“You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.” (Confessions, I, 1, 1, Maria Boulding, O.S.B. translation)(italics mine)
When a lawyer makes a case in defense of a client, he does with an end in mind. This end being that the case he has made will be a victory for him and his client. The same thing could be said of a carpenter; if the carpenter makes a table, it is done with the specific end in mind that it will bring people together at dinner.
Everything created has what Aristotle calls, a “final cause,” in other words, the reason they are created. Tables have final causes. Motions filed have final causes. And what Saint Augustine poignantly argues is that we also have a final cause, because we are also created.
What is our final cause? To love and be loved, or in Saint Augustine’s Latin ” amare et amari.” Because to love is to will the Good in the other, or as Henri Nouwen pointed out, becoming bread to feed the multitudes, nourishing the body, mind and hearts of others. By loving we also realize that we must open ourselves to be loved back. And when we climb the levels of happiness (from in to out), we also notice a desire for Complete Beauty, Complete Truth, Complete Goodness, we realize that Being itself can only quiet our hearts. Our souls are restless until they rest in God.
Very enlightening. Thank you for such a eye opener.❤️🔥
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Good comments. Keep going son
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