Is God obligated to give us the opportunity to experience the beatific vision, not because He owes it to us, but because He owes it to Himself, out of love of Himself? Clearly, God is not obligated to create, and He does so freely. Creation does not increase His happiness. Giving intellectual creatures the beatific vision, as opposed to leading them to a natural end, would not increase His happiness either. If He creates, is he free to choose between giving creatures a supernatural end or a natural end? If not, what is the reason? What would determine Him to giving creatures a supernatural end, other than Himself and His will? What would the reason be for such a determination? How would willing His own good require Him to endow creatures with a supernatural end? By giving creatures a supernatural end, God gives of Himself more--there is a 'greater diffusion' of the good, but this does not increase His happiness, so it is not necessary in that respect.
Something to ponder more.
As for the natural desire of man to see God in relation to the 'pure nature' controversy between de Lubac and the neo-scholastics, I will have to study that more in detail.
Edit:
Does Milbank get de Lubac right? The Suspended Middle: Henri de Lubac and the Debate concerning the Supernatural
Henri de Lubac on a supernatural anthropology
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