The Meaning of Life

the unicorn

 Is it useless to ask for the meaning of life? Or is it arrogant to pretend that one can try to answer that? For many, "The Meaning of Life" suggests hardly more than the Monty Python film in 1983. On the whole, the answers given to the meaning of life are specimens of bird-brained commonsense: "the meaning of life is life itself", "live, laugh, love", "don't worry, be happy". 

There are occasions when the search for meaning of life becomes urgent, as when one loses a close friend or a family member, ends up in a divorce, or has serious health issues. In that case it is of no use philosophizing about the perennial question of the meaning of life: "Look, many religions and philosophies have pondered about it, and, ultimately, there is no answer. Go on with your life and try to make the best of it." In an existential situation (as a Tillich or a Kierkegaard would call it) there has to be an answer, or if there is none, it should be made up.

Nat King Cole sung: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn / Is just to love and be loved in return." I guess few people would disagree with that. Then again, it is necessary to define what does "love" precisely mean. In the popular media, songs and movies the term indicates mainly romantic or sexual relationships. As important as they are, they hardly qualify for the ultimate meaning of life, supposed that the meaning of life is something available for everybody. There are a significant amount of people who never have a romantic relationship. (On the other hand, is it really necessary that the meaning of life should be universal, in any sense of the word? Perhaps there are many possible meanings of life. However, I do not follow here this line of thought.) 

I stick to love as the meaning of life. I hope that I have no need to prove that fame and fortune make a poor aim of living. However, I augment the scope of love with the words of the Great Commandment; "You shall love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." For a Christian theologian, my answer is hardly surprising. Yet I claim that the Great Commandment has several benefits that make it truly a major (probably the best) nominee for the meaning of human life (besides, subhuman or superhuman forms of life are not excluded). 

To love God and neighbor is universally possible: it is attainable for everybody, regardless of his/her mental capacities, economic status or physical or social restraints. Indeed, to love one's neighbor through the love of God is possible in solitude. 

Sometimes I have heard this commandment with other words: "Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself." This phrasing is a bit unfortunate, since it makes love of God and love of neighbor two separate things that eventually compete with another. It is not possible to love God without loving one's neighbor. The New Testament is very straightforward in this matter: 

 If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.(1 John 4, 20)

Is it possible to love one's neighbor without loving God, then? On the surface it looks like a genuine possibility: we do know people who have no belief in God, yet perform acts of unselfishness toward other people. There are at least two viable answers to this dilemma (if it is a dilemma) from the Christian point of view.

First, one can maintain, that God has instilled the ability and desire to love in human heart categorically, as a part of being human, so that it does not depend on one's opinion of God. In that regard it is like breathing, something that takes place instinctively. Understood that way, one can still say that one can not love neighbor without the love of God.

Second, it is possible to consider the true love of neighbor as something that ultimately needs faith in God. Without God our love becomes a moralistic endeavor in which we try to master our neighbor's life. Faith in God gives us a perspective through which we can understand, or at least hope or imagine, that there is truth, meaning, or beauty in our neighbor's life even when it fails our prospects and looks like a disaster. God knows best. However, that does not mean mental or moral laziness in view of the pain of another. Prayer as a dimension of love never succumbs to catastrophes of life, such as violence, desperation, or death.

I am particularly fond of the words "with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength." These words convey the idea that the meaningful life is not a mere matter of thought, a philosophy of life, or a principle. You don't have to be a contemplative person to live a fully meaningful life. Give everything you have - no less, no more. Give that what you have got. There is no mimimum impact. The Great commandment is possible for everyone to accomplish. A severely handicapped person or a person with meager economic resources is equally apt to love God and neighbor with all his/her strength and soul.

For all my serious theological ponderings above, I have still to relate the following story: Merete Mazzarella told that she asked Axel Lewenhaupt, a Swedish diplomat, at the latter's 100-year birthday, what he thought about the meaning of life. "I've had no time to think about that", was the answer. Somehow it does not sound that bad. Thinking about the meaning of life is a luxury (or misery) of having too much leisure.