The St. Louis Arch and God
The correct capstone
The construction of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis has much to teach us about the pursuit of happiness.
In Warren, Pennsylvania, 80% of the Gateway Arch was created. I am pleased to say that I once visited the Arch in St. Louis, but I was unaware of Warren’s contribution to helping make the monumental arch until recently.
In the Warren area, two mini-arches acknowledge the work of Warren area citizens in helping to build the Arch. The Visitor Center has one, and the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry building has the other.
A few summers ago, I had a teacher who was a seminary professor in St. Louis. He shared that the last piece to be placed in the arch was at the very top-middle to connect the two sides.
This last piece is known as the capstone. This capstone piece secures all the other pieces in their proper place, allowing the arch to bear weight finally.
Capstone projects are often used in schools as the final project that consolidates all the learning. The whole “arch of learning” is completed when the capstone is put in. In a sense, following the capstone project, the student can take on the weight of the subject independently.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, the quest for happiness is often frustrated by four typical substitutes for God or four false capstones.
The four false capstones are wealth, pleasure, power, and honor.
In other words, Aquinas believed that, unfortunately, many humans choose one of these four substitutes as the capstone of their soul instead of making God the capstone.
The key to a good standing arch is one where the capstone locks all the other pieces into their proper place, allowing the arch to bear the weight.
For Aquinas, it is only God who can be the true capstone of the human person. It is God who orders everything in its proper place. It is God who strengthens the person to bear the differing weights of life.
The four substitutes, or false capstones, cannot bear the weight of time nor satisfy the infinite desire each person longs for.
The seminary teacher at St. Louis uses the image of the arch each year to encourage his students to put God where He belongs: as the capstone of our lives.
As Psalm 16 states, “You are my Lord. My happiness lies in You alone.”
Fr. Luke Daghir
I took your reflection to my prayer this morning and as I reflected on the arch I thought about my life and how my deep encounter with God in my thirties became my capstone experience. Previous to that time I had my Catholic upbringing and spirituality on one side and my life experience on the other. But in my 30s I felt something was missing and I said to God, Do something with me. And he did!