I’ve had a fairly intense spiritual weekend this weekend. I watched a couple of movies that (regardless of how good the movies are) got me to thinking about deep topics. I watched “United 93″ and “Artificial Intelligence. ” Both have their good and bad points. The movies aren’t the point. The point is I came to realize the Meaning of Life this weekend. Seriously. I’ll tell you, just keep reading.
There are two aspects to the answer. They’re the answers to the questions “Why was I created,” and “What is my purpose?”
The first question is one of existence itself. What sustains us as living, real, vital persons? What defines me as being? What, if it were taken away, would cause me to not exist? I’ll give you a clue, it’s not “I think therefore I am.”
The second question has to do with the purpose of my existence. What am I here to do? What should I be working for? Why keep going?
And the Meaning of Life is…The answer to the first question, “Why was I created,” is to be Loved. I’m an Orthodox Christian, and the answer lies in the teachings of the Church. Spielberg got it right at the cheesy end of “Artificial Intelligence” too. God created us to love us. Not because God needs anything or because He lacks anything. There is a superabundance of love among the Persons of the Trinity. God is Love. Out of this abundance of Relationship mystically within the Trinity, creation was formed to be Loved. It is God’s Love that sustains creation’s existence. We exist, ultimately because God Loves us. Steven got it right in the movie too, when the little robot kid “became a real boy” when his “mother” told him she loved him. That’s it. Love makes us real.
The answer to the second question, “What is my purpose” is to Love. We were created for the purpose of Loving God and our neighbor as ourselves (so the Gospel says). Love of neighbor as yourself, doesn’t mean “love your neighbor in the way that you have first loved yourself,” but “love your neighbor as being yourself.” It is in the relationship of love of another that we are made whole, and fulfill our human potential. Alone, we are not who we were meant to be. Think back to the garden. Man alone was the first “not good” in creation. He needed someone to love. Woman was created and together they would be fulfilled. The love relationship of Man and Woman corrected this “not good” and made it “good.” Only in relationship, loving God and our neighbor, we are fulfilled.
Find someone to Love. If you don’t feel like anyone Loves you, I’m truly sorry. Start with God who Loves you (you know this because of the answer to the first question… you exist because you are Loved!). Begin with that realization, and out of that confidence, Love others, no matter who they are. Start with those closest to you, and Love them. Practice Love so that you can even Love those that don’t Love you.
The Meaning of Life is, “God Loves, therefore I am. I am, therefore I Love.”