No spoilers! What is your favorite movie? How was the ending? Have you ever had a movie you enjoyed until the ending?
Whether we like it or not, so much of a story is dependent on the ending because that is what ties together everything that precedes it. The ending orders everything that comes before it. Even when you did not yet know what the ending to your favorite movie was, you knew everything you were experiencing was moving toward it; thus, you had so much emotional energy invested in the end. If the ending of a story or movie disappoints, it negatively affects so much of what had moved toward it. Even though the ending is only a fraction of the time of the entire movie, everyone knows that the impact cannot be quantified the same way.
This experience of fitting the ending into the rest of a story is not just in movies; this same sense of an “end”—and our investment in it—is built into every aspect of reality. The end, as in purpose, has always been that which forms every aspect of the story. This is not just true of the stories we write, read, or watch, but it is profoundly true of the stories we create in our very lives. This idea of end as a purpose is known in philosophy as the final cause or telos. It follows the first three “causes” that make up the essence of a substance according to Aristotle.
For a Good Cause
The previous three causes are the material cause, or the “stuff” of something; the formal cause, the “shape” of something (though, to be clear, neither the material nor formal causes need to be made of physical stuff or have a physical shape); and the efficient cause, the “agent” that brings the material and formal causes together like the sculptor or inventor. For example, in a table, one can easily recognize the wood or metal as the material cause. The legs and flat surface would be essential features of the form. The carpenter, or further back the inventor of the first table, would be the efficient cause.
But let us return to the cause behind these causes: the final cause is the perfect “last but not least scenario” because even though it is the last thing recognized in a substance, it is the cause that integrates every other cause of a substance. This would be the “to hold up other objects” in regards to our table example. The preeminence of the final cause is acknowledged by Aristotle (Physics, Book II, chapter 3). The language of this preeminence was later intensified by St. Thomas Aquinas in his commentary, calling the final cause the “the cause of causes” or causa causarum, because the previous three causes—the material, the formal, and the efficient—act “for the sake of the end” (Commentary on Physics, book II. ch 3. lecture 5). Aquinas uses the reality of a final cause as one of his five ways toward knowing God’s existence (Summa Theologiae part I, question 2, article 3). There, he shows how all things in creation are ordered to an end by something outside of themselves. And if everything inside of creation has a final cause, then creation as a whole has a final cause. This final cause must precede creation in order for it to be intrinsically inside of it and it must exist outside of creation in order for creation to be ordered toward it. This thing everyone understands as God.
The Bible even has an indirect reference to the final cause when it comes to the spiritual life. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus instructs us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Greek word for “perfect” here is teleioi as your Heavenly Father is perfect (teleios). This verse, when weighed down by the modern baggage of the word “perfect,” has proven to be anxiety-provoking to Christians and scandalous to non-Christians. When understood, however, as the ultimate end of the Christian spiritual life, then it becomes less of a demand on us now, in this life, and more of a participation in God’s ultimate perfection.
This process of participation in the perfection of God’s nature begins in this life by our reception of God’s grace. For Catholics, our primary means of receiving this grace, and by that reception our participation in God’s life, is through the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. This is partially why the Church emphasizes so strongly our faithful participation in the sacraments. If we saw “perfect” as less of an expectation for now in the Christian life, and more like the “end,” or telos, then it would likely not produce as much anxiety. Resting in God’s perfection is the end, which means that it is what the entire story is building toward.
The Perfect Ending
Aquinas presents this idea of participation in God’s perfection in a distinct way related to our final cause. In his famous five ways to God’s existence (ST I. Q 2. A 3), he presents the fifth way as the argument from final cause. Basically, this states that everything we can observe in the universe is ordered toward a final cause or purpose. This purpose is not imposed but recognized by us and is found even in things that pre-exist us. This is even more fundamental than “the plant always turns toward the sun,” but is present in biology itself as everything in a living thing is ordered toward more life, either of that particular thing or the species in general. The argument follows that if everything in nature is ordered toward a cause outside of itself, then nature as a whole must be ordered toward something outside of itself as well. This thing would, by definition, be “above nature” or supernatural, “this being we call God” (ST I. Q 2. A 3). While this example may demonstrate the importance of final causality in understanding the existence of God, it does not necessarily say anything about how it affects our own place in relationship to God.
As Catholics, we have a special opportunity to participate in our final cause, our telos, in this life. In the Mass, we are drawn deeper into the mystery of God in progressive ways.
First, in the proclamation of the Scriptures, we are called into deeper faith in God through his Son. This is especially the case in hearing the Gospels as they include the words of Jesus himself. We also receive the fruits of the priest’s contemplation in his homily, which should give us a deeper vision of God’s presence in his Word. These elements of the Liturgy of the Word are meant to conform our minds to Christ, which is a step toward our end in becoming united to Christ.
Second, this deepening of faith is meant to draw out of us a giving over of ourselves. This is participated in a limited way when we offer our donations and present the gifts of bread and wine. This act of charity is meant to form us just as charity forms the virtues themselves. Notice the priest will invite us by saying “my sacrifice and yours” (emphasis mine). On the surface, this is just an emphasis of a little of our time, attention, and money. Later, we will see that it is meant to be, in union with Christ, a sacrifice of our entire selves given to the Father, who is our final end.
The End
These gifts are heightened in the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. These transubstantiated elements are offered back to God the Father in the perfect worship of the Son. We participate in this worship and will be united to it in our reception of the Eucharist. This is our true telos! This is the end that, God willing, we will be participating in for all eternity in heaven. This reception of the Body of Christ, the divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4), allows us to unite our worship to the perfect worship of Christ. We receive the life of Christ in the Eucharist so that we can participate in the life of heaven. This is not just the chronological end of the story, as the book of Revelation dramatizes it in poetic language, but the teleological end of the story too.
When we read a story, we do not want to know the end right away: there is emotional value in the element of surprise that is important in storytelling. However, the best stories are those that we can revisit, enjoy, and contemplate even despite already knowing the ending. In fact, the best stories are the ones we can appreciate in their second or third retelling precisely because we already know the ending. The final cause is not just the last of a sequence of disconnected events; it is that which connects the previous events in a sequence. We know the end or purpose of the events and so we have deeper insight into how those events were formed. These stories, and our story, are more intelligible and more beautiful because the telos is clear and the telos is good, maybe even, as One said, “perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
