Of the End and Good Intention That We Ought to Have in Our Actions

We. have considered how vanity and regard for the opinion of men are to be avoided in the actions that we do if we would keep aloof from evil. Now we will consider the end and intention that we ought to have in them, which is the greater honor and glory of God. The blessed St. Ambrose applies to this purpose what naturalists tell of the eagle, that the test that he uses to know his young, whether they be legitimate or spurious, is to take them in his talons and expose them hanging in mid-air to the rays of the sun; and if they look fixedly at it without winking, he takes them for his own and returns them to the nest and rears them; but if he sees that they cannot look fixedly at the sun, he takes them for no offspring of his and lets them fall to the ground. Now in this it shall be known if we are true sons of God, if we look fixedly at the true Sun of Justice, that is, God; directing to Him all that we do, so that the end and aim of all our actions is to please and satisfy God and do in them His most holy will. This agrees well with what Christ our Redeemer says in the Gospel: Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and my sister and my mother (Matt. xii. 50).

We read of one of those ancient Fathers that at every action which he wished to set about he paused a little while; and when asked what he was doing, he answered: “Look you, our actions of themselves are worth nothing if we do them not with a good end and intention; and as the marksman, to hit the mark, stops, pausing a little while, looking and taking aim, so I, before I do any good work, ordain and direct my intention to God, Who ought to be the end and aim of all our actions; and that is what I am doing at the time of my pause.” Now that is what we ought to do. Put me as a seal on thy heart (Cant. viii. 6). And as the marksman, better to make sure of his mark, shuts his left eye and looks only with his right, that his sight may be more collected and not distracted nor end by looking in many directions, so we ought to shut the left eye of human and earthly considerations and open only the right by a good and right intention, and in this manner we shall hit the mark and come home thereby to the heart of God. Thou has wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes (Cant. iv. 6).

To speak more clearly and descend more to particulars in this matter, I say that we should endeavor to refer and direct all our actions to God. And in this there is greater and less. In the first place, at rising we should offer to God all the thoughts, words, and actions of that day and beg Him that all may be for His glory and honor, so that afterwards, when vainglory comes, we may answer with truth: “You come too late; that is already given away.” And further, we should not be satisfied with offering and referring actually to God, when we rise, all that we are to do that day, but we should try to accustom ourselves as far as we can never to start anything that is not actually referred to the glory of God. And as the stonecutter or mason at work upon a building is wont to hold the plummet or rule in his hand and to apply it to every stone or brick that he lays, so we ought to regulate and direct every action that we do by this rule of the will and greater glory of God. And further, as the workman is not content with applying the rule or plummet once at the beginning, but applies it again and again until the stone is well and completely laid, so we must not be content with referring to God once for all at the beginning the actions which we do, but also during the time of doing them we should do them in such manner as to be always offering them to God, saying: “Lord, it is for Thee that I do this, because Thou commandest it, because Thou willest it.”