ARSC, Joys and Sanctification of God’s Kingdom

By Fr. Jose Conrado A. Estafia, PhD, SThL, MA, MA, MA

A lecture given to ARSC Volunteers, Feb. 26, 2019
Colegio de la Medalla Milagrosa
Poblacion, Jagna
6308 Bohol

The theme of your ARSC (Augustinian Recollect Student Crusader) Congress,

“Joys and Sanctification of God’s Kingdom”, can be divided into two sub-topics: joys and
sanctification of God’s Kingdom. These are actually two big theological or philosophical
topics and I do not know how a 30-minute lecture with you (or you want an hour?) can
give justice to this chosen theme. I suggest for our purposes that we just limit our
reflection on the following questions: how is joy related to the sanctification of God’s
Kingdom? Can one be joyful and holy at the same time? Is joy similar to happiness? If
so, what is happiness? What does it mean to be holy? I am using the adjective “holy”
since “sanctification” comes from the Latin word sanctus or holy in English. I shall no
longer include a thorough treatment of what do we mean by God’s Kingdom, for such a
topic is extensive and can cover a lot of theological themes. Perhaps we can reserve that
for another forum. But again, to make our presentation brief and concise, just allow me
to discuss these two concepts: happiness and Christian joy.

Happiness

Are you happy? What makes you happy? But what is happiness? Is it a means
to an end or is it itself an end? To answer these, allow me to bring you to Aristotle, that
Greek philosopher who was once a student of Plato. I presume that you already heard
this great triad in the history of thought: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In his work, The
Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asks this question: what is happiness? For him, happiness
is undoubtedly an end, but our views of happiness may differ.1 In our desire for
knowledge and for all our pursuits, our aim is nothing else but some good. Of course, we
do not pursue for something evil, except for some perverse or twisted mind. Normally our
aim in life is to follow that which is good. Do you agree? Aristotle says that the general
agreement is that it is happiness that we chase and that happiness is identified with “living
well or doing well.”2 Hence it is happiness that we choose. But what does happiness
consist of? With this we differ in our opinions according to Aristotle. Now I will draw some
answers from you before I proceed to our philosopher’s opinion (ask the students their
own opinions). What is happiness for you?
Now we go back to Aristotle. He makes a distinction between the views of the
wise and that of mankind as a whole. For the latter, the obvious and popular opinion is
that happiness is something like “pleasure or money or eminence.” Aristotle, however,
observes that from time to time a person changes his or her opinion of what happiness
is, depending on the circumstances of his or her life. Like for example, for those who are
ill happiness is health or for those who are broke it is money. Aristotle further explains

1 Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. J. A. K. Thomson (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 6.
2 Ibid., 7.

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that for the masses and the most vulgar, happiness or the good is pleasure. 3 And there
is nothing better for them than the “life of enjoyment.”
There are indeed three types of life for Aristotle: life of enjoyment, political life and
contemplative life.4 It is a “bovine existence” [which means a life of dullness characteristic
of oxens or cows] if one’s happiness is only identified with pleasure or enjoyment. For
cultured people and men of affairs, continues Aristotle, the good is identified with honour,
which is the goal of political life. But this is for him very superficial, because honour
depends largely on the giver than on the receiver. Moreover, honour is sought by people
who want to convince themselves of their own goodness. For the “intelligent men” who
are known publicly, it is for their goodness that they seek to be honoured. In this case,
goodness is evidently superior to honour. In a word, the end pursued in public life is
goodness and not honour, but this view still appears to be deficient for Aristotle, for one
can still be good while being asleep or being passive or having an inactive life (e.g. mga
tambay o kanang dili magtuon resulta hagbung or walay honour, pero feel good lagi
gihapon na sila). A life of suffering and misfortune also cannot be considered a happy
life. How about wealth? It seems that it is not the end we are seeking, for it is only a
means for getting something else.
But what is the good for man? Aristotle asks further.5 He claims that this good
must be the ultimate end or the object of human life. It is something that can give us
complete satisfaction. And it is what he calls “happiness”. If there are many ends, there
must be one that is final. It is final for we no longer choose it for the sake of something
else. But honour, pleasure, intelligence and good qualities, we choose them or any of
them, knowing that they can promote our happiness. It is an accepted view that the
“perfect good is self-sufficient.” What do we mean by a “self-sufficient thing”? It means,
says Aristotle, that by itself it makes “life desirable” and complete. And for Aristotle, it is
what we call “happiness”. “Happiness,” he continues, “is found to be something perfect
and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.”6
But what is happiness? To say that it is the supreme good appears to be a trite,
warns Aristotle. To grasp what happiness is, we inquire about the function of the human
being. What are the functions of life? We share something with the plants, that is,
nutrition and growth. With the other animals like dogs, horses, cattle, etc., we share the
function of the sentient life. But our task is to know the human being’s “proper function.”
What is it? It is the “practical life of the rational part.” Aristotle concludes “that the good
for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of
virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.”7 And a qualification
here is given by him: that it can be done “in a complete lifetime.” And poetically he writes:
“One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one
day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy.” 8 Because happiness “is
a virtuous activity of the soul,” it is therefore a lifelong commitment.

3 Ibid., 8.
4 Ibid., 8-9.
5 Ibid., 13-14.
6 Ibid., 15.
7 Ibid., 16.
8 Ibid.

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 And since it is a virtuous life, there are different types of virtue but I do not really
intend to go deeper in our discussion. I just want you to discover these virtues. It is, I
think, enough for now to mention the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice,
temperance/moderation, and fortitude/courage. So you can be happy if you are
prudent, just, moderate, and courageous. Remember that pleasure, honour, wealth,
intelligence, or prestige, they cannot really bring fulfillment to your life, because you are
more than those things. You are a human being, created in God’s image and likeness.
And as you go along in life, discover who you truly are. Know yourself! And I will leave
this section, with a quote from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians: “Now we see
only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I
can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known. As it
is, these remain, faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love”
(13:12.13). These are the theological virtues, and if you have faith, hope and love, then
you are not only happy, you are also holy. In the end, holiness is a gift from God. God’s
grace! People who are holy are truly happy. And this will bring us to our last
consideration: Christian joy.

Christian Joy

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Guadium, Pope Francis opens it saying: “The
joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept
his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With
Christ joy is constantly born anew” (n. 1). And this joy, amidst the “little things of life”, we
experience every day. It is our response to the invitation of God our Father, as quoted
by Pope Francis: “My child, treat yourself well, according to your means…Do not deprive
yourself of the day’s enjoyment” (Sir 14:11, 14[see Evangelii Gaudium, n. 4, henceforth
cited as EG]).
Pope Francis warns us of a life that appears to be “like Lent without Easter”
(Evangelii Gaudium, n. 6). It is a life full of excuses and complaints. We cannot be happy
unless “a thousand conditions were met” (EG, n. 7). In this technological society, we
have successfully multiplied the “occasions of pleasure”, but it does not necessarily follow
that these occasions have brought us real joy or happiness. It is our encounter with our
Lord Jesus Christ who has given our lives “a new horizon and a decisive direction.” And
just allow me to quote lengthily these lines from the said Exhortation: “Thanks solely to
this encounter – or renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an
enriching friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption. We
become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us
beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we find the source
and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we have received the love which
restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share that love with others?” (EG, n. 8).
Hence, it is already a joy to evangelize others. And what comfort and delight when
the task of sanctifying God’s Kingdom here on earth would flow from a joyful heart, joy
that only the Lord can give. It is the joy of the virtuous person, the joy of a happy priest
or nun or teachers or students like you – the joy of holy people.
Christian joy is complete, like the happiness of Aristotle. Why? Because Jesus is
now your everything.