802. That our purposes determine our place is also clear from the fact that whenever people are looking to a personal goal, such as themselves, or something connected with themselves, even if they are benefiting the community, so that the common good is thus served, they are still not at all rewarded for that, because their motive was not the common good, but a personal goal. It is same as when devils are striving for the harm and destruction of a person, of society, and of the human race, and the Lord turns it into something good and salutory: yet that devil who had had an evil, a most evil, intention, remains nevertheless a devil, and becomes worse.
802. That ends are what dispose can also be evident from the fact that if anyone regards a particular end - such as Himself, or anything similar - then even though he act well for the sake of society in general that the common good may thence result, he is nevertheless not rewarded on that account, for he had as his end, not the common good, but his particular good. Thus when devils intend evil and the utter destruction of man, of society, and of the human race, and the Lord turns it into the good and welfare of mankind, then he who had an evil and most wicked end still remains a devil, and becomes worse.
802. Quod fines disponant, etiam constare potest inde, quod si aliquis finem spectat particularem 1
, sicut semet, et simile quid, tametsi bene agat pro communi societate, nempe ut inde resultet bonum commune, nusquam tamen inde remuneratur, nam non habuit commune pro fine, sed particulare 2
, sicut cum diaboli intendunt malum et internecionem hominis, societatis, generis humani, et Dominus id in bonum et salutem vertit, tunc usque ille qui malum et pessimum finem habuit, diabolus permanet, et deterior fit.
Footnotes:
1. intellexerim privatum, proprium (significatio postclassica)
2. vide annotationem a