Search for Meaning

Every human being has a drive to search for meaning in life, relationship, experience, career, vocation, faith, society, ethnic identity, among others. Ironically, one of the major problems in the people today, whether in the first world or third world countries, is the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives. We hear people committing suicide due to terrible pressures and difficult circumstances in life that they could not afford to see the light of a meaningful life. It is sad to hear when people lack the awareness of living worthy and meaningful lives. They seemingly succumbed to emptiness and the void they feel within themselves.

On the other hand, we hear people talking frankly and energetically about their views of life, their feelings, their struggles, their religious beliefs, their psychological uncertainties, politics and morality, and sexual relationships.

Despite economic, religious, and political differences all people are equal as we search for the meaning of life. However, the way people comprehend things in the same circumstances differs from one person to another because each individual is unique. What matters is not the general consensus of the meaning of life but rather the specific response of the person at a given moment. As an individual being, one has his or her own challenge in life, specific problem to solve, and unique question of meaning. Because each person is unique, we lay a template of meaning upon a particular object different from others. Everyone has his or her own demands for fulfillment inasmuch as every person has his own vocation or mission in life. But then again, we are equal in terms of orienting ourselves (or struggling) with the meaning of the mystery of our human existence.

To understand the meaning of life requires us to have a sense of true self-knowledge. Awareness of our being – to know who we are – expresses more concretely what make us different from other beings in the world. The existentialist answer to this question directs us to understand our existence in the sense of “standing out” in the world.[1] Our mode of existence compared with beings like cats, trees, and rocks, is completely different in the sense that we alone are open and aware of our being, in some degree, we alone know what we are.[2] We “stand out” in the world because of our intellect, freedom, and responsibility. As one existentialist says, “existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him.”[3]

Lastly, our search for the meaning of life oftentimes is posed to us even more intensely when we experience love and happiness, and suffering and death. Love and happiness bring us such delight as we experience them with a person we love, in a good deed and in service of others, in sport and play, in art and science.[4] Another meaning of existentialism confronts us with an inescapable and unavoidable situation of suffering and death. They may appear in the face of incurable disease like cancer or being disabled, death of a loved one, or awareness of our own imminent death. Like happiness and love, the experience of suffering and death make clear to us that the meaning of life will remain a big question and deep mystery to understand.

To conclude, our human limitations tell us of our incapacity to achieve the fullness of knowledge and answer the enigma of human existence. Our inadequacies lead us to grasp something beyond our human understanding which leads us toward the attitude of faith. So as we become more aware of our ‘unworthiness,’ our search for truth goes to a higher level that is beyond the empirical world we know, to the questions of ultimate causes – the search for God.

[1] John Macquarrie, Principles of Christian Theology, (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1982) 60.
[2] ibid.
[3] Jean-Paul Sarte, Existentialism and Human Emotions, (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc. 1957) 16.
[4] Cf. German Bishop’s Conference, The Church’s Confession of Faith, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987) 16.