Does life have meaning?

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Does life have any meaning? When things in life are going well and we are happy and content, the question of the purpose and the meaning of life really doesn’t matter. But this particular needling question does pop up when we hit a crisis, a season of depression or a time of change. Both during youth and old age, the question of life’s purpose and meaning becomes particularly relevant, but for different reasons. With an infinite future ahead and limitless possibilities and choices, the youth wonders what the purpose of his life is and what he should do – get married and raise a family, seek further education and a professional career, get a good-paying job, or a billion other options. The older person who is retired, perhaps widowed, watching friends and family die all around him, also wonders what the purpose and meaning of life is – but for a very different reason than the youth. Choices become more limited. Those things that used to give life purpose and meaning seem to be slipping away.

So what is the real purpose and meaning of life? Is it to make a lot of money and be successful? Is it to marry and raise a family? Is it to obtain lots of material possessions – fancy car, big house, a fat bank account? Is it to make lots of friends, be popular and socialise? But, is that all? Is there no greater meaning or purpose to this amazing gift of life? For some, maybe these sources of meaning and purpose are enough—even if they don’t quite fulfill. Why? Because there is something very deep within us that says there is more to life than any of these, that there is something very great and meaningful that we are here for. But what is that purpose?

Sigmund Freud said it bluntly, and he is right: “… only religion can answer the question of the purpose of life.” The Second Vatican Council also expressed something similar in the first paragraph of its Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate): “Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition, which today, even as in former times, deeply stir the hearts of men: What is man? What is the meaning, the aim of our life? What is moral good, what is sin? Whence suffering and what purpose does it serve? Which is the road to true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? What, finally, is that ultimate inexpressible mystery which encompasses our existence: whence do we come, and where are we going?” This Sunday’s first reading from Ecclesiastes also seeks to find an answer to these fundamental questions.

Ecclesiastes sets up the whole book as a kind of experiment, in which he searches for the meaning of life through a series of projects. He starts off searching for wisdom, but decides in the end that, “in wisdom is much vexation” (1:18). Then he moves on to pleasure and tries to find meaning in life by satisfying all of his base desires, but again “all was vanity and a striving after wind” (2:11). And then he turns to the third option, finding happiness in one’s labour, one’s achievements and even here he judges it as mere vanity. By this point, the author has already exhausted three possible routes to happiness, meaning and fulfillment: knowledge, pleasure and work. The gospel throws in a fourth option, wealth, and you have a “winning” or “losing” formula”: “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!”

Now, the meaning of “vanity” has changed over the centuries. For the modern man, vanity is synonymous to narcissism and excessive pride, both pervasive problems of our age. But the word “vanity” in this context has a different meaning. “Vanity” translated from the Hebrew hebel, which means “vapour” or “breath.” Of course the word is used here in a densely metaphorical sense, causing translators throughout the ages to struggle to capture the proper sense of the claim that all things are ‘fleeting’, ‘empty’, ‘futile’, ‘vain’, ‘absurd,’ or ‘meaningless’. So a modern rendering may sound like this, “Meaningless, meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”  All of this may seem depressing and fatalistic but it is notable that the Book of Ecclesiastes ends by urging the reader to place his trust in God as the only Eternal Being.

True, there is a widespread hunger for religion and various forms of spiritualities. This is evidence of the abiding human need to find meaning. But too often these “spiritual” solutions often prove to be either fraudulent or as fragile as the options the world offers – knowledge, pleasure, work and possessions – they all end in futility. In contrast, St Paul in the second reading points us to a vision of human reality based on Christ. We were buried with Christ in baptism, and raised with Him through faith in the power of God. Since we have been raised with Christ, we should “look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is sitting at God’s right hand.”  Of course, St Paul is not saying that we should become angels. That is not possible. But our present existence should be seen and lived in the light of 'heaven, where Christ is'.

Why is this heavenly perspective so crucially important, you might ask? This is because meaning is experienced as fulfillment. In other words, one who lives a meaningful life—i.e., a life which seeks to fulfill its purpose—is one who is fulfilled. And the fulfillment of a life well-lived is integral to our arriving at our destined end. What is our destined end? The answer to the second question of the Penny Catechism tells us: “We were made to know God, to love Him, to serve Him and be with Him in Paradise forever.” Every human being is destined for glory – we were created to be with Him in Paradise forever. Heaven is our destiny and therefore heaven is what ultimately gives life meaning.

Finally, the parable in our gospel today provides us with a stark and well needed reminder: If this world is all there is, then you will be disappointed. If you live in pursuit of the things of this world in an attempt to satisfy the longing of your soul, then you will die empty. Whatever you possess, you acquire, you achieve in this life, you would not be able to carry into the next. You see - the things of this world were never intended to ultimately satisfy. While their pleasures provide momentary satisfaction, in the end, you will be left wanting more. The things of this world are designed to point you to God and seek Him. This is because only God can truly satisfy. Life pursued apart from God is as futile as trying to catch the wind in a cup.

At the end of the day, when we do not place our priorities in their proper order, life starts to lose its meaning. Life is no longer a joy to live. Everything seem chaotic and meaningless. But when our life is in God’s order, life is a joyous adventure! Our Lord tells us that this is the proper order, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” What’s the first thing? God. What is the second thing? Everything else. It is important not to get the two confused. Because when God becomes the second thing, and other priorities become the first thing, we lose God, and then our lives get lost in meaningless living.

But when the Lord takes first place in our hearts, we will find that life is far from the meaninglessness. Instead, we discover in God that we are made for a beautiful eternal communion, the ultimate fulfillment of our nature, our purpose, our destiny. We now understand what St Teresa of Avila is trying to remind us,

“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing away:

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things

Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”

The Purpose of Life is ...

Eighteenth Ordinary Sunday Year C

One of the most memorable villains in cinematic history must be the enigmatic Mr Smith of the Matrix Trilogy, who constantly spews nihilistic philosophical lines questioning the purpose of life. His philosophical ramblings finally culminate in this fatalistic conclusion: “The Purpose of Life is to End.” During his final showdown with Neo, the hero and main protagonist of the story, his moral counterpart, Smith angrily dismisses causes such as freedom, truth, peace, and love as simply human attempts to justify a meaningless and purposeless existence, and is completely unable to comprehend why Neo continues to fight him despite the knowledge that he cannot win. Neo’s resilience and refusal to accept his fatal ‘end’, was clearly a monumental chink in the armour of his personal philosophy. Ironically, it is only at the very end of his virtual existence that Smith comes to realise the fallacy of the fatalistic ‘truth’ which drives him. He finally gets it. Neo, beaten and bloodied, provides him with the answer: “Because I choose to.” That is what sets Neo and other humans above the machines. It is the freedom of choice, the divine spark: to choose love or hate, to choose life or death, and finally to seek the things below or those above.

Today’s first reading introduces another piece of philosophical rumination which deals directly with the question of man’s existence. It asks and attempts to answer the question many people struggle with, ‘What is life all about?’ ‘What is man’s purpose in this life?’ Thus the Book of Ecclesiastes is a philosophical essay, attributed to being written by Solomon. The author wrote this book from the mistakes he made. He shares his own life’s search. The man had wisdom, riches, horses, armies, and women (that’s an understatement, he had lots of women). Yet, in the end Solomon declared everything to be vanity; in other word, pointless, worthless, meaningless, and purposeless. To pursue vanity is to chase after the wind. Starting with the well-known words, "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity," and repeating them in the last chapter after having taken us through all the vanities of life, the book contains the important lesson he learns from God, in a sort of ‘roundabout’ way. The Book ends by giving us the antidote of vanity: fear of the Lord and the observance of the moral law. It points out that the secret of a true life is that a man should consecrate the vigour and vitality of his youth to God.  All man’s efforts to find happiness apart from God are of no result. Without God, truly ‘all is vanity’. But with God, nothing is in vain.

In the gospel, we are given two examples of such earthly vanity  - the greedy brother and the rich man in a parable told by Jesus. A man in the crowd begins our story by putting this request to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.” The question sounds oddly familiar. I’ve seen how family battles over inheritance have set kith against kin. The law of primogeniture says (Num 27:1-11 Deut 21:15) that the first born gets a double portion. If you had two brothers, you divided the estate three ways and the oldest got two parts. So guess which son this is. His request suggests that he’s the youngest son. Greed has blinded him to place money above kinship.

Understanding the context of the disgruntled brother sets the stage for the parable. There is a comparison and contrast going on between the two characters in the parable and two characters outside the parable. The rich man in the parable is compared to the greedy brother in real life. Christ in real life acts as judge and arbiter, a role taken by God in the parable. Why is Jesus telling this parable about the rich man who had no greed to a greedy man? Jesus builds up the rich man as a good guy, a content man. This guy is just the opposite of the greedy man. What do we learn? Both thought that life consisted in ‘things’, that the end and purpose of their lives were the acquisition of such ‘things.’ Selfishness and self-satisfaction have blinded them to life’s ultimate purpose and end.

Both the greedy younger brother and the rich man, in their pursuit for wealth without realising that they risk losing everything in a single moment proves the point that ‘all is vanity.’ There is a major reversal in the parable – the man who thinks himself clever is proven foolish; the rich man ends up being poor to God. Notice the poetic justice.  The rich man, like the greedy brother and like so many of us, so obsessed in storing up treasures for ourselves in this place, acquiring knowledge, wealth, possessions and a list of achievements, finally lose sight of the fact that our ultimate goal is our own salvation – making ourselves ‘rich in the sight of God.’ The rich man is not condemned for his wealth or even his greed. His is condemned for forgetting the ultimate ‘end’ or purpose of his life is salvation. He had made no preparations for this. He was too busy investing in this world.

This parable speaks loudly to our generation, it speaks of the purpose of life and what defines it? Have you been defining life in your career, your house, your stock portfolio, in terms of your achievements, the knowledge you possess, the popularity you’ve gain, or the assumption that you will live much longer? What is going to happen when you lose one or more of those things? What happens when you get laid off? What happens when the stock market crashes? What happens when you get some disease which takes away your physical ability? What happens when your friends leave you? If you define life according to these things, you will be devastated. If these things have become the ‘end’ and purpose of your lives, the goals you are ultimately pursuing, the treasures you are seeking for, then the diagnosis is terminal – vanity of vanities, all is vanity!

St Thomas Aquinas teaches that the real end for which man is made is to be reunited with the goodness of God through virtuous behaviour as well as the use of reason in order to know and love God above all. In the words of St Augustine, “that is our final good, which is loved for its own sake, and all other things for the sake of it.” St Ignatius Loyola in setting out the First Principle and Foundation in his Spiritual Exercises writes, “The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his or her soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created. It follows from this that one must use other created things, in so far as they help towards one's end, and free oneself from them, in so far as they are obstacles to one's end.” Thus, the riches of this life are only potentially good. Their goodness is actualised when they serve the greater good – the glory of God and love of neighbour.

The irony we face is that many people would prefer to love the means rather than the end. Man need not just love bad things in order to be condemned to hell. As the old adage teaches us, “The road to hell is lined with good intentions.” Man can pervert his ultimate end by loving seemingly good things, which seem to bring happiness, and mistake these things for the actual, infinite source of happiness - God. Whenever we choose the lesser goods over the greater good, whenever we convert the means into the end, whenever our vision is obscured to see beyond what lies immediately before us, then we are in trouble. Everything comes down to the choice: do we choose these things as a means to the end, or do we choose them as a substitute for the end? Seek the Source of all Goodness, and not just the goods he dispenses. Desire the God of Miracles, not just hunger for the miracles of God. Long for the giver and not just the gifts. Our thoughts should be on the ultimate prize: Heaven. Things of this Earth either lead us to that prize or they may distract us from that and therefore should be placed in their proper place. When we trudge the road of happy destiny we must remember that the road is just a means to an end and not the destination itself.

In an ancient homily given by the father of Eastern monasticism, St Basil the Great assured Christians that when they are prepared to share wealth with the poor in this life, they will certainly reap the reward that is in store for them in heaven, “All the people will stand round you in the presence of Him who judges you all: they will acclaim you as the one who feeds the hungry and gives to the poor, they will name you as a merciful benefactor.” But when we avoid meeting people in case we might feel obliged to part with even a little of what we have and if we can only say, “I have nothing to give you. I am only a poor man,” then be prepared to receive this fate: “Indeed you are poor and utterly destitute. Poor in love, poor in humanity, poor in faith in God, and destitute of any hope of eternal happiness.”