Life Everlasting: A Theological Treatise on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell

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video of a quote from this work (pt. 1, §3 "La profondeur de notre volonté est sans mesure, Dieu seul vu face a face peut la combler" / "Soul Immensity and Beatific Vision"):

A la suite de saint Grégoire le Grand, saint Thomas a noté à ce sujet : les biens temporels paraissent désirables quand on ne les a pas ; mais quand on les possède, on voit leur pauvreté qui ne peut répondre à notre désir, et qui produit la désillusion, la lassitude et parfois le dégoût. Pour les biens spirituels c'est l'inverse : ils ne paraissent pas désirables à ceux qui ne les ont pas et qui désirent surtout les biens sensibles ; mais plus on les possède, plus on connaît leur valeur, plus on les aime1. Pour la même raison, tandis que les mêmes biens matériels (la même maison, le même champ) ne peuvent appartenir simultanément et intégralement à plusieurs personnes, les mêmes biens spirituels (la même vérité, la même vertu) peuvent appartenir simultanément et pleinement à tous, et chacun les possède d'autant mieux qu'il les communique aux autres2. Cela est vrai surtout du Souverain Bien.

[Following St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas writes: Temporal goods appear desirable when we do not have them; but when we do have them, we see their poverty, which cannot meet our desire and which therefore produces disillusion, lassitude, and often repugnance. In spiritual goods the inverse is true. They do not seem desirable to those who do not have them and who desire especially sensible good. But the more we possess them the more we know their value and the more we love them.1 For the same reason, material goods, the same house, the same field, cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to many persons. Spiritual goods, on the contrary, one and the same truth, one and the same virtue, can belong simultaneously and completely to all. And the more perfectly we possess these goods, the better we can communicate them to others.2 This is especially true of the sovereign good.]

1. Ia IIae, q.31, a.5; q.32, a.2; q.33, a.2.
2. Ia IIae, q. 28, a.4 ad 2; IIIa, q. 23, a. 1 ad 3.

The text you retrieved from Fr. G.-L.’s L’eternelle vie et la profondeur de l’âme is one especially foreign to our characteristically greedy culture and overall education, which habituates us to be moved the most (if not exclusively) by the lure of profit, in almost everything we want and do. What is said in the quoted section has only become mysterious and counterintuitive to deeply ignorant (of their own ignorance) and arrogant self-seeking men. But it is easily understood by those who attend to God like children and put their sole delight in waiting for Him: Bonum est praestolari cum silentio salutare Dei (Threni 3:26). Truly, God loses nothing because He gives Himself to everyone. And, likewise, none of His rational creatures receives less from Him because He is the God of them all. Another way of saying the same thing: God, in giving, loses nothing. Likewise, His rational creatures lose nothing nor do they enjoy His supernatural light less whether only a single individual or all of them receive it. The same is actually true of natural, physical Sun light relative to the people enabled to see by it.

Dei solum potest replete ei... Hence, we must learn to detach from the goods of this life, including naturally and supernaturally legitimate goods. Counterintuitive to the natural man, and even often to the man driven supernaturally to some spiritual good.

Haec est autem vita aeterna : ut cognoscant te, solum Deum verum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum. (Ioannes 17:3)

I've been meditating on SCG III qq. 26-44, where he addresses questions like "That human felicity does not consist in pleasures of the flesh," "That ultimate felicity does not lie in the act of prudence," "That felicity does not consist in the operation of art," ending with (q. 37) "That the ultimate felicity of man consists in the contemplation of God." But he goes further, arguing "That human felicity does not consist in the knowledge of God gained through demonstration" and even that "Human felicity does not consist in the knowledge of God which is through faith"!

The etymological and semantic connection between gloria and γνῶς/γνωστό is relatively manifest (although it is in fact disputed by some), since someone or something renowned is, by the same token, also (usually) someone or something glorious. Scripture expresses it in a large variety of recurring terms, found especially (but not only) in the daily Psalms, to mark slight nuances between “glory,” “splendor,” “weight,” “fame,” “majesty,” “adoration,” for ex. (there are a few more): ...הָדָר, הוֹד, כָּבוֹד, פָּאֵר, תְהִלָה.

A serious, theological treatise on the Four Last Things - Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell - but purposely written for the average reader. Shows the exalted "immensity" of the human soul and that only possession of God in the Beatific Vision can completely satisfy man's desires. The author touches on many theological aspects that bear fruit on our final end - the roots of vice and virtue, the grace of a happy death, the pain of loss, the nature of eternal beatitude, and many more. An enlightening study of man's final destiny that will inspire the reader with its many insights. 288 pgs,