Last end
| Latin | ultimus finis; beatitudo |
|---|---|
| Locus in Aquinas | Summa theologiae I–II, qq. 1–5 |
| Branch | Moral theology |
| Controlling authority | Catechism 1716–1729; Dei Filius; Summa theologiae I–II, q. 1 |
| Doctrinal standing | God is man's last end and beatitude; the technical analysis of one last end and of imperfect happiness is Thomistic theology |
| School | Thomism |
Last end is, in Thomism, the ultimate good for the sake of which a human being acts, naturally desired as happiness and truly found only in God, attained as vision in glory.[1]
Every human act is for an end
Summa theologiae I–II, question 1, article 1, holds that it belongs to man to act for an end, because human actions proceed from a deliberate will whose object is the good. Article 4 denies an infinite series of ends in the order of intention and of execution: without a last end nothing would be desired and no one would begin to work. Article 5 denies that one will can be directed at once to several last ends not ordered to one another, because the last end fills the appetite as perfect good.[1]
Article 6 adds that whatever a man desires, he desires for the last end, even when he is not thinking of it at every step, as a traveler need not recall the destination at every pace. Article 7 distinguishes the aspect of last end, in which all agree because all desire the fulfillment of their perfection, from the thing in which they place it, in which they disagree. Sinners do not abandon the intention of a last end; they mistake the thing.
Happiness as operation, not as a pile of goods
Questions 2 and 3 argue that beatitude is not wealth, honor, fame, power, or pleasure, nor a good of the body, nor a good of the soul as a quality possessed, but an operation of the intellect attaining the universal good. Question 5 distinguishes imperfect happiness possible in this life from perfect happiness, which is the vision of the divine essence. Catechism 1718–1729 teaches that God alone fulfills, that the beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, and that we are called to the glory of heaven.[2]
Article 8 of question 1 notes that if we speak of the last end as the thing, God is the last end of man and of all creatures; if we speak of the attainment, only rational creatures attain it by knowing and loving. Irrational creatures concur by sharing the divine likeness in being, living, or sensing. The last end is therefore both metaphysical and moral: God as good, and the creature's rest in him.[1]
Natural desire and supernatural fulfillment
Dei Filius teaches that God is the beginning and end of all things, that he can be known from creatures, and that the supernatural end is gratuitous. Question 5, article 5, of the Prima secundae holds that man can attain perfect happiness only by God's power, because it surpasses created nature. The theological virtues exist for that end. Natural desire for the vision is a famous later controversy among Thomists; the present article need only record that Aquinas affirms a desire to know the cause that would be empty if the intellect could never reach the first cause, as in question 12, article 1.[3][4]
The Catechism's vocation to beatitude is the Church's doctrine. Whether that desire is innate elicitation or a conditioned natural desire remains theology. What may not be taught is that some created good, or the State, or a technique of the self, is the last end, or that heaven is a metaphor for moral progress. The last end is God seen and loved, or it is an idol.[2]
School architecture of a defined hope
The Church binds Catholics to God as last end, to the beatific vision, and to the impossibility of a created substitute. She has not defined the eight articles of question 1 as canons. Thomism's architecture—one last end, all acts for it, imperfect and perfect happiness—is the classical Catholic moral theology. Other Catholic spiritualities may emphasize charity's rest or the kingdom as communion if they do not relocate the end into history alone.[5]
Veritatis Splendor later recalled that freedom is for the true good, not from it. The last end is that good. Aeterni Patris commended Aquinas for placing ethics under beatitude rather than under mere duty. Man is made for God; nothing else will do; every choice is already about that. The school's last end is those sentences made exact, not a rival hope.[5][6]
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I–II, question 1 — Primary treatise on man's last end, the distinction of human acts from acts of a man, and the specification of moral acts by the end.
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1716–1729 — Authoritative teaching of the beatitudes, the vocation to beatitude, and God as the last end who alone fulfills the human heart.
- Back to citation First Vatican Council, Dei Filius — Dogmatic constitution on God the Creator, the natural knowability of God, the distinction and harmony of natural and supernatural orders, and the gratuity of revelation.
- Back to citation Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, question 12 — Primary treatment of how God is known by us, including the beatific vision, the limits of natural knowledge, and the denial of quidditative vision of God in this life.
- Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor — Encyclical on the moral law, the natural law, virtue, and the relation of human freedom to eternal and divine law without reducing morality to mere consensus.
- Back to citation Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris — Encyclical restoring Christian philosophy in the school of Thomas Aquinas while distinguishing that commendation from a definition of every Thomistic thesis.