The spiritual life: "To a greater virtue corresponds a greater degree of happiness", Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas takes up the thought of Aristotle in his book "On being and essence", and teaches us one of the foundations of the spiritual life of man: "If happiness is the reward of virtue, it follows that to a greater virtue corresponds a greater degree of happiness"

About happiness Thomas Aquinas wrote: "we call happiness the ultimate goal of desires; the movement of desire does not proceed to infinity, since natural desire would be in vain, as it cannot reach infinity. But as the desire for an intellectual nature is for an intellectual good, this good alone can make man truly happy; having obtained it, there is no more good that can be desired; from here it is also said that happiness is a perfect good, as if it includes in itself all desirable things. And such is no earthly good; for those who have wealth want to have more; those who enjoy pleasures want to enjoy more, and this it is also manifest in other goods."
What Thomas Aquinas is telling us is that happiness as such rests on intellectual goods, not on material goods, happiness that is based on material goods is like thirst, it is never enough, we are always looking for more goods ; greed can never be sated.
It is because of this teaching that Jesus tells us that the true happiness of man is the blessed life. The beatitude is the most perfect intellectual good: "This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God", John 17:3.
Aristotle explains this in another way, Aristotle explains that the greatest virtue of man is contemplation, the contemplative activity is the worship of the wisdom.
Growing to adulthood is growing in virtue, this is how we progressively achieve the greatest virtues through small decisions. And when we talk about the greatest virtues we talk about spiritual gifts (the spiritual gifts are perfections: "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect", Matthew 5:48) such as mercy, perseverance, piety, continuous improvement. The spiritual gifts are goals by themselves, for example the mercy in the case of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), mercy is a reward for both the son who asks for forgiveness and the father who forgives. The happy man is the blessed man.
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