One must consider what man's purpose is. We have eternal souls; thus, our purpose is something eternal, not limited and finite. We look at our highest and unique powers as men: we are rational beings, we can live in relationship with other persons, and we have free will. It seems then that our purpose would be found in knowing, loving, and freely acting for the greatest good. If God is God, he is perfect; He is omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal. He would be that which is the greatest good. Thus, our purpose in life would be to know, love, and freely serve God in this life so that we may be happy eternally with Him in the next. How beautiful that our purpose as human beings is a loving relationship with our Creator, the Person who knows and loves us most intimately and who desires our good more than any other!
Knowing another requires selflessness. Loving is not authentic if one is not willing to sacrifice for the beloved. And free will is not free in a man with an eternal soul if he is forced to a particular action or alliance in the after-life. Our free choices here on earth, demonstrated by our actions, will show how we desire to spend our eternity. God will not force us to chose the highest good--that which will make us truly happy. He will not force us to love; that would violate His gift of free will. But He, like any good parent, deeply desires us to chose a relationship with Him.
If we know who God is, if we love God, we will chose to sacrifice lower goods and comforts for His sake. In suffering as a mode of sacrifice, we allow Him to transform us more closely into His image and likeness (Goodness in essence) while preserving our unique identities as individual human beings. Through the grace of God (since we can never "earn" eternity or be "owed" a relationship with God), we can, through our sacrifice, show our receptivity to accept the gift of happiness that is extended to us by our loving God. This dynamic is reflected in a woman who shows by her loving actions her receptivity to a man who initiates a personal relationship with her. She is not "owed" his particular attention and love, but she can actively accept it and return that love to the best of her ability.
Christ taught and modeled the self-sacrificial path to heaven. His sacrifice enabled us to enter into a relationship with the Father. By uniting our imperfect sacrifices (for no Christian is perfect!) with His perfect one, we show by our emulation our desire for God. Our sacrifices can then help, with Christ's, to restore balance and justice to a broken world. Christ's Cross was followed by the ultimate defeat of death (the punishment for sin) through his bodily Resurrection. Christ destroyed death's ultimate power over man. [Allow that to sink in for a moment.]
Our freedom to transform our meaningless sufferings into loving sacrifices allows us to hope in a eternity of peace and happiness beyond anything we've experienced here on earth. Christ has not promised us an easy path here on earth. He said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." (Mk 8:34-35) But He did promise help to bear our own crosses well. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (Jn 14:27) If we can learn to embrace our crosses and to pursue goodness in the face of trials for the sake of love, Christ says, "And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." (Jn 14:3-4)
While we live in hope of the peace and joy to come, an embrace of our daily trails (as severe as they may be) also enables us to help others who suffer. When we are less focused on our own difficulties, we have room in our hearts and in our schedules for those who suffer physically, emotionally, and morally around us. Our quiet acceptance of our own crosses can teach them to bear theirs with greater strength and meaning; our gift of self to God through our service to members of His creation creates harmony and solidarity on earth. The loving relationships that stem from an authentic sympathy (the root words mean "to suffer with") between men give us a foretaste of the selfless, reciprocal relationships we are promised in heaven. This life-giving spirit within a community is certainly cause for great hope and joy!
We're almost done!
Image: http://www.wga.hu/art/g/greco_el/08/0811grec.jpg
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