Eighteenth of Year C
August 2007
A man was beaten up by robbers on a road to London. He lay there, half dead and in bad shape. A vicar came along, saw him and passed on the other side. Next, a monk came by but also walked past quickly on the other side. Finally, a social worker came along, looked at the man and said 'whoever did this needs help!'
However odd I may be or however odd my fellow human beings may be, my life is meaningful insofar as it is related to other persons: to my fellow human beings and to God. I cannot imagine what life would be like if I was completely on my own.
One man who experienced this was Alexander Selkirk when he was marooned on a small island, for a long period, in the days of the sailing ships. He wrote:
'0 solitude where are the charms the sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms than reign in this horrible place.'
I can be surrounded with all the good things of life but to what end if I have nobody to share them with, to discuss them with, to admire them with, to give them to, to leave them to? Interaction with others is the essence: the warp and woof, of life. What on earth would we talk about if we didn't talk about each other?
The great milestones of my life are the blossoming of a relationship or the demise of a relationship. If I do not believe in God then all my relationships, good and bad, are doomed to end with death. If there is no life after death then all the time, energy, emotion, joy, love, frustration, which I have put into my relationships with others will disappear and be lost for ever, just like all my material possessions and the effort expended in acquiring and keeping them, is lost for ever.
It is only if God exists that all my relationships with others make sense, for then I know that these relationships will continue to exist, will continue to develop and grow into the future of a life after death. Life with God can be difficult enough. Life without God seems meaningless.