Pints With Aquinas - 16: Can honors and fame make me happy?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, episode 16. I'm Matt Fradd. If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? In today's episode, we'll ask St. Thomas the question, can honours or fame make me happy. Welcome back to Pints with Aquinas. This is the show where you and I pull up a bar stall next to the angelic doctor and discuss theology and philosophy. This is the third week straight that we've been discussing this issue of happiness. And though there's much more that could be said, this will be the last week we'll focus on this topic. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about honors and fame. Last week, we asked the question, can riches make me happy?

Starting point is 00:01:05 And maybe we think, okay, riches can't make me happy, but riches do sort of make people like me maybe, and maybe I'll be honored if I'm rich and can do certain things. So maybe these things can make me happy. And of course, as you already know, the answer is, nope, they can't make you happy. And so, we'll talk a bit about that. Then I want to share with you seven or so saint quotes on humility. And then, finally, we'll end today with me sharing a prayer with you, which I'm sure some of you are already aware of, that is going to kick your butt in the best possible way. So, hang around for that. All right, here we go. Let's see here.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Can human honours make me happy? Here's what Aquinas says, and it is from the first part of the second part of the Summa Theologica, question two, article three, and we'll also look at article four. And I highly recommend that you don't just listen to me say these things. Check out for yourself what Thomas has to say, because I'm not going to read everything he says. And I think it would be also cool if you and me just spent time meditating upon these sorts of things. So, as always, I'll put Thomas Aquinas' words in the description of this podcast so you can read along as I read it. And okay, here we go. Here's what Aquinas says.

Starting point is 00:02:36 Happiness is in the happy, but honor is not in the honored, but rather in him who honors and who offers deference to the person honored, as the philosopher says. Therefore, happiness does not consist in honor. It is impossible for happiness to consist in honor. to consist in honor. For honor is given to a man on account of some excellence in him, and consequently it is a sign and attestation of the excellence that is in the person honored. As the philosopher says, honor is not the reward of virtue for which the virtuous work, But virtues, true reward is happiness itself. If they worked for honor, it would no longer be a virtue, but ambition. A lot of great stuff there. Let's focus on maybe the two main points he makes.

Starting point is 00:03:55 All right. He says in a kind of Chesterton-esque way, it sounds like he's playing with words, but he makes a great point. Happiness is in the happy, but honor is not in the honored. So what does he mean? Well, simply that we want honor and we think that honor will make us happy, but honor isn't in us. It's in the one that's honoring us. It's, you know, it's in someone else's mind. Your happiness, in contrast, is yours. Happiness is within you. Honor is outside of you. And therefore, it isn't honor that can make you happy. And Thomas's second point here, where he says, it's impossible for happiness to consist in honor. For honor is given to a man. Why? Not for nothing, right? No. Aquinas says it's given to a man on account of some excellence in him. And consequently, it's a sign, an attestation of the excellence that is in the person honored. Like when you think about it, okay, you and I, we want to be honored,

Starting point is 00:05:00 but why do we want to be honored? We don't want to be honored for nothing, right? We want to be honored for something. Well, what is that something? Well, it's something good. Well, okay, what is that good? Notice we still haven't attained this happiness that we're after. We're still in search of the good. Let's see what Aquinas has to say about fame. And I'm addressing these both at the same time because they're similar in a sense, honor and fame. Now, I suppose the difference though is, at least back in the day, we wanted to be honored for some excellence, right? Some way in which we stood above and beyond the crowd. Whereas today, it seems like people want to be honored, not for being different, but for being just part of the crowd, part of the

Starting point is 00:05:53 in group, which is kind of weird. You know, it reminds me of this line from Jack Johnson. It reminds me of this line from Jack Johnson. How does it go? Teeny boppin' disco queen, she barely understands her dreams of belly button rings and all those kind of things. Symbolic a change, but the thing that is strange is that the changes occur. And now she's just a part of the herd, yeah, yeah. You know that song? By the way, did you like how I just totally lost my American accent?

Starting point is 00:06:23 If you didn't hear that, just this idea that we want to stand out, but we end up becoming a part of the herd, right? Like a teeny bopping disco queen, she barely understands her dreams of belly button rings. Remember them? Remember when they were cool and new, right? Symbolic of change, Jack Johnson says, but the thing that is strange is that the change has occurred and now she's just a part of the herd. Here's something Peter Kreeft says, which I thought was really cool. Quote, we are conformists. Even non-conformists conform to the fads and fashions of their non-conformity. Rebellious teenagers talk the same, dress the same. They voluntarily don the same uniforms to express their non-conformity. They demand to be honored by their peers above all

Starting point is 00:07:17 things. He goes on to say, honor is prized in every society, but the pre-modern version of honor was excellence, being better than anyone else at something. This is still prized, but only in the world of entertainment and sports and theaters that we erect to distract ourselves from ourselves. So that kind of leads us to this next point. Can fame make us happy? Let's see what Aquinas has to say here. Okay. Let's have a look at one of the objections, should we? Again, you'll remember Thomas Aquinas is the one who sets himself the objections, the arguments for the position he wants to reject. Let's take a look at one of them. Objection one from article three. It would seem that man's happiness consists in glory. For happiness seems to consist in that which is paid to the saints for the trials they

Starting point is 00:08:22 have undergone in the world. But this is glory, for the apostle says, the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us. Therefore, happiness consists in glory. Let's first see how Aquinas responds to that objection and then see his main answer. Thomas replies, the apostle speaks then not of the glory which is with men, but of the glory which is from God with his angels. Hence, it is written in Mark 8.38, quote, the son of man shall confess him in the glory of his father before his angels, end quote. So, let's see the main answer. Aquinas says, man's happiness cannot consist in human fame or glory, For glory consists in being well known and praised, as Ambrose says. Now, the thing known is related to human knowledge, otherwise than to God's knowledge.

Starting point is 00:09:36 For human knowledge is caused by the things known, whereas God's knowledge is the cause of the things known. Wherefore, the perfection of human good, which is called happiness, cannot be caused by human knowledge, but rather human knowledge of another's happiness proceeds from and in a fashion is caused by human happiness itself. Consequently, man's happiness cannot consist in fame or glory. On the other hand, man's good depends on God's knowledge as its cause, and therefore man's beatitude depends, as on its cause, on the glory which man has with God, according to Psalm 90. I will deliver him and I will glorify him. I will find him with length

Starting point is 00:10:35 of days and I will show him my salvation. Really cool stuff there, huh? What Aquinas is saying is essentially what we think, like our thoughts do not determine reality. Rather, reality determines or at least should determine our thoughts, what we think. That is if we're thinking rightly, huh? Because what truth, Because what is truth, right? Truth is conformity with reality, right? The way things are. Now, that's Aquinas' point here when he says, where are we here? The perfection of human good, which is called happiness, cannot be caused by human knowledge, but rather human knowledge of another's happiness proceeds from and in a fashion is caused by happiness itself. So, whereas God's knowledge causes things, our knowledge is caused by things. And so, the idea or the belief that my happiness will be caused by another's thought of me, is to get it exactly the wrong way around.

Starting point is 00:11:52 We could say happiness isn't caused by human knowledge, but rather human knowledge of the happy is caused by the happiness that I come to know in the other. Does that make sense? So, people can think very highly of me. They can think great things about me. But again, sort of like what we talked about with honors, those thoughts still remain in the other person. And then thinking them towards me in the sense of me being famous or you being famous, that cannot cause anything in me at all. And so, we still haven't got to what is man's good? What is his perfect good? What is happiness? And so, like we talked about last week, riches can't make us happy. And in this week,

Starting point is 00:12:45 we talk fame and honors can't make us happy. I think very often what you and I do is we seek the recognition and praise of others to fill up this void within us, to distract ourselves from ourselves. You know, something I've been thinking a lot about lately is the idea of the interior life. We don't talk a lot about that, unfortunately, these days. And so, maybe you've heard the term, you're not sure what it is. What is the interior life? Well, let me just put it really simply. The interior life is that inner conversation that takes place within oneself when no one else is around. It's that inner dialogue and universe that takes place when you and I are laying in bed late at night, right? This is what we mean by the interior life. And of course,

Starting point is 00:13:46 what that ought to evolve into is not just a conversation with myself, but a conversation with God, with the good, as we contemplate the truth, true, the good, the beautiful. But when you and I are distracted from a very young age by electronics and noise and whatever, we can become retarded in this area of our life. By the way, I know that word can be offensive. I didn't mean it in that sense. I meant it in the sense of what it actually means etymologically, just this sense of it sort of slowing down this natural process, progress that ought to be there. And so, I think for this reason, we remain outside of ourselves. We don't remain inside ourselves because we don't know how to remain inside ourselves. And so, we seek to distract ourselves from ourselves because we are

Starting point is 00:14:41 not at peace with ourselves. And Pascal talks about this in the Pensees. It's one of my favorite quotes of him. And I don't remember it verbatim, but he essentially says, all of the ills of the world can be reduced to this fact. Man is incapable of sitting with himself alone in a dark room silently. Think about that. Man is incapable of sitting with himself alone in a dark room silently. So if you're looking for a test to see how depressed you are, there you go. Turn the light off, take the earbuds out and sit and see how long you can sit with yourself. I think very often what you and I do is we search for an escape. We search for Twitter,

Starting point is 00:15:31 Instagram. And so I think because we live outside of ourselves so often, the opinions of others, do they think highly of me? Do they think that I'm someone to be revered and so forth? Can very often take up a lot of our mental space when at the end of the day, it can't make us happy anyway. We should say a word here, shouldn't we? About likes and retweets and shares on Facebook, right? And double taps on our Instagram photos. We very often live for that, don't we? I remember when I had a thousand followers on Twitter. I'm like, dude, that's awesome. And then after a while, you know, you look around, you're like, oh man, other people have other followers. I need more followers. I need more followers. Why? Counting followers on Twitter and thinking that's a big deal is sort of like

Starting point is 00:16:27 counting monopoly money and thinking you're rich. I have 15,000 followers on Twitter right now. It's all relative. Other people have millions. Who cares? Now, there can be an advantage to having followers if we want to share things, right? That's great. It's good, I think, for example, that Pope Francis has a large platform and others who are speaking truth and beauty and goodness into the world. But when we think these things will make us happy, these honors, this recognition, the fact that we might be considered famous by some, when we think that will make us happy, as St. Thomas assures us, we are truly mistaken. Now, I promised you that I would share with you a prayer that will just smash you.

Starting point is 00:17:16 And it is the litany of humility. Some of you know what it is. You pray it. Others of you don't. Some of you know what it is, you pray it, others of you don't. And for those of you who don't, boy, am I pumped to share it with you. If you don't think that you're one of these people that we've been talking about who wants the praise and recognition of others, that's either because you're a saint or maybe you're a little deluded. But either way, this prayer will bring those illusions to the surface. I'd like to read it for you now. I'll put it in the description of this podcast so that you can see it. And I'll also invite you to look it up, print it out, put it on your bathroom wall,

Starting point is 00:18:02 you know, put it somewhere and pray this on a regular basis. Here it is. In the name of the Father, and of of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus. From the inordinate desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus. From the inordinate desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being extolled, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being honored,

Starting point is 00:18:50 deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus. From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus From the fear of being despised, deliver me, Jesus From the fear of suffering rebukes, deliver me, Jesus From the fear of being calumniated or slandered, deliver me, Jesus From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, Jesus. From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, Jesus.

Starting point is 00:19:34 From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, Jesus. That others may be loved more than I, That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. Wow. You pray that every day. You mean what you say. That's going to bless

Starting point is 00:20:37 you and it's going to bless me a great deal. Now, as we wrap up here today, I want to share with you just a few quotations from the saints on humility. Number one from St. Augustine, it was pride that changed angels into devils. It is humility that makes men as angels. St. Faustina, the soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in his presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing because the Lord is great. But he is well pleased only with the humble. He always opposes the proud. Number three from Pope Saint Clement I. We should let God be the one to praise us and not praise ourselves, for God detests those who commend themselves. Let others applaud our good deeds. Number four from St. Vincent de Paul.

Starting point is 00:21:54 If they are calumniated, they suffer with patience. If they are little esteemed, neglected or forgotten, they consider that their due. If they are weighed down with occupations, they perform them cheerfully. is the foundation of all the other virtues. Hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist, there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance. Teresa of Avila says this, there is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge of the world. And finally, let's read here from, let's see, St. Francis de Sales. He says, the highest point of humility consists in not merely acknowledging one's objection, but in taking pleasure therein, not from any want or breadth or courage, but to give them more glory to God's divine majesty and to esteem our neighbor more highly than oneself. So, as you and I seek to remind ourselves that happiness is not to be found in the honor of others or in the glory that others

Starting point is 00:23:06 give us in maybe thinking we're famous. Let's meditate on Christ's humility and maybe meditate daily on that litany of humility. I think that'll bless us a great deal. God bless you. I'm Matt Fradd. I'm going to ask you this as I ask as always, would you please rate the podcast? If you could do that, that would be huge. I know it's just a few clicks for you, but it means a great deal for me. Visit me at mattfradd.com or pintswithaquinas.com. That's where your friends can listen to the podcast if they don't have iTunes. And send me a message over Twitter. By the way, at first, I was thinking I would read some of the comments that I got over the reviews on iTunes,

Starting point is 00:23:54 but they are so beautiful and so kind that honestly to do it would just be a source of pride for me. So thank you so much for thinking these are good. Of course, I'm not a Thomistic scholar. I'm sure I've said things that are false, but I'm doing my best. And please pray for me, and I would give my whole life to carry you

Starting point is 00:24:29 to carry you

Pints With Aquinas - 16: Can honors and fame make me happy?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.