So I'm speaking this morning of personal eschatology or those ways in which eschatology in particular considers each person.

And in particular, I'll be considering how the Christian view of the end,

and particularly in the view of St. Thomas,

how that end affects our life now in some way.

Because after all, if the end is our goal, then in some way we ought to be oriented toward

that goal and seeking that goal.

Now St. Thomas is known, certainly, for orienting his entire theological project in a certain way, around the theme of beatitude, or at least the second part.

That largest part of the Summa Theologi begins with a reflection on beatitude,

on happiness, on what is it that makes us happy? And St. Thomas says that human beings and all

rational creatures seek beatitude, happiness as their final end. It may be that some people claim that they

don't really want to be happier that they're happy being unhappy well if if they do

that this is this is very hard to make sense out of in some way really you can say that somebody who is happy being unhappy, well, they're

getting a kind of happiness or a kind of satisfaction or pleasure out of some emotion of

sadness or whatever it is.

It's really, in a sense, a kind of unassailable fact that we all

seek to be happy in one way or another. Now, we do recognize that we cannot find our ultimate

beatitude in other creatures, even one another.

We cannot find our ultimate beatitude even in higher creatures,

as St. Thomas says, such as angels.

And also, of course, though, St. Thomas holds that it is possible to reach a kind of imperfect beatitude in this life.

That is the happiness that we can obtain by our own powers, which is proportioned to our powers.

So that would include the life of virtue that is contemplative and active virtue, that includes a life with

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