CFS-WB-CH17

UNIT 6 CHAPTER 17 

Moving to Level 

Three and Four 

Happiness 

330

Chapter 17 Overview 

You probably know from school, sports, and other activities that nothing worthwhile is easy. We often have to 

put aside what we want right now to get what we truly want. While all four levels of happiness are good, if we 

want a truly satisfying and peaceful life, we will want to focus on making a positive difference for others, the 

culture we live in, and the Kingdom of God. Even more, we will not try to ignore our desire for the transcendent. 

Ultimately, experiencing level four happiness requires us to follow God’s call to Himself by making a little 

leap of faith. If we do make this leap, God strengthens our relationship with Him through grace. And then we 

come to know in our hearts the most comforting truth of all: that true happiness does not depend on things 

we have, or how we compare to others, or on anything else temporary in this world, but comes from giving 

ourselves completely to God, who brings us to the perfectly loving home we yearn for. 

In this chapter you will learn that … 

■ Our view of happiness shapes what we are looking for in life. 

■ To transition out of a level one-two dominant life, we will need to change our fundamental attitudes on 

the purpose of our life, our view of others, our view of ourselves, and our view of freedom. 

■ Looking for the good in others makes it easier to empathize with them and looking for the good in 

ourselves helps us live up to our God-given potential. 

■ If we have the perspective of “freedom for” rather than “freedom from,” we will see that the constraint, 

self-discipline, and sacrifices of lower levels of happiness are worthwhile if they lead to level three and 

four happiness, making life more peaceful and satisfying. 

■ God wants us to freely choose Him, and calls us to Him in our hearts, as well as through a Church 

community, transcendent beauty, and philosophical and theological wisdom. 

■ We must choose to follow the call of the transcendent by making a little leap of faith. 

Bible Basics 

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 

“You may freely eat of every tree of the 

garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of 

good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day 

that you eat of it you shall die.” 

— Genesis 2:16–17 

Connections to the Catechism 

■ CCC 1718–1719 

■ CCC 1730–1748 

■ CCC 2548 

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast 

therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of 

slavery [to sin]. 

— Galatians 5:1. 

© Sophia Institute for Teachers 

331

Chapter 17 

We All Want to Be Happy 

All of us desire happiness, and not just the sort of happiness we receive 

from eating a delicious piece of pizza or from being voted prom king 

or queen. As much satisfaction as those things may bring, that sort of 

happiness will always be fleeting. We will eventually run out of pizza and 

be hungry again. Prom is but one night of our lives. As we discussed 

in the last chapter, it can be alluring to try to make ourselves happy by 

constantly chasing material pleasure after material pleasure, or by constantly 

seeking to be the best and comparing ourselves to others. But, 

as we learned, these pursuits will never satisfy us fully, never make us 

ultimately fulfilled and happy. But how do we move from these level 

one-two kinds of happiness to the more meaningful and fulfilling level 

three-four kinds of happiness? How do we become people who seek 

to give back to the world and leave it a better place after we are gone? 

How do we build relationships with others that are rooted in love and 

that honor the dignity of the other person? How do we dwell in our encounters 

with the transcendent love, truth, justice/goodness, beauty, 

and being/home? 

In this chapter, we will consider some practical guidance on how to 

make level three and level four happiness dominant in our lives. It does 

not matter which one we choose to focus on first; the important thing is 

that both levels are necessary. Even an actively contributive life without 

transcendence can leave us feeling cosmically empty. Similarly, if level 

four happiness is not accompanied by level three happiness, it can lead 

to a superficial faith that does not seek to help others, a faith without 

love. 

To transition out of a level one-two dominant life, we will need to 

change our fundamental attitudes in the following four areas: 

1. View of Purpose in Life 

2. View of Others 

3. View of Self 

4. View of Freedom 

We must deliberately and concretely change what we are looking 

for in these areas, which will ultimately change our goals and our very 

identity. (Recall that our view of happiness shapes what we are looking 

for in life.) 

332 Apologetics I: The Catholic Faith and Science 

© Magis Center

Aristotle wrote that we are 

what we repeatedly do. 

Excellence, therefore, is not an 

act but a habit. 

Aristotle, line engraving by P. Fidanza after Raphael Sanzio. 

The Conscious and Unconscious Mind 

Modern psychoanalytic theory posits that there are two dimensions to 

the human psyche — the conscious mind (which is aware of what it wants 

to do) and the unconscious mind (which is not aware). Our unconscious 

mind reacts to things based on instinct (we smell food and are suddenly 

hungry), on lessons and habits formed in childhood (we automatically 

remember how to ride a bike even years later), and on past associations 

(we were once made fun of by others for doing something incorrectly). 

Significantly, our unconscious mind can change our behavior to 

maintain past expectations. If we are doing unusually well at a game, 

for instance, then unexpectedly choke at the end, some psychologists 

might say it was due to an unconscious correction to the level of moderate 

capability that we unconsciously believe ourselves to have. This 

means that if we want to change our dominant form of happiness from 

level one-two happiness to level three-four happiness, it is not enough 

to just consciously think about changing — we must conform our unconscious 

minds to our new choices and make them habits we no longer 

need to consciously choose every single time, or we will just revert our 

behavior back to our old ways. 


Unit 6, Chapter 17: Moving to Level Three and Four Happiness 

333

Friendship moves us to give of 

ourselves, to share in joys and 

sorrows alike. 

Visitation, by Jerónimo Ezquerra. 

In the following sections, we will go through a list of questions to 

help refocus from the inward-centered level one-two happiness dominant 

view to the outward-centered level three-four happiness dominant 

view. In many cases, we will be exercising our imagination in new 

ways and may initially draw a blank on some of these questions. It will 

take time for reflecting on these questions to be effective. 

The four sets of questions that follow correspond to the four fundamental 

attitudes we need to change. It is important to take these in 

order (since they build on each other) and to reflect on only one at a 

time. Nothing is gained if we take on everything at once and then give 

up when it proves overwhelming. This transformation is a lifetime project, 

after all, so it is worth taking the time to do it effectively. 

Question 1: What Kind of Purpose in Life Am I Looking 

For? 

In our default drive, where level one-two happiness is dominant, we are 

instinctively on the lookout for material and competitive advantages. 

We might be consciously or unconsciously asking ourselves, “Who is the 

best-looking in this room?” “Who is sounding smartest or funniest in this 

conversation?” “Who is doing better than me?” or “How obvious are my 

weaknesses?” 


© Magis Center

If we want to change our behavior, we must refocus on new goals, in 

order to form new habits, and thereby retrain our unconscious minds. 

We must move away from constantly comparing ourselves to others 

and towards concrete goals that answer the question “How can I make a 

positive difference?” 

As we reflect on the answer to this question, we will find a new form 

of energy moving us forward, and a significant diminishment in the negative 

feelings that come with the comparison game. This new form of 

happiness carries with it a new sense of purpose. Eventually, it will become 

a habitual way of thinking, and we will find ourselves wanting to 

accomplish as much as possible without neglecting our loved ones or 

burning ourselves out. 

Question 2: What Am I Looking for in Others? 

In the competitive mindset that accompanies the level one-two happiness, 

we anxiously compare ourselves to others, looking for ways that 

we are superior. We see other people as a problem, which makes it almost 

impossible to view them with empathy. Conversely, when we begin 

by looking for the good in someone, the appreciation and empathy 

we feel for the other will contextualize and diminish the bad, opening 

the way to friendship and even self-sacrificial love. 

This simple shift in viewpoint can radically transform our relationships. 

If we are stuck in the habit of only seeing the bad in others, breaking 

the cycle may be difficult at first, so start small. Find just a few positive 

characteristics in someone who annoys you, put a smile on your 

face (a physical act that can influence your mood), and say something 

positive to them. It is typically hard to respond to kindness with rudeness, 

so the person’s response will likely make it easier for you to view 

them positively, and the cycle will improve. 

When we begin 

by looking for 

the good in 

someone, the 

appreciation 

and empathy 

we feel often 

opens the way 

to friendship. 

Question 3: What Am I Looking for in Myself? 

The perspective we use to judge others becomes the perspective we 

use to judge ourselves. If we ignore or disvalue empathy, friendship, 

generosity, humility, compassion, honesty, and nobility in others, we will 

fail to pursue and develop them within ourselves. By doing so, we not 

only reduce ourselves to a small fraction of our potential, but we depersonalize 

ourselves. We no longer think of our personhood, friendship, 

and presence as having intrinsic worth, and so we replace this intrinsic 

self-worth with mere things about ourselves. When we look at who we 

are, we do not think of loving, lovable, or transcendent characteristics, 



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Aa 

VOCABULARY 

Self-Actualization: Having 

become who God created 

us to be, through the proper 

use of freedom which 

includes self-discipline and 

commitment. 

but only what we look like or how we compare to others. We have little 

sense of the goodness of our presence and friendship or the life we 

bring to relationships. To fix this perspective, we will need to learn how 

to look for the good in ourselves just as much as we look for it in others. 

Question 4: What Kind of Freedom Am I Seeking? 

Like happiness, the promise of freedom can motivate us even though 

we have only a vague sense in our mind of what it means. Very often, 

it is our unconscious view of freedom that causes us to act in ways we 

might rationally believe to be unwise or even destructive. Freedom may 

seem like an uncomplicated idea, but the American philosopher Isaiah 

Berlin made a very important distinction between “freedom from” and 

“freedom for” (or “freedom to”). “Freedom from” refers to the avoidance 

or removal of constraints from the individual pursuit of happiness 

or fulfillment. Conversely, “freedom for” (or “freedom to”) refers to the 

pursuit of self-actualization, which includes self-constraint, self-discipline, 

and commitment to a particular person or course of action. This 

understanding of freedom is more in line with the Catholic one, where 

true freedom is the ability to choose the good. “Freedom is the power 

to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one’s own. 

Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, 

the sovereign Good” (CCC 1744). 

“Freedom from” and “freedom for” can often come into conflict. 

If we want to pursue an education so we can have a successful career 

(“freedom for” self-actualization), we must be disciplined in our studies 

and put restrictions on our time (rather than having “freedom from” restrictions 

and doing whatever we feel like). 

If we have the perspective of “freedom for,” we consider constraint, 

self-discipline, and sacrifices of lower levels of happiness to be worthwhile, 

if these sacrifices lead to level three and four happiness. We can 

think of the “freedom for” perspective with as “no pain, no gain,” or “the 

early bird gets the worm.” Discipline and constraint are felt to be unpleasant 

and negative from the vantage point of “freedom from,” but 

positive and liberating from the vantage point of “freedom for.” 

So why is it imperative that we change our view of freedom along 

with our view of purpose in life, others, and ourselves? If we try to move 

from level one-two happiness to level three-four happiness and purpose 

in life but fail to change our view of freedom along with it, we will 

be conflicted, fight ourselves, fear our new path, and eventually give up 

on it. Ultimately, our view of freedom not only affects how we think but 

also how we feel. 


© Magis Center

True freedom is always in 

service of what is good and 

just. 

St. Vincent de Paul and the Daughters of Charity, image courtesy Shutterstock. 

The Benefits of Moving from Dominant Level One- 

Two to Dominant Level Three-Four 

Reflecting on these questions is a lifetime project. As the process of 

transformation starts to change our conscious and unconscious mind, 

evidenced by new habits of thinking and behaving, we will deal less and 

less with the negative emotions that come with comparing ourselves to 

others. Jealousy, fear of loss of esteem, inferiority, contempt, facade 

building, self-pity, ego sensitivity, resentment, excessive concern about 

what people think, isolation, and loneliness will all begin to subside. 

More importantly, the feeling of existential emptiness will lessen its 

grip and be replaced by a sense of purpose, substantive identity, and 

spirit which inspires high ideals and common cause. 

Life itself just becomes less of a fight, and more peaceful and satisfying. 

We do not have to worry about whether someone is more talented 

than we are, so long as we use our talents to make a positive difference 

to others, the culture, and the Kingdom of God. We are making 

the most out of what we have, and we can justify our lives accordingly. 



337

The Coronation of Napoleon, by Jacques-Louis David. 

Pride and egocentrism are at 

odds with level three and four 

pursuits. 

The Level Three-Four Comparison Game 

One warning should be added at this point — the temptation to turn the 

pursuit of level three and four happiness into a level two comparison 

game. We can become intoxicated by the pursuit of level three and four 

objectives, such that we begin to define ourselves in terms of our list 

of accomplishments. Our contributions become yet another way to objectify 

ourselves, and we begin to compare our achievements to those 

of others, thinking, “My list is bigger than yours,” or “I’m doing more 

good than you are.” 

This egocentric approach is obviously at odds with the whole purpose 

of level three-four pursuits, which are supposed to draw us out 

of ourselves through acts of love. If we continue down this path, slowly 

but surely, we will become emotionally detached from the individual 

human beings around us. We will no longer have any time or mental 

energy to be concerned about others’ well-being, suffering, goodness, 

and friendship because we are so involved in what we view as saving the 

world. And people will begin to pull away from us as well, just like they 

do with any other comparison game winner. 

How can we avoid this temptation to become self-centered and 

messianic when we are successful in our pursuit of level three and four 


© Magis Center

happiness? In a word, love. Letting one person matter, making time for 

the little needs of a child, calling a person who is in need, and simply 

listening to someone who is suffering interrupts the plunge into narcissism. 

If we keep a balance between doing good and being with — between 

contribution and empathy — then we will have built a line of defense 

against the level three-four comparison game. 

If love for others is not enough to cure us of our egocentric view, we 

will need to learn from the love of God Himself. God invites us to serve 

Him by showing us His loving way, which enables us to let go of our list 

of accomplishments and to follow Him in His way of service — the way of 

His Son, who had time to be with sinners, the poor, and the weak; who 

enjoyed His relationships with the simple and the powerful; who listened 

to the cry of the poor as well as the wise of this world; and who sacrificed 

His life to bring us salvation. 

Grace: The free and 

undeserved gift of His own 

divine life that God gives to 

human persons. 

A Little Leap of Faith 

Even the strongest reasonable arguments and the best evidence from 

physics, logic, mathematics, and medicine will not be able to perfectly 

ground our trust in the loving God. Nevertheless, the evidence and use 

of our reason can make the leap of faith less difficult. God allows us to 

use reason to bridge the chasm from this world to the transcendent; we 

can get very close to the other side, but ultimately, we must make an 

act of the will to go all the way. God requires this little leap of faith not to 

be elusive, but to protect our freedom, dignity, and love by not forcing 

us in this choice. 

If we do make this leap, though, God then moves to help strengthen 

our relationship with Him through grace (favor from God, such as, 

inspiration, guidance, supernatural assistance, and a deeper and closer 

relationship with Him). God knows what we need, so we must concentrate 

on being open to the inspiration of God more than following a set 

of prescriptions or techniques. 

The Journey to Level Four Happiness 

We now begin the journey toward level four happiness and purpose in 

life. You might wonder, “Does the call of God really have so many different 

dimensions? Isn’t this a little complicated? Couldn’t He have just 

spoken to us and said, ‘I am God, and I’m calling you to myself, and here 

is a miracle to prove that it is really me,’” and then you are transformed 

instantly into the person of your dreams? 

If only it were that simple! 

Even the 

strongest 

reasonable 

arguments will 

not be able 

to perfectly 

ground our trust 

in the loving 

God, but the 

evidence can 

make the leap 

of faith less 

difficult. 



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Interior Call: Our awareness 

of God’s drawing us to Himself 

within the inner domain of our 

hearts and souls. 

Exterior Call: Our awareness 

of God’s drawing us to Himself 

in the world around us. 

God must contend with one huge mitigating factor — human freedom. 

God truly thirsts for a faith that is free. He will never force us, compel 

us, or even push us into faith. He wants us to respond to His call with 

freedom and love. So, He operates with clues in both the inner domain 

of our hearts and souls (the interior call), and in the outer world around 

us (the exterior call). If we carefully probe these clues, we will see His 

loving and inviting hand — or perhaps better — heart. 

The Interior Call 

As we have learned, even level three happiness will not satisfy us completely 

because we have transcendent desires that call us beyond this 

life, whether we acknowledge them or not. Our desires for perfect love, 

truth, beauty, goodness/justice, and being/home will not go away if we 

ignore them. We noted the universal human feeling of being invited by 

the Wholly Other to seek more or go deeper. Without religion, with its 

revelation and church community, we feel radically incomplete — separated 

from our ultimate dignity and fulfillment. This point is corroborated 

by a 2004 study published by the American Psychiatric Association, 

which discovered that non-religiously affiliated people had significantly 

higher rates of suicide, depression, impulsivity, aggression, familial tensions, 

and substance abuse by comparison with the religiously affiliated. 

Interestingly, both religious and atheistic existentialist philosophers 

agree that we have deep and pervasive feelings about the meaninglessness 

of life without God, but they interpret these feelings quite differently. 

Religious existentialists view them as God’s call to enter into a 

relationship with Him for ultimate meaning, dignity, happiness, authenticity, 

and fulfillment. Atheistic existentialists, however, view these feelings 

as a part of life’s absurdity. 

As with all things, God can make good things come from bad ones. 

Viewed properly, we can understand the negative feelings as a way we 

are led back to God. Let’s explore four in turn: 

Cosmic Emptiness 

For Kierkegaard and other religious existentialists, this feeling comes 

from believing that we lack purpose, not in the immediate world around 

us, but in the totality of being. A sign of it is an overriding sense of boredom, 

even amidst a beautiful family, a successful academic career or 

job, material comforts, terrific friends, and just about everything a person 

could want in this world. The boredom keeps telling us that there 

should be something more — yet that something does not seem to be 


© Magis Center

apparent in the world around us. Emptiness is perceived not only in the 

outer world, but also in our inner world. We can also feel a hole in the pit 

of our stomach — a hunger that cannot be satisfied by food — that indicates 

a lack of spiritual and transcendent substance. 

Cosmic Alienation 

It is not unusual for people to feel perfectly at home with family, friends, 

community, and culture, yet still feel a pervasive sense of not being at 

home, not fitting in, or not having a place in the totality of things (the 

cosmos). Atheistic existentialists would interpret this feeling as yet another 

sign of the absurdity of life and the inevitability of despair. By 

contrast, religious existentialists see it as God’s invitation to move more 

closely to our ultimate home — the transcendent, perfect, and eternal 

home in Him. 

Cosmic Loneliness 

The human person is interpersonal. When we are not in relation to others, 

we feel like a mere fraction of ourselves. Other people make us 

come alive, reflect us back to ourselves, and give us significance in our 

relationship with them. When we are deprived of the presence of others, 

We naturally feel lonely and 

alienated when we are cut off 

from others. 

Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper. 



341

we lose this sense of significance, love, and well-being — and along with 

it, most of our sense of self. It is almost like someone has torn away a 

part of our being. The Jewish existentialist philosopher, Martin Buber, 

noticed that our interpersonal personhood has two layers: we not only 

desire to connect with other human beings, but also with an ultimate 

and absolute interpersonal Being. No human relationship will be able to 

take the place of this transcendent One. Continuing to ignore it makes 

the loneliness more acute, even if we already have meaningful relationships 

with family and friends. 

Cosmic Guilt 

Recall that even if we do not pursue one or more of the various levels 

of happiness, we still desire them, and that unfilled desire leaves us with 

a sense of yearning. We then have an underlying sense that we are not 

living up to our potential, that the most important parts of life are passing 

us by, and that we have ignored or shirked one of our most important 

responsibilities. When we ignore this cosmic dimension of our lives, 

we feel like guilty bystanders, implicitly believing that we are letting other 

people down. 

St. Katharine Drexel was 

born into a very wealthy 

family. She founded the 

Blessed Sacrament Sisters 

and used her fortune to fund 

its work running schools for 

Native American and African 

American children. 

St. Katharine Drexel Stained Glass, Saint Stephen, Martyr Roman 

Catholic Church (Chesapeake, Virginia). Image courtesy Nheyob 


© Magis Center

Religious existentialists have seen all four of these negative feelings 

as something positive, because they lead us to our true nature, true 

home, true relationship with the divine, and therefore to our true selves. 

If they are to have this positive effect, however, we must make a decision 

to move toward the transcendent domain to which they point — a 

little leap of faith. Their interpretation adds to what we have seen since 

we first began this course: we have a transcendent soul capable of surviving 

bodily death, which is oriented toward the unconditional love of 

God in Jesus Christ. 

The Exterior Call of the Transcendent 

The exterior call to level four happiness can take many forms. Two 

common forms are through the experience of suffering (which we will 

consider more deeply in the next unit) and through evangelization. 

Whether it is a conversation with a trusted friend or a chance encounter 

with a book or TV show, evangelization typically reaches people intellectually 

when they have already detected some form of the interior call 

in their lives and are ready to respond. 

Of the many forms the exterior call of the transcendent can take, 

we will focus here on three specifically: church community, transcendent 

beauty, and philosophical and theological wisdom. 

Church Community 

Some people grow up in a religious household in which family members 

attend Church services. If they feel welcome and understand the 

doctrines and moral precepts of the Church, they have likely begun to 

sense themselves being within a transcendent or spiritual home — not 

just like being at home with their family but being at home in the totality 

of things. Some people who were raised in a religious household but 

fell away or felt alienated — as well as people raised without any religion 

at all — will begin to search for the spiritual or religious to discover what 

is missing in their lives. If young people, however, do not nourish their 

faith, or reject it through apathy or skepticism, the feelings of cosmic 

emptiness, alienation, and loneliness then begin to emerge. 

Beauty 

In addition to evangelization, the call of beauty can be irresistible. 

Beauty is not limited to the senses — many forms of beauty appeal to 

the mind and heart. Beauty, whether it be found in nature, physical 

forms, mathematics, physics, poetry, literature, art, architecture, music, 



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or individual people all have a way of pointing upward, toward its origin 

in an absolutely beautiful Being. Plato recognized this elevating and 

transcendent quality of beauty and expressed it as a hierarchy, moving 

upwards from the beauty of nature, art, and the senses, to the beauty 

of love, institutions, and laws, then to the beauty of mathematics and 

sciences, and finally to the beauty of transcendence and the divine 

One. In all these things, beauty attracts us, and when we appreciate it, it 

enhances us, fulfills us, and brings us to a higher sense of reality. Beauty 

by itself, however, does not have the power to push us into the transcendent, 

but only to draw us close to it. If we want to cross the frontier, 

we must choose to do so by the little leap of faith we have discussed. 

Sacred Beauty 

The outward 

beauty of 

religious art, 

architecture, 

music, and ritual 

can spark the 

interior call 

within us. 

As the entire history of spirituality indicates, there is something intrinsically 

beautiful about the domain of the sacred. Many of us have had 

experiences of being moved by a beautiful church, sacred music, liturgy, 

and sacred art — which all initially appeal to the senses, though they 

point beyond themselves. Spiritual and religious ideas can also incite an 

experience of sacred beauty (with the excitement, awe, and even ecstasy 

that accompanies it). For example, there is something beautiful 

about Scripture, theological ideas, the mystical life, the history of the 

Church, the living Tradition, the social encyclicals, the lives of the saints, 

spiritual literature, spiritual poetry, and the unity of all of these things. 

Virtually every culture throughout human history has recognized the 

beauty, enchantment and fulfillment of the spiritual and the sacred. 

The outward beauty of religious art, architecture, music and ritual 

can move us and spark the interior call within us. Sacred beauty can be 

manifest beyond glorious and awe-inspiring forms (beautiful cathedrals, 

symphonic masses, frescoes and paintings, sacred liturgy, and 

spiritual ideas); it extends to simplicity and stillness — the walkway of 

a Carthusian Monastery, the smile of Mother Teresa, a simple creche 

scene, a deed of kindness, or a deed of noble self-sacrifice. The beauty 

of holy people is especially powerful, revealing the love of God in genuine 

loving action that we can see and experience. When we allow ourselves 

to be drawn into the life of the sacred, the Lord responds even 

more intensely — with an invitation to even deeper realities. 

Philosophical and Theological Wisdom 

God’s exterior call can also be found in philosophical and theological 

wisdom which seeks to know the ultimate — ultimate causes, ultimate 

meaning, ultimate destiny. Individuals who are moved by these great 


© Magis Center

questions and ideas frequently find their way to a God who is perfect 

and unconditional truth, love, goodness, beauty, and being. When these 

individuals find sufficient rational evidence for this ultimate divine principle, 

they allow their interior call to be awakened and felt. 

This exterior call to the transcendent through reason and wisdom 

comes from the search for something more meaningful than emotional 

responses or materialistic, naturalistic, and utilitarian philosophies. It 

frequently leads to systematic metaphysics and logical proofs for the 

existence of God (and scientific evidence for a Creator). When intellectuals 

become convinced God exists, they generally become interested 

in the consequences of this for their lives. This leads them to an 

investigation of the nature of created reality, the existence of the soul, 

and then to happiness, virtue, and purpose in life. A brief encounter 

with these deeper questions shows the intrinsic limits of reason alone. 

Some typical questions are, “Does God love us or is He indifferent to 

us (as Aristotle thought)?” “Does God redeem our suffering?” “Is there 

St. Thomas Aquinas applied 

both reason and faith in his 

study of metaphysics, moral 

philosophy, and religion. 

St. Thomas Aquinas, altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli. 



345

a Heaven?” “Does God answer prayers?” and “Does God guide us?” As 

we have been learning, for if these questions are to be answered, God 

will have to reveal Himself to us, and tell us about the domain beyond 

the merely rational. Reason must be complemented by revelation. 

Conclusion 

The dimensions of God’s interior call can be complemented and realized 

by His exterior call through a church community, transcendent 

beauty, and philosophical and theological wisdom. But we must choose 

to follow the call of the transcendent by making a little leap of faith. This 

choice means acting on the call we have received which can be done by 

participating in a church community, seeking a deep understanding of 

spiritual wisdom and God’s self-revelation, entering into a life of prayer, 

trying to live according to God’s goodness, and helping others to see 

their true dignity and destiny. 

This is a journey worth taking. It will have trials as well as rewards, 

experiences of enmity as well as love, encounters with evil as well as 

goodness, but we can be sure that if we trust in the God of love, He will 

bring us safely to the home we yearn for. 

If we trust in God He will bring 

us to the home we yearn for. 

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Ricci, by Pierre Subleyras. 


© Magis Center

LIVES 

OF 

FAITH 

In the gutter of the street, the 

man laid dying. He was the 

poorest of the poor, dirty, sick, 

covered in wounds, and dying. 

He was un-savable. The hospital 

refused to take the man 

in. Why should they waste a 

bed on someone like him, they 

said, when he could not pay 

and there were others who 

could and whose lives could be 

saved? He was angry. He was sad. But most of all, he 

felt abandoned. He felt worthless. 

And then the small, frail-looking woman came 

to him, the woman the people called Mother Teresa. 

Dressed in a simple, white garment and head covering 

with blue trim, she knelt beside him and took his 

hand. It did not matter to her that he was filthy, that 

he smelled, that no one else wanted to be near him, 

or that no one wanted to even look at him. She did 

not care. She looked at him straight in his eyes. She 

picked him up and took him back to her infirmary. 

She cleaned him, tended his wounds, fed him, and 

gave him a bed to lay on. 

Once she had taken care of his physical needs, 

she looked at him and said, “Have you ever heard of 

Jesus? May I tell you about him?” To which the man 

St. Teresa of Calcutta 

responded, “If he is anything like 

you, I would love to hear about him!” 

By treating the man with the 

dignity he deserved as a child of 

God, Mother Teresa opened his 

heart to hearing about where his 

worth came from. 

Mother Teresa, or St. Teresa of 

Calcutta, worked hard throughout 

her life to uphold the dignity of all 

people, especially those who were 

poor and forgotten, the sick, and the dying. When 

she was younger, Jesus spoke to her and said, “I 

thirst.” Jesus thirsted for souls, especially the poor. 

St. Teresa devoted the rest of her life to working 

to satisfy Christ’s thirst by caring for the many sick 

and poor souls she encountered on the streets of 

Calcutta, India. Later, the order of nuns she founded, 

the Missionaries of Charity, continued her work 

in cities throughout the world. 

The heroic actions of Mother Teresa are an example 

to us of how every person, great or small, rich 

or poor, deserves to be treated with the same dignity. 

By this example, may we be unafraid to see the 

image of God in everyone we meet and treat them 

with compassion. 



347

Focus and Reflection Questions 

1 In order to transition from a level one-two dominant life to a level three-four dominant one, what 

four fundamental attitudes must we change? 

2 What role do our conscious and unconscious minds play in changing our dominant form of happiness 

to level three-four? 

3 What question must we reflect upon to refocus our goals away from constantly comparing ourselves 

to others? What will happen to us as we do so? 

4 What simple thing can we look for in others and ourselves to begin to stop comparing ourselves to 

others? 

5 What is the difference between “freedom from” and “freedom for”? How does the perspective of 

“freedom for” change our conception of happiness? 

6 Why must we move from a dominant level one-two level of happiness to a dominant level three-four 

level? 

7 What ego-centric temptation exists in our pursuit of level three-four happiness? How can we avoid 

this temptation? 

8 What is required to help us continue on the path to level three-four happiness? 

9 What will God never do as we journey towards level three-four happiness? Why not? 

10 Why do we feel radically incomplete without religion? 

11 How do religious existentialists view each of the four negative “cosmic” feelings? Why do they view 

them as positive things? 

12 What are three forms the exterior call of the transcendent can take? 

13 What happens when we are attracted by and appreciate beauty? What can beauty not do? 

14 From where does the exterior call to the transcendent through reason and wisdom come? To what 

does it lead? 


© Magis Center

Straight to the Source 

ADDITIONAL READINGS FROM PRIMARY SOURCES 

Libertas 1, an Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII, June 20, 1888 

Liberty, the highest of natural endowments, being the portion only of intellectual or rational natures, 

confers on man this dignity — that he is “in the hand of his counsel” and has power over his actions. But 

the manner in which such dignity is exercised is of the greatest moment, inasmuch as on the use that 

is made of liberty the highest good and the greatest evil alike depend. Man, indeed, is free to obey 

his reason, to seek moral good, and to strive unswervingly after his last end. Yet he is free also to turn 

aside to all other things; and, in pursuing the empty semblance of good, to disturb rightful order and to 

fall headlong into the destruction which he has voluntarily chosen. The Redeemer of mankind, Jesus 

Christ, having restored and exalted the original dignity of nature, vouchsafed special assistance to the 

will of man; and by the gifts of His grace here, and the promise of heavenly bliss hereafter, He raised it 

to a nobler state. In like manner, this great gift of nature has ever been, and always will be, deservingly 

cherished by the Catholic Church, for to her alone has been committed the charge of handing down to 

all ages the benefits purchased for us by Jesus Christ. Yet there are many who imagine that the Church 

is hostile to human liberty. Having a false and absurd notion as to what liberty is, either they pervert the 

very idea of freedom, or they extend it at their pleasure to many things in respect of which man cannot 

rightly be regarded as free. 

1 Why does Pope Leo XIII insist that the manner in which human liberty is exercised is of the greatest 

importance? 

2 What do you think Pope Leo XIII means by stating that Christ has raised our will to a nobler state? How 

did Christ do this? 

3 Why might some people hold the position that the Church is “hostile to human liberty”? Explain why 

this is a false position, based on what you have learned in this unit. 

Letter of Pope St. John Paul II to Artists 12–13, April 4, 1999 

12. In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must 

make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must 

therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable. Art has a unique capacity to 

take one or other facet of the message and translate it into colours, shapes and sounds which nourish 

the intuition of those who look or listen. It does so without emptying the message itself of its transcendent 

value and its aura of mystery. 

The Church has need especially of those who can do this on the literary and figurative level, using the 

endless possibilities of images and their symbolic force. Christ himself made extensive use of images in 

his preaching, fully in keeping with his willingness to become, in the Incarnation, the icon of the unseen 

God. 



349

The Church also needs musicians. How many sacred works have been composed through the centuries 

by people deeply imbued with the sense of the mystery! The faith of countless believers has been nourished 

by melodies flowing from the hearts of other believers, either introduced into the liturgy or used 

as an aid to dignified worship. In song, faith is experienced as vibrant joy, love, and confident expectation 

of the saving intervention of God. 

The Church needs architects, because she needs spaces to bring the Christian people together and 

celebrate the mysteries of salvation. After the terrible destruction of the last World War and the growth 

of great cities, a new generation of architects showed themselves adept at responding to the exigencies 

of Christian worship, confirming that the religious theme can still inspire architectural design in our 

own day. Not infrequently these architects have constructed churches which are both places of prayer 

and true works of art. 

13. The Church therefore needs art. But can it also be said that art needs the Church? The question may 

seem like a provocation. Yet, rightly understood, it is both legitimate and profound. Artists are constantly 

in search of the hidden meaning of things, and their torment is to succeed in expressing the world of 

the ineffable. How then can we fail to see what a great source of inspiration is offered by that kind of 

homeland of the soul that is religion? Is it not perhaps within the realm of religion that the most vital personal 

questions are posed, and answers both concrete and definitive are sought? 

In fact, the religious theme has been among those most frequently treated by artists in every age. The 

Church has always appealed to their creative powers in interpreting the Gospel message and discerning 

its precise application in the life of the Christian community. This partnership has been a source of 

mutual spiritual enrichment. Ultimately, it has been a great boon for an understanding of man, of the 

authentic image and truth of the person. The special bond between art and Christian revelation has 

also become evident. This does not mean that human genius has not found inspiration in other religious 

contexts. It is enough to recall the art of the ancient world, especially Greek and Roman art, or the art 

which still flourishes in the very ancient civilizations of the East. It remains true, however, that because of 

its central doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word of God, Christianity offers artists a horizon especially 

rich in inspiration. What an impoverishment it would be for art to abandon the inexhaustible mine of the 

Gospel! 

1 According to Pope St. John Paul II, why does the Church need art? What does art accomplish? 

2 Pope St. John Paul II speaks about the symbolic force of images, and says that “Christ himself made 

extensive use of images in his preaching”. Name three images used by Christ that you can recall. 

3 What types of artists does Pope St. John Paul II say the Church needs? If you could serve the Church 

in one of these artistic professions, which would you choose? Why? 

4 What case does Pope St. John Paul II make for the arts needing the Church? 


© Magis Center

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