“St Thomas Aquinas denies that anyone needs friends in heaven to be perfectly happy (Iª-IIae q. 4 a. 8). The key word here is ‘need’. We are given perfect happiness by the vision of God. To see God is to see something beyond our imagination, beyond in fact the capacity of any created intellect without the special grace which God gives us to see God. If we are invited into that vision of God, we receive perfect happiness from that vision, even if we are alone with God for all eternity. That is in heaven. Of course in heaven we have perfect friendship with all the saints but it is a result of the happiness of seeing God, not a necessary condition of beatitude.
Here on earth, it is quite different. Whatever happiness we can attain on earth is very much dependent on other people. To the line in the song from the musical ‘Funny Girl’, which runs ‘People who need people’, I think St Thomas would respond by saying, ‘Yes, that would be people in general’. To be human is to be in need of other human beings. This is not just for practical things, though St Thomas thinks that a human being could be self-sufficient in this life, which I find rather unconvincing. Even if human beings could feed and clothe themselves unaided, something hard to imagine in our increasingly complex world, where so much of our well being involves the interaction of others, there is still a deeper need to do good to other people. Aristotle argues that friendship is more than just mutual need, and the example he gives is the rich man who wishes friends so that he may do good to them.
We might think that this desire to do good is motivated by pride, but that is confusing the contaminating effect of pride on human actions: pride gets everywhere, with the deep desire of human beings to have added to the well being of others. The humble sharer of good things does not force them on other people but offers such goods as they possess freely and without reserve. The shared goods include the goods of contemplation, to quote Thomas, ‘indiget enim homo ad bene operandum auxilio amicorum, tam in operibus vitae activae, quam in operibus vitae contemplativae’ (a human being needs the help of friends to act well, as much in the works of the active life as in the works of the contemplative life). The order is odd here, as I would think most people would find it less obvious that the contemplative life needs friendship rather than the active life. In fact contemplation has always grown best in the soil of friendship, which is why so many spiritual lives are associated with orders, religious societies and religious movements.
So what of the friendship of the saints in heaven for us here on earth, which is what today’s feast is about? The friendship of the saints in heaven is a purer friendship than our human friendship because it is not based on any need they have, except what we might call the need to allow their joy and love to overflow into this world. They offer that friendship in obedience to God, Who allows them to be our friends on earth. For us, living in this world, there is need for their friendship because that is the way that God has ordained things.
Love, & the friendship of the saints, ora pro nobis!!!! Pray for us, all ye holy men & women of God, pray for us!!!
Matthew
Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom
