What is the purpose of life?

Started by Irishcyclist, April 13, 2018, 03:08:41 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Irishcyclist

This question - what is the purpose of life - has had me thinking a lot the last few days.

The reason for my thinking about this question is that in my country we're having a national referendum on the question of allowing abortion. I heard one person say that "giving the gift of life to someone else is the most precious gift anyone can give" (a sentiment I agree with).

I contrast this with a documentary I watched this week about one of the greatest ever soccer players - Christiano Ronaldo.
One segment of the documentary shows his 30th birthday party. The film shows a big party and people enjoying themselves. At the party there is a short film for the guests to watch about Ronaldo's life. I couldn't believe my ears when the short film shows a clip of Ronaldo's mother saying "When I was pregnant, I consider aborting the child (Ronaldo). If I did look at what the world would have missed out on?"
It is a shocking statement on so many levels. His mother wasn't saying that she was great for not having an abortion. She wasn't even trying to make a pro life statement. She was just talking to the camera in Portugese (perhaps something got lost in translation?).

These separate statements got me thinking about life and what is it supposed to be about.

But the deeper question might be "why am I here, and why am I to do with my life?"

So what is YOUR purpose in Life?

Sojourn

Peace be with you brother,

People often recite the famous line from the Baltimore catechism but I find it a profound question. I too have given this a lot of thought and perhaps my answer will be taylored more in ten years than it was ten years ago, but right now here are some feelings. There is certainly a spiritual dimension but I am a man called to keep a foot in this world and so I have a great yearning for fulfillment and personal development. Because these aren't spiritual ends I questioned their validity, but I personally do hold them legit. I think what Nietzche spoke of when he spoke of an ubermensch, that internal ideal of ourselves, or us at our full potential as God created us, is something to fulfill. I at least feel called to develop myself and see signs of divine providence working, even when I would not expect divine assistance. Search within yourself, I'm sure there is something you yearn for or seek to experience. Jump at that chance, go through it, even if at great cost to you it will make you stronger and providence  will sort things out. But I am a sinner and God knows best.
O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem!

Greg

I'm wondering why a non-existing soccer player would be missed.

Just kick balls around for entertainment.

I wish the person who would have lead the world back to sanity had not been aborted in 1970.
Contentment is knowing that you're right. Happiness is knowing that someone else is wrong.

Non Nobis

#3
Quote from: Sojourn on April 13, 2018, 03:42:28 PM
I at least feel called to develop myself and see signs of divine providence working, even when I would not expect divine assistance. Search within yourself, I'm sure there is something you yearn for or seek to experience. Jump at that chance, go through it, even if at great cost to you it will make you stronger and providence  will sort things out. But I am a sinner and God knows best.

I think God can lead you through your own yearning to develop yourself in the best way you know how. He doesn't just sort things out afterwards; He speaks to you (lets you know His will) through reason and your own heart, even if you think it is just coming from yourself.  Just keep praying and not acting outside your own duty of state, and trying to do God's will as well as you know it.   
[Matthew 8:26]  And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm.

[Job  38:1-5]  Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said: [2] Who is this that wrappeth up sentences in unskillful words? [3] Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and answer thou me. [4] Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding. [5] Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee! Save souls!


Sojourn

Quote from: Non Nobis on April 13, 2018, 05:10:42 PM
Quote from: Sojourn on April 13, 2018, 03:42:28 PM
I at least feel called to develop myself and see signs of divine providence working, even when I would not expect divine assistance. Search within yourself, I'm sure there is something you yearn for or seek to experience. Jump at that chance, go through it, even if at great cost to you it will make you stronger and providence  will sort things out. But I am a sinner and God knows best.

I think God can lead you through your own yearning to develop yourself in the best way you know how. He doesn't just sort things out afterwards; He speaks to you (lets you know His will) through reason and your own heart, even if you think it is just coming from yourself.  Just keep praying and not acting outside your own duty of state, and trying to do God's will as well as you know it.   

Peace brother, I can only say sometimes I am led to uncommon places, perhaps because the cure is in the poison.
O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem!

Larry

To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.
"At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love."-St. John of the Cross

Williamson1488

To seek truth. That's how I wound up where I'm at.

ServusMariae

I think universally, when it comes to figuring out our purpose in life - the Penny Catechism states the ovious: to know, love & serve God - but as it's an answer specially tailored to little kids, it's naturally alright to keep pondering on what we are truly meant to do. Gotta admit: I asked myself "what's my purpose in life?" ever since hitting my age of reason & froze into existential crisis every now & then. :P (aeons before I became Catholic) but over the years as I slowly nurtured from some free-spirited, free-thinking student going nowhere in high school to being a catechumen & eventually an official Catholic (& the years after Baptism), I've come to realize that self-development is a never-ending thing. We mere mortals are perpetually a masterpiece in progress seeking to find ways to love Him who made us, Him who gave life to our beings & Him who keeps loving us every minute of our lives. As what St. Augustine would put it: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you"

Nowadays, sticking by the chrism of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, I see my purpose boiled down into 3 goals: 1) to do everything for the love of Jesus through Mary; 2) save souls; 3) be a simple little slave with her whole life & fate thrown into the hands of the Good Mother ... & maybe become a Saint someday (because Singapore has none a canonized Saint, like 0) but above everything else, doing the Will of God .... so yeah, I like to keep things simple. :)

clau clau

3. Why did God make us?
God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him. (I Corinthians 2:9)

https://www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/lesson01.html
Father time has an undefeated record.

But when he's dumb and no more here,
Nineteen hundred years or near,
Clau-Clau-Claudius shall speak clear.
(https://completeandunabridged.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-claudius.html)

LausTibiChriste

Im pretty happy with life, even when its shit. And at the end of it all hopefully Heaven.

Without God there literally is no point. Im surprised more athiests dont blow their brains in the banality of a Godless existence
Lord Jesus Christ, Son Of God, Have Mercy On Me A Sinner

"Nobody is under any moral obligation of duty or loyalty to a state run by sexual perverts who are trying to destroy public morals."
- MaximGun

"Not trusting your government doesn't make you a conspiracy theorist, it means you're a history buff"

Communism is as American as Apple Pie

Sojourn

Quote from: LausTibiChriste on April 14, 2018, 02:42:17 AM
Im pretty happy with life, even when its shit. And at the end of it all hopefully Heaven.

Without God there literally is no point. Im surprised more athiests dont blow their brains in the banality of a Godless existence

Living and being are good and worthwhile within themself. This is why it's not surprising atheism doesn't lead staight to suicide. And conversly, people who believe in God only to avoid the existential chaos probably do nothat have an advanced form of faith. Sort of like going to mass out of fear of hell if missing it.
O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem!

MilesChristi

Quote from: LausTibiChriste on April 14, 2018, 02:42:17 AM
Im pretty happy with life, even when its shit. And at the end of it all hopefully Heaven.

Without God there literally is no point. Im surprised more athiests dont blow their brains in the banality of a Godless existence

I would hazard most atheists still have relatively functional bodies and are just approaching middle age if not younger.

I expect suicides to increase once that generation reaches 60+
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

GloriaPatri

It would be interesting to see if there's any correlation between religious belief (or lack thereof) and rate of suicides/suicide attempts.

MilesChristi

Quote from: GloriaPatri on April 14, 2018, 10:11:02 AM
It would be interesting to see if there's any correlation between religious belief (or lack thereof) and rate of suicides/suicide attempts.

I think it would depend on the motive for suicide.
Someone has to have done a study just based on the data already out there. Then again, it will probably be based upon self-reported religion
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.