By Father John Bayer, O. Cist.
Special to The Texas Catholic
What gives us motivation and energy? Our energy does not come simply from sleeping, eating, and exercising well. While such habits are important, Jesus reminds us of what we all know deep down: “Man does not live on bread alone” (cf. Mt 4:4; Dt 8:3). For we all know that even physically healthy people can sometimes struggle just to get out of bed if they lack awareness of the meaning of their lives.
Some philosophers think we can solve this problem all on our own, since they think we can simply create a meaning to motivate ourselves. Atheist philosopher Albert Camus seems to have thought that we could find some sort of happiness by just feeling ourselves to be the ultimate authors of our lives, even if we still thought our lives were ultimately pointless within the cosmos. Like Sisyphus (i.e., the figure from Greek mythology) endlessly pushing a boulder up a hill and watching it uselessly roll back down, we, Camus thinks, could at least feel superior to our pointlessness by seeing it and scorning it. Whatever meaning or life project we create for ourselves is doomed to unravel through the chaos of existence and the inevitability of death. But at least we can recognize the fact, and Camus seems to have hoped we could find at least some satisfaction this way. But as I read him, he reveals a deep anxiety when he writes, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
In “Introduction to Christianity” (Ignatius Press 2004), Joseph Ratzinger, the theologian who became Pope Benedict XVI, exposed how vain and unreasonable such a philosophy is. He wrote, “Meaning that is self-made is in the last analysis no meaning. Meaning, that is, the ground on which our existence as a totality can stand and live, cannot be made but only received” (73).
In other words, if having meaning is what motivates us — if it is the ground on which we stand — then we cannot create it for ourselves. If we stand on it, then we depend on it; therefore, we cannot think or will it into existence. It makes no sense to say, “We stand on the ground in order to build the ground on which we stand.” If it is the ground, then it is already there as a gift and not as our own creation.
OK, those paragraphs were perhaps pretty heady. Let me try to make the same point with an image.
Consider a basketball team preparing for a big game. Each player finds his happiness by fulfilling some role and thereby contributing to the success of the team. Now, imagine a coach who calls the players together to give them the big plan. Imagine that he gives a role to only four of the five players, and those four players, filled with a sense of their dignity and responsibility, prepare themselves with excitement to face the opposing team. After the huddle, the fifth player asks, “What about my role?” The coach replies, “You have been given no role. You are free to do whatever you like until time expires.”
Now, does anyone really think that the fifth player could enjoy anything worthy of being described as happiness, especially when compared to the excitement of the four who were given roles? If our lives have a satisfying meaning, then that meaning is in some way received from God and therefore integrated into his plan for the entire cosmos. It is not something we create in isolation. That’s why the verse I quoted from Jesus earlier has another and all-important part: “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Thanks be to God that he shares with us his Word, that he addresses each and every one of us and calls us all to play roles in his creation.
May we all learn to hear his voice and find our mission! God created each of us for a beautiful purpose. This is the mystery of our vocation. In life, we stand on the bedrock of his promise: We all belong here; we are all desired. The meaning of our lives is not upheld by anything frail but by the indomitable and all-embracing Word of the Creator.
If we are looking for motivation, let us find it in the Word of God. Let us look to him, and not to ourselves, for our purpose. No matter how small we sometimes feel, our lives are a part of his grand design.
Father John Bayer, O. Cist., is a monk at Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey in Irving.
Cutline for featured image: A meteor streaks past stars in the night sky in Grossmugl, Austria, Aug. 13, 2017. (CNS photo/Heinz-Peter Bader, Reuters)
