Serving God and mammon

[Nat682]

This is something I realized a little while ago while I was studying the Gospel according to Matthew.

You cannot serve both God and mammon. It is a sin to give into greed, lust, etc. because you would then be serving money, sex, or whatever earthly pleasures get to you rather than serving God. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the meaning of life is happiness, that all happiness comes from God, and that the most perfect happiness is in the beatific vision.

Since serving mammon is turning against God, it cannot make one happy. Therefore, money, sex, and other earthly luxuries do not make one happy. Only serving God can make one happy. What, then, is the perceptively “good” feeling caused by serving mammon? My answer is that it is simply pleasure. It is a feeling of partial satisfaction, even though most people don’t even know that it is only partial. Happiness, which comes from God, is a feeling of full satisfaction. Though pleasure is temporal, happiness is eternal unless defected by the person experiencing it (i.e. sin). Remember that Job from the Old Testament was happy even when he was far from pleased.

Sorry this was so long.

 

[Semper_Zelare]

This is something I realized a little while ago while I was studying the Gospel according to Matthew.

You cannot serve both God and mammon. It is a sin to give into greed, lust, etc. because you would then be serving money, sex, or whatever earthly pleasures get to you rather than serving God. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the meaning of life is happiness, that all happiness comes from God, and that the most perfect happiness is in the beatific vision.

Since serving mammon is turning against God, it cannot make one happy. Therefore, money, sex, and other earthly luxuries do not make one happy. Only serving God can make one happy. What, then, is the perceptively “good” feeling caused by serving mammon? My answer is that it is simply pleasure. It is a feeling of partial satisfaction, even though most people don’t even know that it is only partial. Happiness, which comes from God, is a feeling of full satisfaction. Though pleasure is temporal, happiness is eternal unless defected by the person experiencing it (i.e. sin). Remember that Job from the Old Testament was happy even when he was far from pleased.

Sorry this was so long.

This is my hands down favorite verse in the Bible. And you’ve certainly got a lot out of it, and are definitely on the right track. However, I’ve come to learn that the idea of “happiness” is one that our culture and society foists upon us from a young age.

The Church teaches that serving God gives us joy. And joy is much better than happiness. Joy means you have hope. So, for instance someone can be depressed, or suffer like Job. Well, there’s no way that person is going to be happy, but they could easily be joyful, they still have joy in God even though they themselves have the Blues.

So, the only part I think you got wrong is that it is not happiness that is eternal, but joy. Happiness and pleasure are both fleeting. These do not satisfy. That is why a rich person wants more money and people want more sex. But the joy which comes from God IS eternal.

My :twocents: on my favorite verse

 

[sw85]

I don’t know that it’s appropriate to say that the purpose to life is happiness. Rather, happiness is the feedback that tells you you are doing something consistent with your nature. Our nature is directed, ultimately, toward God. So the purpose of life is union with God, which produces eternal happiness.

 

[Nat682]

This is my hands down favorite verse in the Bible. And you’ve certainly got a lot out of it, and are definitely on the right track. However, I’ve come to learn that the idea of “happiness” is one that our culture and society foists upon us from a young age.

The Church teaches that serving God gives us joy. And joy is much better than happiness. Joy means you have hope. So, for instance someone can be depressed, or suffer like Job. Well, there’s no way that person is going to be happy, but they could easily be joyful, they still have joy in God even though they themselves have the Blues.

So, the only part I think you got wrong is that it is not happiness that is eternal, but joy. Happiness and pleasure are both fleeting. These do not satisfy. That is why a rich person wants more money and people want more sex. But the joy which comes from God IS eternal.

My :twocents: on my favorite verse

So if I understand correctly, you are saying that my points are correct, but my terminology was wrong. The translation I own of the Summa uses the word “happiness” to refer to what you say would be joy, but I think I prefer the terminology you suggested.

I don’t know that it’s appropriate to say that the purpose to life is happiness. Rather, happiness is the feedback that tells you you are doing something consistent with your nature. Our nature is directed, ultimately, toward God. So the purpose of life is union with God, which produces eternal happiness.

I was referencing St. Thomas Aquinas there. In the Summa, Aquinas wrote that happiness/joy is the purpose of life and that the most perfect happiness or joy is in the beatific vision (see my original post). I think he was talking about what aspect of our own human nature gives purpose to our lives. As sinners, our nature is more likely to rebel against God than to serve him and have union with him.

 

[gregrege]

disagreehttp://www.cleaningcassette.com

 

[Semper_Zelare]

So if I understand correctly, you are saying that my points are correct, but my terminology was wrong. The translation I own of the Summa uses the word “happiness” to refer to what you say would be joy, but I think I prefer the terminology you suggested.

Well, I haven’t read Summa. YET.

But, happiness probably meant something a lot different back then. In fact, I recently heard of a dictionary back in the 1950’s defining happiness as something like: a state of satisfaction or contentment that comes from doing the will of God. Or some very Christian definition like that.

Anyways, I know from homilies that I’ve heard and some online resources that the Church is at least emphasizing joy. Or making a distinction between happiness and joy. I mean, I agree that we’ll be eternally happy in Heaven. But, I think that a lot of people can misinterpret happiness, and that’s why the Church doesn’t like to use it I think. Or they say “this makes you TRULY happy”.

WOW… I thought I’d just check. I searched “happiness” and “joy” on BibleGateway. Just using the standard NIV version… there were 6 results in Scripture using happiness, and 242 using joy.