The Key to Happiness

Let’s lay down some groundwork by considering why we act as we do. Unlike irrational animals driven by instinct, we have the power to determine what goods we will seek and how we will go about obtaining them. We are masters of our own actions. Those goods we seek are goals or ends, the things we hope to achieve by our actions. “Although the end be the last in the order of execution, yet it is first in the order of the agent’s intention. And it is in this way that it is a cause.”

We are not so much pawns, pushed by the random events of our past or present circumstances, as masters of our fates who are pulled by future goals that we have chosen to pursue. An end acts as a final cause, a cause for the sake of which we do something. If you are surprised by your friend’s actions and ask, “Why did you do that?” you assume that his behavior was not reflexive like a sneeze, coerced at gunpoint, or in some other way involuntary. You’re asking what he hoped to achieve—the final cause of his action, the end he had in mind. Although each individual undeniably has his own personal likes and dislikes, we all act most of the time for the same final end. And what is that?

According to St. Augustine, “All men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness.” Why, then, do individuals act so differently and achieve such differing degrees of happiness? St. Thomas notes that “to desire happiness is nothing else than to desire that one’s will be satisfied. And this everyone desires.” And yet, “all do not know happiness; because they know not in what the general notion of happiness is found.” In other words, we all want to be happy, but not all of us know what really will make us happy.

In considering what will bring happiness, both Aristotle and Thomas starts by enumerating some common false contenders—which are as popular and alluring in our day as they were in the centuries in which they wrote.

Contrary to what the world would have us believe, happiness does not consist of wealth, power, honor, fame and glory, goods of the body, pleasure, even goods of the soul—or, for that matter, any created good—are only means to the end of happiness, and none of them ever completely satisfies. In fact, these goods often lead to their possessors’ and to others’ destruction. The ever-growing roster of rich and famous celebrities and sports superstars whose lives have ended in suicide or homicide bears witness to this fact. What, then, is true happiness?

The efforts of natural reason can only take us so far in responding to this question, pointing to certain goods that are desired for their own sake—such as friendship or contemplation of the truth—the possession of which gives the greatest happiness human persons can attain in this life. Christian revelation gives a more complete response, taking into consideration both our natural and supernatural vocation as persons created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), “By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an ‘outstanding manifestation of the divine image’” (1705, citing Gaudium et Spes 17).

By conferring on each of us “the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions ” (CCC 1730), God has made us responsible agents in pursuit of the ultimate good, a pursuit that promises us a twofold happiness: 1) an imperfect happiness while here on earth and 2) a perfect happiness consisting of the beatific vision of the Uncreated Good (God) in heaven.

God is the ultimate source of every good thing and nothing short of him can content our minds and hearts. Of course, we cannot obtain complete union with God unless and until we reach heaven. All our actions as free persons are meant to orient us to that final, perfect, eternal bliss with God.

And in the meantime? “According to the Philosopher (Ethics 1:9), happiness is the reward of works of virtue.” Not only is our ultimate happiness attained by actions aligning our will with the ultimate good, but happiness itself is found in these actions. Virtues (both natural and supernatural) perfect our ability both to know and to do the good. It is through them—as collaborators with God’s grace—that we can already rejoice to know, love, and serve God here on earth. They are our keys to unlocking earthly and heavenly happiness. As Jesus declared of the humble, virtuous actions he performed, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).

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