"What is the meaning of Life?"

[jmcrae]

Baltimore Catechism
God made me to know, love and serve Him in this world, and to be eternally happy with Him in the next.

 

[cecilia97]

Hello,

What are the Catholic answers to the following questions?:

“What is the meaning (or purpose) of life?”
“Why did God create man?”

Could anyone recommend any apologetics or theological sources/references which discuss this topic?

The answer to both used to be taught in CCD classes: To know God, to love God, and to serve God, and to worship Him in heaven forever.

That’s why we’re here.

 

[cecilia97]

What is the meaning of life?

42, of course. Gotta love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

 

[jmcrae]

Can you explain? I’m not sure what the serious point is.

Another way to phrase it is, “Life is not a test. It is an actual emergency.”

Meaning, things are not perfect. Don’t sit around waiting for them to become perfect, but get on with whatever you were going to do when you win the lottery, get married, get divorced, get a job, retire, have kids, when the kids grow up, etc. Don’t wait until then. Do it now.

 

[inocente]

Can you explain? I’m not sure what the serious point is.

jmcrae – thanks, couldn’t have put it better.

The Message was read to Marvin, now blind and near death. He had never once appreciated the gift of his life.

“I think”, he murmured at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, “I feel good about it”.

The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.

So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams

Redemption, you just got to love it.

 

[Gloria1]

If we were born just to die then life has no meaning at all. We were born to live. We may die but we were born to live so we will live again even in death. God is the giver of life and the only meaning to life. Without God, life has no meaning at all. To answer your question, Life has a meaningful and that meaning is “GOD”.

 

[Leela]

If we were born just to die then life has no meaning at all.

I don’t think that this answer is anything close to an answer. If there is an afterlife, we can just as well ask, what is the meaning of the after life?

 

[StrawberryJam]

Love.

Would everyone agree with the definition of love you have?

 

[4Horsemen]

Another way to think about the “meaning of Life” is to first believe that God is the author and architect of life. He gives us life because He loves. He gives us love as the pathway to Him having first loved us to the point that He gave His life for us by sending His Only-Begotten Son into the world. He is Love itself and wants our love in return, just as parents want their children’s love in return. We find meaning when we discover how to love God. First it is an act of the will. God rewards our efforts, so we continue to seek Him. He tells us in Scripture that “when you seek Me with all your heart, you will find me.” It seems so simple, yet so pure. Just to love and to be loved. A wonder to behold!

To begin to comprehend what God has intended for those who love Him, read the great spiritual books by St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Faustina and so many others.

 

[Leela]

On this much I think we can all agree:

It seems so simple, yet so pure. Just to love and to be loved. A wonder to behold!

 

[4Horsemen]

On this much I think we can all agree:

To love and to be loved by another human being is an awesome thing, but to love and be loved by God our Creator is breathtakingly awesome!!!

 

[StrawberryJam]

To love and to be loved by another human being is an awesome thing, but to love and be loved by God our Creator is breathtakingly awesome!!!

This is your own purely emotional reaction, or something else?

 

[Leela]

To love and to be loved by another human being is an awesome thing, but to love and be loved by God our Creator is breathtakingly awesome!!!

Is it really? Jesus said we are supposed to recognize a Christian by their love, but I have never noticed anything breathtaking or awesome about the love of Christians in general as distinct from the love of nonChristians (though of course I have met breathtaking and awesome people among believers and unbelievers). The Christians I have known before and after they were born a new being in Christ seem pretty much the same people to me other than their talk about how they were transformed, so the awesomeness you meantion just sounds like bluster to me.

Besides, as for the awesomeness of loving God, according to the scriptures the second of Christ’s commandments is the same as the first and parable of the sheep and the goats makes it clear that one who loves others also loves God whether she knows it or not. And as for being loved by God, certainly grace abounds and God’s nourishing rain falls on the just and the unjust.

In short, despite what you say above, I don’t think you have anything that I don’t have, and I am sure that Charlemagne and Reggie don’t have anything that I want.

 

[4Horsemen]

This is your own purely emotional reaction, or something else?

Partly correct. Yes, it is an emotional response to God’s love for me and what He has done in my life, which I used to totally overlook (and not even believe as I had been astray from the Church for several years). Sometimes He works in subtle ways and sometimes He surprises me so that I am left in wonderment at His works, His veritable design in my life. He gives as much as we expect. He relates to us in the way we desire, if we truly believe and trust in His Divine Mercy.

 

[4Horsemen]

Is it really? Jesus said we are supposed to recognize a Christian by their love, but I have never noticed anything breathtaking or awesome about the love of Christians in general as distinct from the love of nonChristians (though of course I have met breathtaking and awesome people among believers and unbelievers). The Christians I have known before and after they were born a new being in Christ seem pretty much the same people to me other than their talk about how they were transformed, so the awesomeness you meantion just sounds like bluster to me.

Besides, as for the awesomeness of loving God, according to the scriptures the second of Christ’s commandments is the same as the first and parable of the sheep and the goats makes it clear that one who loves others also loves God whether she knows it or not. And as for being loved by God, certainly grace abounds and God’s nourishing rain falls on the just and the unjust.

In short, despite what you say above, I don’t think you have anything that I don’t have, and I am sure that Charlemagne and Reggie don’t have anything that I want.

It is a shame that so many Christians are mediocre in their faith. God says in Scripture that we should be either hot or cold, but the lukewarm He will spew from His mouth. Of course there are Christians who are just Christians because of pragmatic reasons or having been born into a “Christian” family. The same is true of other people born into other faiths. A song goes, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love . . . ,” but this isn’t always the case. Personally, I try not to make judgments, but it’s only human to judge the character of a person by his/her actions. As for me, I look for the Shepherd; He is our model. Follow Christ. Read His words in Scripture. Fall in love with Him. I did, when I came back to Him, although He had never ceased calling me and looking for this lost sheep.

Yes, God sends His rain (in the physical and spiritual sense) on all of His children–the “just and the unjust.” His “rain” is His “grace.” He seeks all of His children regardless of where they are in life. Religions, other than the Catholic Church, retain certain truths (for example, monotheism), but the Catholic Church contains the fullness of the faith–all doctrine and revelation given by God and revealed in Christ.

I don’t have all of the answers, but I know that God is working in my life and has even revealed Himself in ways that make me love Him more and more. Pray and trust. I have a tendency to look for signs, like I needed to know about something that was bothering me spiritually. Even if I explained the events, they would probably only be accepted by those who, themselves, had spiritual awakenings, and, even then, skepticism will enter as a grievous temptation.

P.S. You might want to check with Charlemagne and Reggie, though. Maybe you truly want what they have.

Like a bumper sticker sports: “The answer is Jesus.”

 

[Leela]

Like a bumper sticker sports: “The answer is Jesus.”

If this is an answer, it is an answer to a question that I don’t have.

I don’t have to look any further than the conscious participation in the joys and sorrows of this world for meaning in life. When you stop to think about it, it is astonishing that we don’t walk around continuously astonished by the beauty of the world.

 

[4Horsemen]

If this is an answer, it is an answer to a question that I don’t have.

I don’t have to look any further than the conscious participation in the joys and sorrows of this world for meaning in life. When you stop to think about it, it is astonishing that we don’t walk around continuously astonished by the beauty of the world.

Then let me ask you, what about the antithesis of life? Death? What is the meaning of our deaths? Or is there a meaning? For the Christian, death has lost its sting. We unite our death to the death of Jesus, our God and King, who will raise us up jus as He was raised.

For the great saints, death was a friend, a passing into eternity full of love. A book I’m reading called Descending Fire–the Journal of a Soul Aflame by Jean Petit describes the fire in the soul that will consume it. He calls death “that blessed day” and says your life “instead of being brought to an end by a natural cause, your last hour will be a death through love.” St. Faustina has made similar statements in her diary.

I don’t think we can fully comprehend the meaning of life without considering the “Last Four Things”: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. Without the cross, life and death have no real meaning. Life would then be a series of events and emotions essentially disconnected. There is no theme, as with the Christian life. As said, the theme, or purpose, or raison d’etre (here’s hoping my French is semi-correct) for the Christian is the cross.

 

[Leela]

Then let me ask you, what about the antithesis of life? Death? What is the meaning of our deaths? Or is there a meaning? For the Christian, death has lost its sting. We unite our death to the death of Jesus, our God and King, who will raise us up jus as He was raised.

Death is a real problem for humans and one we try to stave off with medical advances. Life is finite, and we usually want more of it than we have. This is true not only in facing death but in life. We constantly seek to enrich the experience of being alive through art, music, intellectual endeavors, personal relationships, travel, and religion. Death means the end of life. For some, it also means the beginning of a new life, but I doubt that anything cool happens after death. I assume all my memories will be lost forever as the brain that stores them decomposes, and I assume that my ability to process information will also cease at that point. (We of course know that when the brain is injure, people lose memories and various intellectual abilities depending on what part of the brain in affected.) What do you suppose existence will be like in Heaven without the memories and the ability to process information? I don’t have a strong enough imagination to worry about such an afterlife and whether or not one exists or worry about whether or not there exists a soul–that supposed essence of me that is supposed to contain what is most fundamental about me but does not include any properties (accidents) of me whatsoever. I can’t fathom what such an existence with no properties would be like. And I can’t imagine an existence that is eternal–that stands outside of time. So instead of pursuing such things that I can’t even fathom let alone figure out why I would want to pursue them, I concern myself with enriching life and being good to those who are alive and making a better world for those who are not yet born-- a world where my great great great great grandchildren will be able to flourish like no one has ever before just as I have flourished in ways unimaginable to my ancestors.

For the great saints, death was a friend, a passing into eternity full of love.

Really, I assumed that Christians try to avoid death like everyone else. But I suppose I can understand the desire, utterly exhausted and satisfied after a job well done, to go to sleep without a care if one ever wakes up again. I’ve been that tired before and felt that satisfied with the life I’ve lived.

A book I’m reading called Descending Fire–the Journal of a Soul Aflame by Jean Petit describes the fire in the soul that will consume it. He calls death “that blessed day” and says your life “instead of being brought to an end by a natural cause, your last hour will be a death through love.” St. Faustina has made similar statements in her diary.

Of course, some people die while enduring unimaginable pain at the end of a life of terrible suffering. I suppose that death for such people is equally as blessed.

I don’t think we can fully comprehend the meaning of life without considering the “Last Four Things”: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. Without the cross, life and death have no real meaning. Life would then be a series of events and emotions essentially disconnected. There is no theme, as with the Christian life. As said, the theme, or purpose, or raison d’etre (here’s hoping my French is semi-correct) for the Christian is the cross.

I agree on Death (but not on the other three things). I think one really ought to practice dying to learn to live just as Socrates prescribed for the philosopher.

 

[4Horsemen]

Death is a real problem for humans and one we try to stave off with medical advances. Life is finite, and we usually want more of it than we have. This is true not only in facing death but in life. We constantly seek to enrich the experience of being alive through art, music, intellectual endeavors, personal relationships, travel, and religion. Death means the end of life. For some, it also means the beginning of a new life, but I doubt that anything cool happens after death. I assume all my memories will be lost forever as the brain that stores them decomposes, and I assume that my ability to process information will also cease at that point.

I agree and add that death is an evil we, humans, try to avoid (Christian or not). It’s an evil because it is the result of the first sin, original sin, a grievous insult to the God who created us. If we believe that the purpose of life is to perfect ourselves, we will not fear the problems, temptations, illnesses and all sorts of human misery because we will see these happenings in our life as adventures sent by God. Nothing happens without the approval of God. However, He does not will evil, but allows it to obtain a greater good.

Because our memory is part of the soul, along with the intellect and will, you will not lose your memories. Even people who’ve had dementia on earth will know all there is to know. God will infuse knowledge, and, eventually, we will have our bodies back. St. Paul exclaimed that we cannot comprehend what "God has prepared for those who love Him.

(We of course know that when the brain is injured, people lose memories and various intellectual abilities depending on what part of the brain in affected.) What do you suppose existence will be like in Heaven without the memories and the ability to process information? I don’t have a strong enough imagination to worry about such an afterlife and whether or not one exists or worry about whether or not there exists a soul–that supposed essence of me that is supposed to contain what is most fundamental about me but does not include any properties (accidents) of me whatsoever. I can’t fathom what such an existence with no properties would be like. And I can’t imagine an existence that is eternal–that stands outside of time. So instead of pursuing such things that I can’t even fathom let alone figure out why I would want to pursue them, I concern myself with enriching life and being good to those who are alive and making a better world for those who are not yet born-- a world where my great great great great grandchildren will be able to flourish like no one has ever before just as I have flourished in ways unimaginable to my ancestors.

When we sacrifice something or offer up our trials of each day (small or major), we are dying little deaths. I look at each as a rehearsal before the final curtain call.

Some time ago, I made that one step in God’s direction (after a period of atheism) and was rewarded bountifully. Although I’m a cradle Catholic, I agree with the Protestants that we need to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior as a specific act of faith, stepping into faith. There are so many philosophers and theologians out there who can explain these things much better. I speak because the Holy Spirit prompts me to from the graces I’ve received.

 

[tonyrey]

We constantly seek to enrich the experience of being alive through art, music, intellectual endeavors, personal relationships, travel, and religion.

All of these are to a great extent intangible experiences and the most important are personal relationships which outlast death - even if you don’t believe in an afterlife. Your love does not disappear even if the one you love is no longer accessible.

Death means the end of life. For some, it also means the beginning of a new life, but I doubt that anything cool happens after death. I assume all my memories will be lost forever as the brain that stores them decomposes, and I assume that my ability to process information will also cease at that point.

Like our thoughts and emotions our memories are intangible. There is no reason to suppose they disappear when the brain decomposes - unless you are a reductive materialist who equates the mind with the brain. The brain is a physical instrument which simply processes information received by the senses but it does not know what it is doing nor even that it exists! It is not a conscious person but a biological machine.

(We of course know that when the brain is injured, people lose memories and various intellectual abilities depending on what part of the brain in affected.) What do you suppose existence will be like in Heaven without the memories and the ability to process information?

Without memories you would not be the same person and Heaven would be Hell! When the brain is damaged people lose their ability to communicate but that does not demonstrate that they no longer think and feel.

I don’t have a strong enough imagination to worry about such an afterlife and whether or not one exists or worry about whether or not there exists a soul–that supposed essence of me that is supposed to contain what is most fundamental about me but does not include any properties (accidents) of me whatsoever.

It is not necessary to think in terms of essence and accidents. All that matters is that a person is a self - an intangible, conscious entity. Without a self there is no such thing as self-control. We would be no more than bodies controlled by physical events.

I can’t fathom what such an existence with no properties would be like.

There’s no need to!

And I can’t imagine an existence that is eternal–that stands outside of time.

It is not necessary to imagine it. There are many realities we cannot imagine - such as infinity and

So instead of pursuing such things that I can’t even fathom let alone figure out why I would want to pursue them, I concern myself with enriching life and being good to those who are alive and making a better world for those who are not yet born-- a world where my great great great great grandchildren will be able to flourish like no one has ever before just as I have flourished in ways unimaginable to my ancestors.

In other words you appreciate the immense value of life, the beauty of nature, the reality of goodness and the power of love… spiritual realities which matter far more than physical pleasure and satisfaction.

Really, I assumed that Christians try to avoid death like everyone else. But I suppose I can understand the desire, utterly exhausted and satisfied after a job well done, to go to sleep without a care if one ever wakes up again. I’ve been that tired before and felt that satisfied with the life I’ve lived.

It is tempting to want to leave the world and forget all its misery and injustice but can we ever die feeling satisfied we have done all we can to help improve the lives of those in need?