To Attain Happiness

Thomas Aquinas says that man’s Supreme Happiness is contained in an act of Contemplation. For by contemplating beauty, life, truth, etc., man comes to know God; and God, being Happiness itself, is man’s Supreme Happiness.

But what does that mean? Contemplation? Is it thinking? Sitting down and thinking really hard about things?

On the contrary. Josef Pieper says that Contemplation is an act of the intellect, by which man orders himself toward a receptive attitude regarding reality. Basically, it is a constant attitude of being open in life to the unexpected manifestations of truth.

There is the attitude of thinking really hard about something, and coming to a knowledge of it that way (ratio), but there is also an attitude of just being open to knowledge when it decides to reveal itself (intellectus). Ratio is necessary, but it is ultimately inadequate, since it relies wholly on man -  who is fallen, and himself inadequate. The entirety of truth is inaccessible to man, but fully known by God. God can reveal truth to man unexpectedly, and with surprising clarity in everyday moments. These revelations are moments of intellectus, in which knowledge is received by man as a free gift. Contemplation is necessary for moments of intellectus.

So, man can come to know truth not only through ratio, but through intellectus. And it is through Contemplation – an attitude of constant receptivity – that man can attain Happiness, which, as Aristotle says, is man’s ultimate goal.