. Thomas, that we all want perfect and permanent happiness, and yet it’s nowhere to be found in this life, where every joy is brief and mixed with sorrow.
The disproportion between what our will longs for and what this life can offer shows us that we too are built for an environment we’ve never been in yet.
five
Absurdity or Christianity?
Many secular philosophers, especially the existentialists, recognize that our desires, our longings, and our ideals for happiness outstrip what the world provides. They conclude that life is absurd, that we are absurd, that the human condition is absurd. There’s something honest about that conclusion, but it would be even more consistent if they were simply to admit that atheism is absurd. The human condition isn’t absurd. The human condition simply tells us that we were made for more. There’s only one religion that promises more joy, more truth and goodness, more fulfillment of everything that is genuinely human. That religion is Christianity.
To live a worldly life is to live a life that is content with absurdity and dissatisfaction.
To live a Christian life is to live a life that respects the structure of the human will, and knows that there is a God who corresponds to it. It is to know that our hearts are restless, not because of some defect in ourselves, but because there is Perfect Good waiting for us, and our hearts will rest content only when we come to Him.