“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.” Most of us recognize the whimsical opening of “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. Maria, the spirited former nun turned governess, Julie Andrews uses this song to navigate the challenges of her new life. “When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel so bad.” Although Maria’s favorite things are a bit mundane, her point is clear: meditating on good things, amidst so many bad things in life, changes one’s outlook on life and is good for the soul. 

As I near the end of writing a large commentary on the Larger Catechism, I realize the Catechism contains a lot of my favorite things. The 196 rather long questions in this Catechism represent some of the best expressions of biblical Christian truth ever written, and meditating on their contents keeps our eyes on the Triune God, giving us fuel for prayer and worship, through many striking statements, and, especially, leading us by the hand through a carefully logically arranged collection of Scripture proofs.  

While people can hoard riches, the riches of the Catechism are meant for us to spend freely. Now that I am coming close to finishing my commentary on the Catechism, this article and the ones following are an opportunity to take stock of the whole Catechism by highlighting some of its most useful statements. This first installment focusses on the value of question 1, which outlines “man’s chief and highest end.” The operative words standing out are “highest” and “fully,” making God not only our chief, but the best possible end, and directing us to be content with nothing less than the beatific vision, or blessed sight of God in glory. 

First, some context is in order. Shorter Catechism answer 1 is likely the one question that most people know: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Written before the Shorter Catechism, the Larger Catechism includes fuller statements that the Shorter culled for the sake of brevity. So, the original statement in the WLC is, “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” In classic Reformed theology, glorifying God and enjoying are two ends, one first and chief, and one second and subordinate. Though it is true that, in Christ, we glorify God by enjoying him, we should glorify God whether or not we could enjoy him. Because God is God, even if he gave us no promise of knowing and enjoying him, we should obey him, expecting nothing in return, as created “unprofitable servants” doing what is merely our duty to do (Luke 17:10; NKJV). We should not expect to have “fruition” of God as our “blessedness and reward” without some “voluntary condescension on his part “which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant” (WCF 7.1). God’s glory should be our aim in everything we think, say, and do (1 Cor. 10:31), but why do we assume we should be able to enjoy him? Have we taken God’s goodness for granted to the extent that we secretly think we deserve to enjoy him who is the highest good and apart from whom all other good is like a vapor? We need God, but he does not need us. 

Taking for granted that God should be our chief end, why add that he is our “highest” end? I am reminded of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, which opens by saying that every action should have its proper end, but without a chief end tying all lesser ends together, all lesser ends lose their meaning. For instance, the end of work is to earn money to support a household, and the end of sleep is to rejuvenate the body, which is necessary to work, among other things. But is life just a loosely connected chain of meaningless tasks, with no unifying factor making living worthwhile? Aristotle’s answer was that man’s chief end and highest good is to pursue the good of society, because the good of the whole of humanity is greater than its individual parts. This is true enough, but does it reach high enough? God’s glory should be our chief end, “for of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36).  

Adding “highest” means that not only should God be first in our thoughts and affections, but that there is none better and none greater than God. Q. 1 assures us that we could not aim higher than God, and that working for a family is a meaningful because it is a means of the chief and highest end: glorifying God. The triune God transcends creation, being self-sufficient,abounding life in himself (Exod. 3:14; John 5:26). We should find meaning not only by identifying our primary duty, but by recognizing that the Trinity is the highest aim for any being in heaven or on earth.

By God’s grace, especially through redemption in Christ, we can enjoy God. But why add “fully?” Q. 90, concluding the first major division of the Catechism (“What man is to believe concerning God”), both gives us an answer and brackets both ends with the goal of redemption in Christ. Not only will we be “made perfectly holy and happy” in heaven after the resurrection and final judgment, but our blessedness consists “especially in the immediate vision of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity.” This is known as the beatific vision, or the sight of God that makes us blessed. Enjoying God is good; enjoying him forever is better; enjoying him fully is unfathomable.  

In this life, if we learn to be content in poverty and riches (Phil. 4:11), then we can get along pretty well. In Scripture, the Spirit often uses affliction—especially when we feel like we have lost everything other than the Lord—to align our hearts with the psalmist’s: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psa. 23:25-26). God could have made us holy, but merely “unprofitable servants.” He also could have made us holy and happy, in fellowship with himself. But he chose to give us perfect holiness and happiness, fully enjoying the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, to all eternity. 

Interestingly, the Westminster divines included Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the church (John 17:21-23) in its proof texts, and Q. 90 includes the “company of innumerable saints and holy angels” in our heavenly blessedness. Making God our “chief and highest end,” it turns out, results in our highest happiness as well, in society with angels, the church, and, especially, the Triune God himself. The payoff is that the beatific vision colors everything in the Catechism between questions 1 and 90, with many reminders elsewhere, and even Q. 196, with its concluding doxological tone. What better way could the Catechism help us reset our focus than putting God’s glory and the beatific vision at its beginning, middle, and end, since God should be our beginning, middle, and end? 

So, Q. 1 of the WLC is one of my favorite things. Sometimes people contrast the Westminster Catechisms with the Heidelberg Catechism, arguing that Heidelberg is personal and devotional, while Westminster is impersonal and doctrinal. However, we can personalize WLC 1. While Heidelberg opens with, “My only comfort in life and in death,” Westminster begins with, “[My] chief end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever.” The two are not only compatible, but both drive us to glorify and enjoy the Triune God. But while Heidelberg begins with the means of fully enjoying God forever, Westminster begins with God himself—the best point at which to begin and end. Believing in Christ, let us make God our chief and highest end, loving him in hope that we shall not only glorify him, but fully enjoy him forever, because the work of the Triune God in saving us is our only comfort in life and in death.