The door to a good life

Scripture for Mass

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 23(22):1-3a. 3b-4. 5. 6. Response: 1

1 Peter 2:20b-25

John 10:1-10

Commonly used phrases such as ‘a high standard of living’, ‘quality of life’, and ‘the good life’ clearly indicate that there ought to be much more to life than simply existing or surviving. And indeed, we are keenly aware of a yearning to thrive and to live life to the full.

However, while that yearning for fulfilment can be found in every human heart, each culture or society tries to provide its particular, ready-made path to attain such fulfilment. For example, in western countries, a formal qualification is portrayed as the doorway to financial independence, which supposedly leads to ‘the good life’, marked by security, comfort and leisure. Since our education system and the public media conspire to make this path seemingly self-evident, we dare not doubt it. Instead, we view the resulting sense of emptiness and loneliness simply as shortcomings in the system, rather than as evidence of a fundamentally flawed understanding of what constitutes ‘the good life.’

As individuals and as a society, it would require great humility to admit that we have been knocking incessantly on the wrong door. And courage to recognise that we continue to rob ourselves of the joy of prioritising relationships with family, friends, neighbours, strangers and God. Moreover, it would require the kind of wisdom, which only Christ can give us, to re-orientate our world towards the precious things of the heart – such as showing compassion, expressing gratitude, enjoying the beauty of creation – and thereby discover that life in abundance is not an achievement or an entitlement, but rather a gift.