2. We are now in a position to look back on our intellectual journey and see how it all fits together. We started off seeking to understand our experience of reality in depth and set it in a vision of the whole, in a word, to understand what it means to be and the great universal laws governing all being in this finite world of ours. We had to commit ourselves to the great underlying principle of all intellectual inquiry, the intelligibility of being and its accessibility in principle to all intelligences . . . because we are already committed by the dynamic drive of our intellectual natures to the life of intelligent inquiry and it is impossible to use our intelligences at all without at least implicitly making this commitment.
3. All material beings belong also to various particular groups or species of beings by their particular matter and common form. Then all reach out to each other through action both to give what they have and receive what they lack, forming one vast interconnecting system, shot through with common cosmic-wide laws. What then does the intelligibility or meaning of our universe finally turn out to be? All finite beings are members of the one great community of real existents, unified by the existence they participate in, but diversified by the various limiting essences or modes of participation in the act of existence.
4. a. Every being of our experience must be structured as: - limited beings (essence/existence) - limited beings existing here and now (form/matter) - limited beings existing as self-identical through change (substance/ accidents) b. Every being of our experience must be so structured to undergo change: - every changing being must require within it a real metaphysical composition of two principles related to each other as potency to act . This general structure of act-potency is particularized according to two main types of change: substance-accident , form-matter . c. But being does not contain within itself its sufficient reason for existing. - Every being that begins to exist requires an efficient and a final cause. d. Metaphysical inquiry leads us to an ultimate source, a self-sufficient Being pointing to nothing beyond itself to another. About BEING . . .
5. We are now in a position to step back and draw it all together in a single synoptic “world vision,” inspired by St. Thomas, summing it all up in that very old, very rich archetypal symbol of journey : Universe as Journey . The image that Thomas uses to describe this journey is the Great Circle of Being all creatures (the Many) pour out of their Infinite Source (the One) in creation, then in the search for their own fulfillment are drawn back again to their Source as to their final home and completion .
6. First Phase: The Journey Out . In the act of creation . . . the vast multitude of finite creatures pour out from their Infinite Source the Many from the One – each a limited participation in its own unique way (and so an imperfect image) of the original plenitude of being and goodness. Here the whole structure of the universe unfolds in all its levels of perfection – our material universe doing this by a slow process of evolution in time and space. In this phase God acts as the ultimate Efficient Cause : the one who brings all things into existence. Once launched into existence, each finite being has at its core a dynamic act or energy, its act of existence, in virtue of which it tends naturally to overflow into self-expressing, self-communicating action, each according to the characteristic modes of action allowed it by its essence. This unified dynamic system of interacting, interrelated beings, turned toward each other to form one interconnected universe ( universum = turned toward unity), a multi-faceted, though always imperfect, image of God.
7. Second Phase: The Journey Back . No sooner are creatures launched into existence and action than their Source begins to draw them back to itself by the pull of the good. This is manifested in each one by its natural drive for its own fulfillment according to its nature, i.e., towards its own good . This natural attraction for the good , coming from deep within the nature of each being, is the work of God as the ultimate Final Cause of the universe. For just as all finite beings are limited participations in Infinite Being, their Source, so too all finite goods are limited participations in the Infinite Good, and thus are implicitly drawn through the pull of their own good toward this Infinite Fullness as the one ultimate final goal of the whole universe, drawing all things to itself, to participate (each in its own way) in its own Infinite Plenitude.
8. What is the meaning of this whole vast system as a unified whole? It can only be for the sake of rational beings, i.e., beings endowed with conscious intelligence, capable of understanding and appreciating the gift given them through love . . . For irrational beings, however beautiful and filled with splendor they may be, are submerged in the darkness of unconsciousness and are totally oblivious of themselves and their Giver, so that they are totally unable to appreciate what is going on and respond to it. Hence, since God himself is already infinite and needs nothing further, it would be a total waste of time to create a universe without rational beings to appreciate it. It follows that the only point, purpose or motive for an infinitely rich, wise, and loving being to create a material universe must be to create it for rational beings, for persons, as a gift for them to understand, appreciate, and manage wisely, and so get to know themselves and the Giver behind it all, and thus finally find their way back home, by a wise journey through this world as a stepping stone, to loving communion with the Source from which they came in the first place.
9. But this created world is not given to us as a fully finished, perfect product, to be passively contemplated and enjoyed. It is given to us rough hewn, so to speak, filled with imperfections, pockets of disorder – especially of human origin – in a word, a project for us to actively work on and improve, with all the resources of our intelligence, creative imagination, and resolution of will, to make it a place fit to nurture the flourishing of human persons and slowly make shine forth in it the stamp of the image of God manifested in our world by the harmony and beauty of nature as a whole, in symbiotic harmony with the human community dwelling in it as a temporary home, and crowned by the harmony and beauty of loving human communities creating peace, harmony, and beauty within and around them in imitation of their Ultimate Source.
10. So the universe is given to created persons, like ourselves, as both a gift and a task, an unfinished project to carry through to completion, with intelligence and love.
11. Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created. PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
12. That is the final Meaning of the Universe , the Meaning of Being , by which we can set our own experience in a meaningful vision of the whole. This is the last word of Metaphysics relying on its own natural resources of reason. How to actually reach our final home, despite all the obstacles along the way and our own weakness, requires turning directly to the Giver for further light and help, which means a turning to religion – and its handmaid, theology. Metaphysics itself can only stand hat in hand at the door – expectant and hopeful for further light from Beyond.
