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IF, AS St. Thomas [4] says, the miser has the desire of
riches in an infinite degree, what must we then say of
the spiritual desire of the will? The higher knowledge
rises, the higher also, the deeper also, is our
spiritual desire. And Christian faith tells us that God
alone, seen face to face, can satisfy this immeasurable
desire. Hence we may say, in a true sense, that our
will has a depth without measure.
Hence beatitude, that true happiness which man desires
naturally and inevitably, cannot be found in any
limited good, but only in God, seen at least in natural
fashion and loved efficaciously above all things. St.
Thomas [5] demonstrates the beatitude of man from the
fact that he conceives that universal good cannot be
found either in riches or in honor or in glory or in
power or in any material, corporeal good, not even in
any finite subjective good of the soul, like virtue,
lastly in no limited good whatever. The saint's [6]
thesis rests on the very nature of our intelligence and
our will. When we try to find happiness in the
knowledge of a science or in a friendship however
noble, we are not slow in recognizing that we are
dealing with a limited good, such as made St. Catherine
of Siena express herself as follows: "If you wish any
friendship to endure, if you wish to quench your thirst
for a long time, you must always refill your cup at the
source of living water, otherwise it cannot continue to
reply to your thirst."
It is impossible, in fact, for man to find true
happiness which he desires naturally in any limited
good, because his intelligence at once seizes on this
limit, and thus conceives a higher good, and thus his
will naturally desires that higher good.
Even if it were to be granted to us to see an angel, to
behold without medium his suprasensible and purely
spiritual beauty, we would indeed at first be amazed.
But our intelligence, knowing universal good, would not
be slow in telling us that even this great good is a
finite good, and would find this finite good very poor
in comparison with good itself, without limits and
without any imperfection.
Even the simultaneous collection of all finite good
would not constitute goodness itself, no more than an
innumerable multitude of idiots can equal a man of
genius.
Following St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas writes:
Temporal goods appear desirable when we do not have
them; but when we do have them, we see their poverty,
which cannot meet our desire and which therefore
produces disillusion, lassitude, and often repugnance.
In spiritual goods the inverse is true. They do not
seem desirable to those who do not have them and who
desire especially sensible good. But the more we
possess them the more we know their value and the more
we love them. [7] For the same reason, material goods,
the same house, the same field, cannot belong
simultaneously and integrally to many persons.
Spiritual goods, on the contrary, one and the same
truth, one and the same virtue, can belong
simultaneously and completely to all. And the more
perfectly we possess these goods, the better we can
communicate them to others. [8] This is especially true
of the sovereign good.
Of necessity, then, there exists an infinite good which
alone is capable of answering our aspirations.
Otherwise the universal amplitude of our will would be
a psychological absurdity, a thing radically
unintelligible, without raison d'etre.
Had God created us in a state purely natural without
grace, our last end would have been to know Him
naturally, by the reflection of His perfection in
creatures, and to love Him efficaciously above all
things.
But gratuitously God has called us to know Him in
supernatural fashion by the immediate vision of His
divine essence, to know Him as He knows himself, to
love Him as He loves Himself and this for all eternity.
There, above all, we will understand that God, seen
face to face, can fill the immense void of our heart,
that He alone is able to fill the depth of our will.
In what sense, then, is this depth of soul without
measure? One may object: Our soul like every creature
is finite and limited. Hence the soul-faculties are
also limited. Without doubt, the creature, even the
most elevated, is finite. Not only is our body limited,
but our soul also. Consequently the faculties of our
soul, as being characteristics of the soul, are finite.
Nevertheless our intelligence, however finite, is
created to know the universal truth, even the infinite
truth, which is God. Similarly our will, although
finite, is made to love a good that has no limits.
Without doubt, even in heaven, our act of the beatific
vision, considered from the side of the subject which
knows, will be finite, but it is addressed to an
infinite object. It attains that object, though it
attains that object in a finite manner. It does not
comprehend God, but it understands Him, it sees Him
without medium, sees His infinite essence, His infinite
perfection. Thus, to illustrate, the open eye, however
small it may be, sees the immensity of the ocean, sees
into the night, even as far as the stars, though they
are millions of leagues away. Thus, in heaven also, our
act of seeing the divine essence, though it has not the
penetration of the uncreated vision, attains
immediately the divine essence. Our love of God, though
it remains finite subjectively considered, rests
immediately on the infinite good, which we love indeed
in our own finite manner, but which makes it impossible
for us to rest except in Him. No other object can
satisfy all our aspirations. Then alone, says the
Psalmist, [9] I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall
appear. Our heart can never find a durable rest except
in the love of God.
In this sense, seen from the objective side, our will
has an infinite depth. Our will is indeed finite as
being, just as our intelligence, but it opens upon the
infinite. As the Thomists express themselves: Our
faculties are infinite intentionally, from the side of
the object, i.e., our superior faculties are finite in
their entity, as characteristics of the soul, but they
have an object which is without limit. Thus even in the
sensible order our eye, however small, reaches out to
grasp the nebulae in the immensity of the firmament.
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