I can’t prove that the second option is the correct one—I can’t prove that quotidian sufferings and life-altering ones are really drops in the bucket before the infinite sea of God’s delights. But every now and then it seems obvious.
For example: have you ever looked at a tree, or a small child, or a blade of grass, or a beautifully-boned building, and realized what makes it—it? Thomistic metaphysics says that God is constantly sustaining everything in existence. If God turned his attention away from the blade of grass for a split second, it would vanish into nothingness—and ditto for monuments like the Sistine Chapel and Daniel Barenboim and Love’s Labor’s Lost.
It’s not that God wants us to “trade” the things that make us happy so that we can be holy. No, he gave us these things—gives them to us every moment, over and over again—so that we can have a whisper of happiness even before we get to holiness. He’s like the indulgent parent handing his children pea crisps before a fine French dinner. And of course, being childish, we get upset when he tries to convince us to put down the pea crisps for a minute so that we can enjoy the beef bourguignonne and the asparagus souffle.
I mean, you could argue that I tried to make my children “trade” their pottage for the soul food I cooked the other night, and from their perspective I’m sure that’s what I felt like. But.
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