If we believe media hype and the typical behavior of other people, the answer to the question as to the meaning and purpose of life is to be better, have more, or do more than someone else. If we believe philosophers and spiritual leaders, however, we tend to come up with a different response, and one that argues a fundamentally different orientation than treating other people as either competition or accomplices.
Expressed in many different ways, the answer to the meaning and purpose of life from a philosophical or spiritual point of view (at least in the western tradition) is to become more fully yourself, that is, improve yourself so you fulfill the potential the Creator built into your nature; to conform yourself more closely to reality and thus to truth. This is because truth means conformity with reality.
Obviously, this answer applies to all faiths and philosophies; the first principle of reason is, That which is true is as true, and is true in the same way as everything else that is true. All faiths and philosophies have some measure of truth, although it must be carefully noted that saying all faiths and philosophies have some truth is not to say they are all equally true or that there are no differences among them!
Now, the meaning and purpose of life is such a tremendous question we could spend a lifetime (as we are meant to do) answering it. Today, however, we won’t get so cosmic and will only look at how one commentator from one faith tradition — Fulton Sheen — answered it, at least according to one person’s opinion.
This does not imply the Center for Economic and Social Justice is a religious organization, much less a “Catholic” one, or that the Just Third Way is a religious movement. It only means as an organization and a movement, we have found the thought of Fulton Sheen in many ways consistent with the principles and goals of the Just Third Way — one of the reasons CESJ published the “Just Third Way edition” of Sheen’s Freedom Under God. So, without further bloviation, as our guest author would say, we present —
The Question That Burns
I. Why Do I Exist?
By Guy C. Stevenson
Why Do I Exist? Reason is always aiming — setting up little targets in every life. Purposes, goals, ambitions. Every human being will, like an arrow, strain to hit the mark. Yet in an age of infinite distractions and instant answers, the one question that could set our lives ablaze — Why do I exist? — is often left unasked, buried beneath the noise of utility and survival. As Fulton Sheen said,
Behind all purposes is one great purpose, which is given in answer to the question: “Why do I exist?” That is a question very few ever ask themselves. They would not have a ten-cent gadget in their homes for five minutes without knowing its purpose, but they will go through life without knowing why they are living. Until we answer that question there is no question worth answering; and the way we answer it determines our character in this world and our destiny in the next. … The best way of finding out why a thing was made is to go to its maker. “Why did God make you?” and the Maker gives the answer: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this world, and to be eternally happy with Him in the next.” — Fulton J. Sheen, Freedom Under God, 1940, 22-23
Fulton J. Sheen’s indictment is not merely rhetorical. It is prophetic. He reminds us we would never tolerate purposelessness in a tool, yet we tolerate it in ourselves. That contradiction is not benign — it is a spiritual emergency for people of all faiths and philosophies.
To ask why is to begin the journey from mere existence to destiny, and Sheen does not leave us wandering. He points us to the Maker — not as metaphor, but as origin and end. As Sheen notes in words which, while “Catholic” in origin, are universal in application, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him in this world, and to be eternally happy with Him in the next.”
This is not a slogan. It is a summons. In a world which measures a person’s worth by productivity or by possession or control of wealth or other people, Sheen’s answer reclaims the soul’s primacy, that is, of the true essence of what it means to be human, regardless of one’s beliefs:
To know God is to reclaim wonder.
To love Him is to reorder our affections.
To serve Him is to sanctify our labor.
And to be eternally happy with Him is to remember that joy is not a luxury — it is our inheritance.
So, to the reader who dares to ask, “What is my purpose?” — know this: you are not a gadget. You are not a statistic. You are not a consumer. You are a soul, fashioned by a Creator Who is Truth Incarnate, who longs to be known, loved, and served by you. Your existence is not random — it is radiant with meaning simply because you are a human being, regardless of what you have, who you know, or what you believe. People do not change Truth, Truth changes people.
Thus, behind all purposes is one great purpose. This purpose is given in answer to the question: Why do I exist? As Sheen noted in Freedom Under God in words which apply across the board to everyone regardless of faith or philosophy, “Until we answer that question there is no question worth answering; and the way we answer it determines our character in this world and our destiny in the next.”
And that is what we will look at in the second part of this article.
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