Happpiness and the Holy Spirit

"Man's highest activity engages his highest power with its highest object.  Man's intelligence is his highest power, and its highest object the good that is God, an object of contemplation not practical intelligence.  So happiness is above all the activity of contemplating the things of God"

"Now the proper object of mind is truth, and God alone is essentially true (things are true in the same way in which they exist); so it is contemplation of God [the source of all being and light], that makes us completely happy."

"Happiness is the cleaving to God and the mind's all-fulfilling object."  St. Thomas Aquinas,

The first time one reads this, one often thinks, "well, isn't that elitist! Only smart people can be happy!"  Quite the contrary!  Aquinas says that happiness is the end of human life, i.e., the ultimate goal.  Happiness is cleaving to God and contemplating him with our mind.  This is the end, however, not something that is achieved on earth.  If this were not so, then college professors would be the happiest people on earth. But this is not the case.  Happiness as an end, requires a mean. How do we achieve this happiness in heaven?

As Christ says in Matthew 6:33, "seek first the kingdom of God."  Our temporal lives as Christians are meant to be directed entirely to, first, love of God, and, second, love of neighbor.  It is through love that we come to enjoy that beatitude, that blessed contemplation of God. Aquinas writes that love, "leads onwards to the desire of heavenly things."  Now in order to have Christian love, which is, essentially, a desire for union, one must receive the Holy Spirit who, as Thomas points out, "For it belongs to the Holy Ghost, Who proceeds as Love, to be the gift of sanctification"  We receive grace through the Holy Spirit by prayer and the sacraments, the the Spirit and grace then cause us directly to be able to do good works, to pray, to love, and to bear worthy fruit (cf. matthew 3:8).  All of these make us worthy to be united with God in heaven, where, since all deprivations and barriers are removed, our minds will fully be united in an eternal gaze with pure Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.  We must be therefore docile, and ready to listen to the Holy Spirit's voice, in order to utilize grace, to love, and to then be blessed enough to join God in heaven.  


So through living daily as a Christian, responding to the Holy Spirit's call to love by praying, doing good works, and receiving the sacraments, we become worthy to cleave to God in eternity.