The point of earthly existence is clearly and bluntly stated in Ecclesiastes. All is vanity, to be swallowed by death, with peace found in doing good. It seems to me that the purpose of all this is to grow in Christ, the one true living Way, to become ever-more Christ-like. So, it does not boil down to merely a gaining of personal knowledge. That is a vanity to gain intellectually, being always one small stroke from losing our capacity to use it. In paradise, one is in the presence of the living Truth. It is more real than the feeling of purposelessness, that comes from being disconnected from our true purpose. It is a state of communion with God through the giving of ourselves to Him, at the Centre of all that is.
The inherent knowledge of love that is our conscience needs to be informed. We cannot always discern what is good. The Ten Commandments was an important step in that direction. We lose faith, lie to ourselves and in different ways, find ourselves straying from its imperatives. We see the consequences of this disconnect, daily in our lives, and in the history of man’s struggles in this world. There needed to be not only a reaffirmation of God’s will, but the death and resurrection of the incarnate Son of God in order to save and redeem us.
Posting by phone; sorry for typos.
