Thomas Aquinas and Rod Serling

An article by Nicholas Senz well worth reading is called ‘Happiness and Hell in the Twilight Zone’. I quote the opening:

In “A Nice Place to Visit,” we meet a burglar, Henry Francis “Rocky” Valentine, at the end of his life, cut down in a shootout with the police. He awakens … a smiling man in white… announces he is Rocky’s guide, instructed to give him whatever he desires. Rocky … concludes he’s now in heaven.

After a month of wining, dining, and winning, though, Rocky becomes bored. He … laments, “If this is Heaven, I’d almost rather be in the other place,” to which Pip replies, “My dear Mr. Valentine, whoever said this is Heaven? This is the other place!” A chilling twist to suspenseful story!

Yet it leaves us with questions. Why isn’t Rocky happy when he gets everything he wants? How could Hell be depicted in such a way…?

It might surprise us to find that the themes and ideas touched upon in this episode were treated in detail 700 years beforehand. …

The first question of the prima secundae of the Summa Theologiae asks whether man has a last end. Is there something that all human beings have in common as their final purpose, their reason for being?

Yes, St. Thomas says, generally, all men have as their last end the “fulfillment of their perfection”—that is, the fulfillment of their nature, of what it is to be human.

But, he is quick to point out, not all men understand that end to be the same thing. Some men think that pleasure or money is their greatest end, and so they seek the maximum of pleasure or wealth.

…Thus, as St. Thomas says: “to every taste the sweet is pleasant but to some, the sweetness of wine is most pleasant, to others, the sweetness of honey, or of something similar. Yet that sweet is absolutely the best of all pleasant things, in which he who has the best taste takes most pleasure. In like manner that good is most complete which the man with well disposed affections desires for his last end.” (ST I-II, q. 1, a. 7, c.)

So, Rocky likes the things he likes—booze, beauties, big wins at the casino—and he seeks the maximum of each, thinking this will satisfy his desires. But yet they do not. Why?…

The second question asks whether man’s happiness might consist in any of a variety of created things: Power? Honor? Glory? Wealth? Pleasure? The answer to all of these is no

Read the whole thing: http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/happiness-and-hell-in-the-twilight-zone