(The Nationalist, 26 August 2005)
Jesus had a way of asking searching questions. One of them was: ‘What good will it do someone to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul?’ It used to be a favourite opening night question of parish missioners.
The word “soul” means “self”. The self is that which makes you to be you, and me to be me.
Jesus asks about priorities. It is not difficult to know what they are: all we need do is look at how we spend our time and money, what most fully engages our interest.
Is our life self-centred, self-sufficient, self-satisfied or just plain selfish? It is easy to close in on oneself, to allow the great devouring Ego, the almighty I, the magnetic Me, to become an unholy trinity, to swallow up concern for anyone else. Is any life more wasted than a self-centred one? I cannot think of any.
Saint Augustine wrote, ‘You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts will know no rest until they rest in you’. Without being centred on God, there is no centre, or focus, that satisfies. There are bogus substitutes, like addictions; they leave us tired and empty. We were made for greatness; to leave God out is to settle for smallness. We were made for the fullness of justice, truth and freedom; without God all we have are our helpless, inadequate attempts. We were made for relationships; in independence there is only isolation, a joyless grey, without laughter. We were made for what is genuine; apart from God, we have only the trivial and second-rate.
We were made for others; to live for the self is the ultimate betrayal. Hell is knowing that I was made for others, especially The Other – God – while also knowing that I have instead chosen the narrowness of the self.
Jesus said, ‘Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it’. The experience of life bears out the truth of this. There is no self-fulfilment without self-denial. The happiest people are those who think of others and care for them; the least happy are the self-absorbed. The gospel is full of paradoxes that disclose their truth to those who search for it.
Where God is the supreme good, then all lesser goods are not diminished, but acquire fuller life.
For those in a hurry: Lord God, I know that if I do not love you with all my heart, my mind, my soul and strength, I will love something else with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. Grant that, putting you first in all my loving, I may be liberated from all lesser loves and loyalties, and have you as my first love, my chief good and my final joy. (From George Appleton)