P. Sherwin #4 - How did aquinas determine the goal of human life? - I - Ii, 2

How did Aquinas determine the goal of human life? (I-II, 2) Yes, that's a difficult question. He begins with what's most evident to us to try to work back to what is less evident. And if you look at all the other motions in the world, they seem to be directed to a final cause. There seems to be a goal that they are... that they move towards. And then when you look at the kind of hierarchy in creation, each animal acts towards what is principle in it. So you... the worm is acting in one way, the dog is acting in another, and the flourishing for a dog is rooted in what is principle in the dogs nature. The same is true for any other animal. So determining what the goal of human life is, it's got to be rooted towards determining what is principle in the human person. And you can draw upon human experience. Aquinas begins the question in many ways like Augustine does with the aid of Aristotle, the master of human experience, but for Aquinas like for the Medieval 's the great example is Boethius, because Boethius had everything that the world of his day would determine as success. Not one but two of his sons became counselors of councils of Rome, so they were the highest authority in the government except for the Emperor. He was a friend of the Emperor. Boethius was wealthy, well respected and then he lost everything. So you begin to discern what's the goal of human life by looking at, well, what is it that we most deeply desire? And is it fame? Well, we can lose fame. Is it health? We want to be healthy, but you can also lose your health in this life. Is it friends and family? We want all those things, they're all good things, but they also are passing. And so ultimately what is it that we most deeply want, something that would fulfill us completely, something that can't be lost, something that's not just for a while? As Augustine says of all the great Greek and Romans who tried to find their happiness in this life, they weren't really happy, they were bravely unhappy. And so Aquinas looking at all the different candidates for human flourishing, all the different candidates for the goal of our life comes the conclusion, that the deepest longing of our heart can only really be fulfilled by that which can't be lost and by that which is eternal. And ultimately the only candidate for that is God Himself, who is changeless, is ever ancient, ever knew, as Augustine says, and who fully corresponds to our deepest longings our deepest desires to know and to love. He's the only object that is worthy of both all of our attention and all of our love. And then everything else finds its value in that. It's not that the passing things of this world are evil but they are sacraments. They participate in a fleeting way in eternity. And it's in discovering God as the center, that we find that we're not alone in all of that. Or perhaps, it's in living a full human life with others, we discover that our goal with all of these others is to be together with the Lord. So it's not God as a hermit, but God in the company of others. It's why the goal of Christian Hope is described as the kingdom of God. It's our happiness and fulfillment, but our happiness and fulfillment is not a hermitage, it's more a city, a banquet, the celestial banquet, the City of God.