And therefore, when a man knows an effect and knows
that it has a cause, there is in him an outstanding natural desire of
knowing the essence of the cause. If, therefore, a human intellect knows
the essence of a created effect without knowing aught of God beyond the
fact of His existence, the perfection of that intellect does not yet
adequately reach the First Cause, but the intellect has an outstanding
natural desire of searching into the said Cause; hence it is not yet
perfectly happy. For perfect happiness, therefore, it is necesary that
the intellect shall reach as far as the very essence of the First
Cause." (Rickaby, Aquinas Ethicus I, 2 q., 3 a, 8.)
This masterly exposition is after all only the philosophical development
of what every Catholic child learns from one of the first questions of
the little Catechism: "Why did God make you? God made me to know Him, to
love Him, and to serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him
forever in the next." With the satisfaction of the intellect's boundless
yearning for knowledge attained by intuition of the Essence of God, a
consummation that will somewhat deify us--"Who shall be made like to
him, because we shall see him as he is" (I John, III, 2.), the happiness
of man will be primarily intellectual, being as Dante beautifully says:
"Light intellectual full of love, love of the true good, full of joy,
joy that transcendeth all sweetness.
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