God as the Ultimate End: the Omega

What does it mean to say that God is the ultimate end? When Aquinas refers to Him as such, he does not mean that God simply is the end associated with death, although we have already established that we cannot know God in his true essence in this life.

Aquinas’ discussion of God as an end stems from his discussion of human action. In explaining that all actions seek some end, Aquinas judges God to be the ultimate end of all action:

For happiness is the perfect good which totally quiets appetite; otherwise, if there still remained something to be sought, it would not be the ultimate end. The object of will, the human appetite, is the universal end, just as the object of intellect is universal truth. From this, it follows that nothing can quiet the will of man except the universal good, which is found in no creature but in God alone, since every creature has a participated goodness. Hence God alone can fulfill the will of man. (Summa Theologica as quoted in McInerny’s Ethica Thomistica)

Aquinas is pretty sure of this. He says it more than once:

…it is clear that all things are directed to one good as their last end. …that which is the supreme good is supremely the end of all. Now there is but one supreme good, namely God. … Therefore, all things are directed to the highest good, namely God as their end.

Again. That which is supreme in any genus is the cause of everything in that genus. Therefore the supreme good, namely God, is the cause of goodness in all things good. Therefore He is the cause of every end being an end, since whatever is an end is such in so far as it is good. … Therefore, God is supremely the end of all things. (Summa Contra Gentiles Book 3, Chapter 7).

Okay. It might not be that hard for people who believe in God to understand the first quote. We’ve been taught all our lives that we will be without desire when we get to heaven. But, I must remind myself that we are trying to prove God’s existence, and those who need such proof are those who do not believe in God.

Therefore, I will use that first quote as a mere definition. God can be defined as that thing or spirit that fulfills all human desire. It is inherent in this definition again that we would not be able to know God in this life, because desire itself is a condition of living things. Besides the nice cars, the big houses and the other luxuries of life, we all desire food when we are hungry, drink when we are thirsty, love when we are lonely, etc. You can see that these will not end completely until we expire.

Now, how is God, as that which fulfills all desire, an end and, to be precise, the ultimate end?

Aquinas deals with that in the second quote above and, in fact, in his entire discussion of human action. It’s also in this second quote where many would think Aquinas fell in the tub and hit his head. Were you bothered when you read "all things are directed to one good as their last end"? Aquinas draws this idea from Aristotle who began his Nicomacean Ethics with the outrageous claim that "every action and every intention is thought to aim at some good" (Book A, lines 1-2).

Perhaps our illustrious philosophers have become outdated, especially when we consider the atrocities that continually grace the front pages of our newspapers. But, let’s at least find out more of what they are talking about.

Aquinas explains that in saying actions tend toward some good, he is not saying that all actions are good. The good Aristotle and Aquinas refer to is simply the intended end of the action. It is referred to as good because it explains the reason for the action. A basic concept in human action is that we do something for a reason. When we act, we do so to achieve some end, which we have determined we would like to achieve. In saying that, I must also emphasize that sometimes when we get to the end, we realize that’s not what we wanted after all!

An example: I am hungry. I decide to alleviate my hunger by eating something. I decide that I want to eat a hamburger. The hamburger is the good I seek. I seek the hamburger as a good that will alleviate my hunger.

Now, if after years of eating hamburgers and avoiding vegetables, I am diagnosed with heart disease because of high cholesterol, then I realize that the hamburger was not really all that good, but it was still the good that I sought at the time I ate the hamburger.

It is this same type of hindsight that leads most of our criminals to respond "I don’t know" when asked why they did it. In actuality, they know why they did it; their actions were targeted toward some end that they judged to be good at the time, even if it was not morally good. A murderer killed because murder fulfilled the desire fueled by his anger or his need for power. A thief stole because stealing fulfilled his desire for material objects. An adulterer committed adultery because that fulfilled his sexual desire for another woman.

Looking back, the murderer might realize that while murder fulfilled one desire, it caused the death of another and emotional pain to many others. The thief might realize that in stealing, he took items that another needed. The adulterer surely would notice the pain he caused his spouse in betraying her trust.

These individuals acted according to their desires and sought the ends of those actions because they believed the ends to be good in that they fulfilled those desires. The ends are considered good in that they are perfective of the actions which tend toward those ends. That is, they are good in a metaphysical way as opposed to a moral way.

Now, as humans, we perform human actions daily. We eat, we work, we sleep, etc. When we do these, we fulfill certain desires. As humans, we also are able to reason about which actions we should perform to achieve those ends which are best for us overall.

That is, I have a desire often to sleep in and not go to work. However, I realize that the fulfillment of that one desire is not truly in the best interest of me or my family. By sleeping in, I put my job in jeopardy, thus I take the risk of not having money for more important desires like food and shelter.

All of these actions tend toward perfection of self. In school, I was often told to establish goals. After establishing those goals, I was expected to take actions that would help me realize those goals.

For Aquinas, the goal of every human is perfection. Think about it. We go to school to get an education and a job. We work to get money to meet our needs. We exercise. We pray, hopefully. We do all of these actions because we see the good that can result from them. We do them because we are attempting to move forward and perfect ourselves.

Perfection can be defined as the fulfillment of all desire. It is that which is sought for its own sake, as opposed to seeking a hamburger to alleviate hunger for example. And as we have already said, God is defined as that which fulfills all desire. In that we act to fulfill desires, and as we do so in order to perfect ourselves, it can be said that all actions lead toward God as an ultimate end.

Furthermore, Aquinas says that God is the end of all things: "since good has the nature of an end, all things are ordered under God as preceding ends under the last end. Therefore God must be the end of all."

This is similar to Aquinas explanation of the uncaused cause. Since actions tend toward an end, but are not the final end (I’ll eat a hamburger now, but I’ll have to eat something else tomorrow), then God, as the good satisfying all desire, is the end of all.

Proceed to Article IV: God as Alpha and Omega