54. Why life must have some single ultimate purpose or end
54. WHY LIFE MUST HAVE SOME SINGLE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OR END
What’s wrong with “different strokes for different folks” and “Don’t impose your values on me”? Why must all human lives have the same single ultimate end?
. . . it is not possible to proceed indefinitely in the matter of ends . . . for in whatsoever things there is an essential order of one to another, if the first be removed, those that are ordained to the first must of necessity be removed also. Wherefore the Philosopher proves that we cannot proceed to infinitude in causes of movement, because then there would be no first mover, without which neither can the others move, since they move only through being moved by the first mover . . . (and similarly,) if there were no last end, nothing would be desired (I-II,1,4).
That in which a man rests as in his last end is master of his affections, since he takes therefrom his entire rule of life . . . according to Matthew 6:24, No man can serve two masters.
It is therefore necessary for the last end so to fill man’s appetite that nothing is left besides it for man to desire. . . . [T]he will of an individual man must be fixed on one last end (I-II,1,5).
The argument for a single ultimate efficient cause, an Uncaused Cause, a First Cause (which is a “thin slice” of what we mean by God), is the same as the argument for a single ultimate End or Final Cause. If you take away the cause, you take away the effect. If there were no first domino, the whole chain would not fall; and the universe is a very large set of falling domino chains. Similarly, if there were no final end, the whole chain of means to that end, steps to that end, would not move. If you did not want a better job, you would not be taking courses; if you were not taking courses, you would not be reading the textbook; if you were not reading the textbook you would not be putting your glasses on; if you were not putting your glasses on, you would not be moving your hand to your face. If there were no ultimate efficient cause, no First Cause, then nothing would move in the objective world of the universe; and if there were no ultimate Final Cause, no one Final End of all desire, then nothing would ever move in the subjective world of your soul, nothing would be desired.
Therefore everything you do every day is for God, for union with God, for your last end, for your Heavenly perfection—from the first movement of your arm in shutting off the alarm clock to the closing of your eyes as you fall asleep; from the first thought of your day in offering it all up to God (let that be your first thought every day: it takes only seconds!) to the last thought of your day, asking God to send your guardian angel to guard your sleep—and from the miracle of your soul entering your body at the moment of your conception to the moment of your soul leaving your body at death.
Everything is connected by the Last End. There is a connection between your use of toilet paper and your participation in the Beatific Vision. Nothing is simply secular. That is because God is God, not Zeus. As He is the one Creator of all things, He is the one final End of all things.
Therefore offer up everything to Him, everything you do and everything you see and everything you think and everything you love. For everything you do is to be done for Him, and everything you see is a preparation for seeing Him, and everything you think is a tiny truth that is part of His whole Truth, and everything you love is loved only because it resembles Him in some way Who is the only Totally Lovable One. He left some of His perfume in the things He made, as He passed by; and you can’t help falling in love as you smell it.
As a Christian you are privileged to know Who it is that you are always falling in love with. You have been given the secret of this universal riddle; you have been given the great gift of faith: both your personal subjective faith and The Faith, the truth of divine revelation. You know Who is the one love in every love of your life. You know your last end.
That kind of love has to be one. It is simply impossible to give your whole heart to two. “No man can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24).