Who is the happiest being on the face of the earth?

This is truly describes how the person feels who communes with God, the source of true joy. St. Augustine says, “whoever possesses God is happy[.”504] Also, “To strive after God, then, is to desire happiness; to reach God is happiness itself.”⁵⁰⁵

St. Jacob of Sarug says, “The soul is enriched by God when it loves Him; it eats and drinks from Him when it follows Him … For when Moses spent a long time with Him, he

500 See Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty’s book, The Vision of God according to the Church Fathers in Arabic.

501 See Behnam Sony, Man in the Teaching of St. Jacob of Sarug (1995): p. 55.

502 St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 5 (NPNF II/5:477).

503 See Behnam Sony, Man in the Teaching of St. Jacob of Sarug (1995): p. 155.

504 St. Augustine of Hippo, The Happy Life 2.11 (FOTC 5:59).

505 St. Augustine of Hippo, The Way of Life of the Catholic Church 11.18 (FOTC 56:17).

shone exceedingly; he drank of Him so that he shone like the sun. The soul eats from God and is sated from Him, until the body itself lives without care (Matt. 6:26–34). Moses lived forty days without food or drink and did not hunger.”⁵⁰⁶ “Eating bread weighs one down and makes one lazy; but knowledge gives the soul wings with which to fly.”⁵⁰⁷