Man's desire for happiness

The following text is the transcript of our Youtube video Man’s desire for happiness.

This video is part of a series on “Man’s Purpose”. You can find all the videos in the series here.

Ultimately every single good that we can have in this life we will be separated from by death. Why do we desire this perfect good if nothing in this life can make us perfectly happy?

Welcome to Catholic Hub. I’m David, and I’m here to talk to you about traditional Catholicism and what it means to be a Catholic in the modern world today.

In this video, we’re going to talk about man’s desire for happiness. It’s a universally accepted fact that everyone desires to be happy. Everything we do is done because we want to be truly happy. Even the things in life that we dislike, we will do them because we want to be happy. But what is it that we actually seek after when we’re looking for something that will make us happy?

We can split this up into three different classes.

The first class are material goods like money, wealth, a new car, a nice house, the latest technological gadget, jewelry, nice clothing. All of these things are material goods. They are objects that we want to have because we think that having them will make us happy. And they do make us happy: but they only make us happy for a short time. We do enjoy having them, but we always want the next thing. We always want a better house, a nicer piece of jewelry, a better car, a fancier phone. We can’t say that these things are perfectly good.

The second type of good that man seeks after are physical pleasures like food, drink, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and the pleasures attached to marriage. All of these, man seeks because he thinks that the physical sensations are a good in themselves. Even this type of good cannot be classed as a perfect good because these things will only last a short time, and after we use them, we feel an emptiness and a bitterness.

Solomon, one of the most fortunate of kings in all antiquity, said:

I heaped together for myself silver and gold and the wealth of kings and provinces and whatsoever my eyes desired. I refused them not and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and I saw in all things vanity and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2: 8-10

So these things cannot be classed as perfectly good.

The third type of good, which is, I would say, the highest type of good, are immaterial pleasures such as intellectual pursuits, contemplating nature, art, literature, music, scientific discoveries, or things like human respect, fame, and then there are things like friendship and love, which I would say are the most spiritual goods that we can have on earth. But even these goods - we could not say that they are perfect because they are subject to change; they can be lost.

Ultimately, every single good that we can have in this life, we will be separated from by death. There is no good that we can possess in this life that can last beyond death, and death itself would appear to be an obstacle to our happiness because death separates us from all the good things that we experience. Why do we desire this perfect good if nothing in this life can make us perfectly happy?

The ancient philosophers like Aristotle taught that nothing nature does is in vain. This means that anything that is part of our nature must be fulfilled somehow. So the desire for good in man must have an object that will fulfill it. That means that there must be something that will make man truly and perfectly happy.

Now, if we think about the perfect good, what is this? What would its qualities be? We have just said (obviously) that the perfect good must be perfect, so it must be the best that it can be. Now if you think about a beautiful view, there are views that are nice: looking out at the sea or at a nice countryside; and then there are absolutely beautiful, breathtaking, stunning views.

So you can see that there is an order of perfection, but the good that we’re talking about, there cannot be anything better than this good. It must be absolutely perfect; nothing can be lacking. And furthermore, this good that we desire must be unchanging; it cannot change in any way because that would alter our happiness. Last of all, it must be unending because, as we just said, anything that can end cannot make us truly happy.

So what is it that has all of these qualities, that is perfect, that is unchanging, and that is unending? There’s only one thing that fits this description, and it is God himself. Only God can make us truly happy; the possession of God is the possession of the ultimate good.

St. Augustine says:

Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee.

And Thomas Aquinas, in his Imitation of Christ, says:

Vanity of vanities and all is vanity besides loving God and serving him alone.

Confessions, Book 1, Ch. 1

This then raises the question: how can we possess God? How can we possess the ultimate good? That’s something that I’m going to talk about in my next video. So please consider subscribing and liking this video to help my channel grow. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one.