thirst

What Is Youth?

Anyone who knows me can acknowledge that I enjoy working with young people. I love them, and am very concerned about their well being. I love working with them because I enjoy their vigor for life, their tireless search for meaning in life, and their enthusiasm about discovering what the next day, week, month or year holds. The desire to look for meaning in life is analogous to the attempt to look for the meaning of a text; just as we want to know the meaning of a text through the author’s view, we refuse to accept life’s meaning without God in it. God is the author of life, and we want to know life’s meaning through His own eyes; that is a sign that we bear the stamp of God, His seal. I want to be part of your life, my dear young friends, because I want to accompany you in this exciting journey of finding that meaning.
With that being said, I want to dedicate the next few posts to them in the hope of addressing some of the issues they face daily in life. I hope these posts prove useful to their needs and help answer some of their questions.
Youth is not only a period of life that corresponds to a certain numbers of years, it is a time given by Providence to every person and given to him as a responsibility. During this time, every youth searches, like the young man in the gospel (Mark 10, 17-31), for answers to basic questions. No youth want to be like Ivan Ilych in Leo Tolstoy story who thought he could live life as if it has no meaning. No one wants to approach life as having no meaning like Meursault in A. Camus’ The Stranger to only face the cruelty of his mindset later. Youth is when we look for answers to our questions, and the meaning of life. It is when we look for God with our whole being. It is when we ask whether we can experience God’s existence. It is when we want to know why there is evil, or why people do bad things. It is a period where we have time to question why food, video games, time with friends, TV shows don’t satisfy our deepest longings. My dear fellow young friends, the fact you are asking these questions means that you are looking for something deeper. It means that you don’t want to settle for something shallow. You want answers and you want truth. Youth not only searches for the meaning of life but also for concrete way to go about living it. You want to try things and are very adventurous. It is my conviction that every mentor, parents, and pastors must be aware of these characteristics. They must learn how to identify them in young people.
Are these questions simply empty dreams that fade away as we become older? No! We were created for something great, for infinity. That fact does not erase with old age. As I have quoted multiple times from my favorite Saint Augustine, “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you”. Because human beings are made in the image of God, we do this in a unique and special way. We reach out for love, joy and peace. So we can see how absurd it is to think that we can truly live by removing God from the picture! God is the source of life. To set God aside is to separate yourselves from that source and, inevitably, to deprive yourselves of fulfillment and joy. Without the Creator, the creature fades into nothingness. In the very asking of questions lie the search for God. Don’t settle for anything other than the truth.
If at every age of this life people desires to be his own person, to find love, during his youth he desires it even stronger. However, the desire to be one’s own person must not be understood as license to be anything without exception. It is the time to engage in discussion and learning to discover what it really means to be free. I guarantee that rationality and the grace of God are sufficient to lead you, dear young friends, to see that there is no freedom outside the Gospels. Unlike what many have said about you, my dear friend, I know that you are willing to be corrected. You want to be told yes or no and be explained the reasons behind it. You need guides, and you need it close at hand. That’s why you turn to authority figures as a search for human warmth and a willingness to walk along the right path. Listen to those wiser than you.
So, if there is a problem of youth as many have argued, it is profoundly personal. In life, youth is when we come to know ourselves. It’s a time we are deeply hunger for communion. It’s a time we come to realize that life has meaning only when we come to freely give ourselves as a gift. That is the origin of all vocation— priesthood, married life or a career. However, many young people are not seeing that today. Utilitarianism ad hedonism are in the forefront of all newspapers and every internet page. They have very few good examples to live by. So the deeper problem is an adult problem rather a youth problem. It is time when adults need to step up to build a better future generation.

For this reason, dear young friends, I encourage you to strengthen your faith in God. You are the future of society! During this beautiful period of your life, I urge you to study hard and be passionate about the truth. Christ is the ultimate answer to the questions you are asking. He is the true love you are so much in love with. Make him the background of your search. Make Him your point of reference. Many people have no stable points of reference on which to build their lives, and so they end up deeply insecure. You don’t want to be one of them. There is a growing mentality of relativism, which holds that everything is equally valid, that truth and absolute points of reference do not exist. But this way of thinking does not lead to true freedom, but rather to instability, confusion and blind conformity to the fads of the moment. As young people, you need a solid point of reference to help you to make choices and upon which to build your lives. you need direction like a young plant that needs solid support until it can sink deep roots and become a sturdy tree capable of bearing fruit. Christ is that support. Don’t be afraid to entrust yourself to Christ. An important day in your young life, dear young friends, is the day on which you become convinced that Christ is the only friend who not disappoint you and on whom you can always count.

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How to Best Live Life

This simple question has been the concern of thinkers in every period in history. However, it seems that our culture seems to characterize these kinds of questions as unnecessary because, as they say, they are the fruit of primitive thinking, or psychological hang-up, or simply they don’t help put food on the table. Whenever we will to rise above our imagination, it can be observed that things work for the sake of an end. So, we too are not spared from this natural phenomenon of life. As Thomas Aquinas says, “it is characteristic of man to do everything for an end” (ST II-I, 1, 1). That means every action we do, we do it for the sake of an end. Corollary to that statement, we have an end. Everything has an end. For instance, a chair’s end is to provide seating for people; a car’s end is to bring people wherever they want to go very quickly; nature’s end is to provide oxygen, beauty, location, good condition for human beings to flourish; the weather’s end is to furnish good season so we can grow the appropriate crops… according to our needs. The question is rightly asked: how should we live life in order to become the best person possible? In other words, how do we need to live in order to fulfill our end? Philosophers have proposed many different ways we can live in order to be as flourishing as possible. In this post, I will expose Kant and Christianity’s proposal on how to best live life
Kant’s first proposal on how to best live life is his Categorical Imperative. It states that a person is to “act only in accordance with that maxim through which he/she can at the same time will that it becomes a universal law”. If whatever we are doing can be universalized i.e. it would not caused any morally harm if everyone does it, then we can pursue it. Otherwise, it would be wise to jettison it. Kant’s second proposal is that we should never act in such a way that we treat Humanity as a means but always as an end in itself. Well, there is nothing wrong with these proposals if people did not want to get their way out of everything. It is unbelievable how much many people are not even trying to be honest. Since it is the case, they give voice to many who think Kant’s proposal is confusing, or cannot really be universalized. Why is it hard to not do to others what you yourself dislike? Kant’s way can keep the world together, but many prefer to conjure up issues that have never existed. Who can deny that if something cannot be universalized, it is probably wrong? Who can deny that all human beings must be intrinsically valued, and so must never be treated as means?
We are wired for God. As the great Augustine says, “O God, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee” (confessions I). It is true the technological advancement that our world has known surpassed our wildest expectations. We can sit here in America and instantly experience what is happening in Japan. I can testify to this since I see any soccer game live in Europe though I don’t live there. But the human heart longs for something that they sciences or technology can never deliver. We are yearning for something that lies beyond the limited human mind. “Only in God is our soul at rest”, the psalmist said. Only when we are living in communion with God can we find what we are looking for. That is the Christian message. Anyone who denies that will experience this for himself. No one can deny that he does not long for infinite happiness that he does not find in anything earthly. All pleasures we have experienced so far are ephemeral. They come and go. So, what are we to do in order that our yearning may one day be satisfied? That is what Christianity is; she proposes the answer to our longing. The answer is Jesus Christ, but it is intrinsically dependent on us to choose and embrace Him with our heart, mind, soul, and every fiber of our being. Three principles are proposed by Christianity on how to best live life and at the end reach something that can satiate our longing. The first principle is to become holy. Holiness is man’s first vocation. Aquinas calls this ‘human flourishing’; some motivational speakers call it ‘the best-version-of-ourselves’. Is it not true that we all would like to become the best person we can be? Is it not true that we all have an ideal for ourselves? It seems to be that there are two versions of each of us. The one that we actually are, and the one that God wants us to become. Christianity offers the best mean to reach that ideal self. No one in their right mind can reject such a view altogether. The second is to become virtuous. Virtue is at the heart of the Christian life. The more virtuous we become, the easier it is for us to reach holiness, flourishing, or the best version of ourselves. The more virtuous we are, the more our neighbor, society, church, and family benefit. The whole world prefers virtue to vice. Something vicious committed by one man hurts not only the wretched person, but also the family of the hurt. The third principle that Christianity proposes on how to best live life is to cultivate love. We need to start advertising a culture of life ground on firm examples that inspire others to choose God’s way above vengeance. We need to publicly live and make choices that testify our Christian faith. When we get the opportunities, we need to make it count so deeply that no one can resist asking us what inspires us to act like that. There will be occasions to refuse suing someone because we choose to forgive though we are hurt. We leave justice to God. Living this way is living for the end for which we were created. Yes, each of us has a vocation that will most fulfill us. However, most of us will never find out that vocation. Therefore, as Christian, we need to develop the best version of ourselves and live it as no one else could.
I am not talking about anything abstract. All of us know how to be kind. We all know we must help those in needs. We all know that we can love more. The question is: are we doing with all our heart, mind, strength, will, and intellect? I am asking that we do these in ways that reflect the best version of who we are. Action follows upon being. What we do reflects who we are. Who we are is not mediocrity. We are made for greatness. We cannot simply help. We must be the greatest helper we can possibly be. We cannot afford to simply be kind. We need to be the kindest person we can be. We need to live in ways that show greatness. Do you think this is the best you can can give at what you are doing? Are you the best son you can be? The best neighbor, friend, coworker, student, Christian you can be right now? Ok, you’re probably not, but is this the best you can do? Do you think you can live in accordance with the greatness that you are? Mother Teresa said, “Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness in your eyes, smile, and greeting”. When we are virtuous, we benefit as well. A virtuous act expands our heart and brings us a sense of achievement and self-realization. When you develop these characteristics, you reach the end for which you were created. Don’t ever give it up.
That is my proposal. Would you like to propose a way, too? Feel welcomed.

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