53. How “everything has a purpose” changes the meaning of life
53. HOW “EVERYTHING HAS A PURPOSE” CHANGES THE MEANING OF LIFE
“Everything has a purpose” is part of the wisdom and world view of every ancient culture, but not of modern culture, because it is not scientifically, but only philosophically and commonsensically, verifiable. How important is it for my life and my practical wisdom today? What difference does it make?
(1. Its universality.) Every agent of necessity acts for an end. For . . . the first of all causes (real reasons) is the final cause (end, purpose, goal). The reason of which is that matter (the “material cause”) does not receive form (the “formal cause”) save in so far as it is moved by an agent (the “efficient cause”). . . . But an agent does not move except out of (conscious or unconscious) intention (movement in a specific direction) to an end (the “final cause”). For if the agent were not determinate to some particular effect (as its end), it would not do one thing rather than another. . . .
(2. Its distinctively human form.) This determination is effected in the rational nature by the rational appetite, which is called the will . . . in other things, it is caused by their natural inclination, which is called the natural appetite. . . . [A] thing tends toward an end by its action or movement in two ways: first, as a thing moving itself to the end, as man; secondly, as a thing moved by another to the end, as an arrow tends to a determinate end through being moved by the archer, who directs his action to the end. Therefore those things that are possessed of reason move themselves to an end because they have dominion over their actions through their free-will, which is the faculty of will and reason. But those things that lack reason tend to an end by natural inclination, as being moved by another and not by themselves, since they do not know the nature of an end as such and consequently cannot ordain anything to an end, but can be ordained to an end only by another.
(3. The ultimate cause and unity of both forms of final causality, or purpose.) For the entire irrational nature is in comparison to God as an instrument. . . (I-II,1,2).
The point here is very abstract but very important. Don’t be put off by the unfashionable, old, abstract words. The point is simple: an ordered universe, like an ordered life, must include order to ends. In this universe everything moves, everything changes. But nothing changes unless moved both from behind and from ahead, so to speak: both from an agent (“efficient cause”) and for a determinate goal or end (the “final cause”). Acorns become oaks, not tulips; tulip bulbs become tulips, not oaks. Puppies become dogs, not cats; kittens become cats, not dogs. Heavy objects fall and hot air rises. Everything moves in determinate, specified directions.
Therefore our human lives, which include conscious purposes, fit into this purpose-filled universe. We are not freaks. Something analogous to our conscious purposes exists everywhere, for the universe is the effect of conscious purposes too: not ours but God’s. The world is no accident; it is created and designed by an Intelligence. Therefore there are universal laws, laws that are true both for humans and for everything else. And one of these is that everything has a purpose. And to be realistic we must acknowledge and respect that purpose, that natural end—of every thing and every person, especially ourselves.
I call this “realism” because we must live in the real world, the world of God’s design, not in an imaginary world of our own design, if we want to be sane. Being sane and being saintly are ultimately the same thing: conforming our thoughts and our lives to the nature of reality, which is ultimately God, His nature and His designs.
And that includes sex. (Your reaction to this is probably either “Oops!” or “Aha!”) The natural end of sex is both personal love and babies. To hate and refuse either one of these ends is a sin against the essential nature of sex. That’s why both deliberate love-prevention and baby-prevention are sins.
That is only one corollary of this principle of universal teleology. There are many, many others. But this is the one that modern man resists the most.