My Precious

(a small reflection on movie Ray)

There is a joke about what the most important thing in human life is.

Five Jews changed the way we look at things:

• Moses: The Law is everything




• Jesus: Love is everything
  




• Marx: Money is everything




• Freud: Sex is everything




• Then came Einstein: Everything is relative.

There are many precious things in my life, including life itself. Life is the first and biggest grace and gift from God. But, life is not the most precious one as Jesus himself have said, ”For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it”. And, as a Jesuit, I was also told that life is only a means to attain the goal, not the goal itself.

The second biggest grace to me is faith which makes my life is much more meaningful and not futile. What’s a life worth if there is no guarantee in the afterlife. But, thanks be to God, by faith in Jesus and his Church, at least I have a part in eternal life. How precious my life is because of faith and how precious faith is. I also consider that faith is more precious than life. Faith saves me, but life without faith has no meaning. If I was forced to choose between life and faith, I would choose the last one even though I have to lose my life. But, how about those who because of some reasons have no faith in Jesus and the Church? Are their lives still precious? This question makes me think once more about this. Indeed, their lives are still precious for some of them have love and they live their lives better than those who plead they have faith. Therefore, faith is not everything.

Is love everything just like what Jesus said? For a long time, I have thought so. But, then a story changed my mind. The story is about a couple of husband and wife who strictly supported anti-abortion. But, then a problem hit them. They had twin fetuses in the wife’s womb. One was female and another one is male. There was a problem with female fetus that could cause danger to the other fetus and the mother. Doctors suggested they abort the female fetus. After a long consideration, they decided to keep the baby alive. When the time came for the wife to give birth, the babies were born successfully. But, Anne, the female baby could only stay alive for 6 hours. However, her parents made a surprising decision to donor her organs to other babies who needed them to live longer. They called her as a heroine for her six-hour life had saved others’ lives. She doesn’t have love, but her life has a meaning. And, that’s more important than life, than faith, and than other things. Of course, her parents have the love that make she become a heroine for others.

Actually, this story makes me confused about the most precious thing in my life. Is it love or the meaning of life? After a long vacillation, I found that the one which must be my precious thing is the meaning of life because love itself gives my life meaning and love is always needed to make my life more meaningful.

So far, I found that the meaning of life is about self-giving as Jesus came to the world only to give himself to human beings. Following Jesus’ example, who gave himself out of love, I also considered self-giving as the most precious thing in my life. And, it will be quite easy to do if I have love.

For me, this idea looks very abstract. I am not sure I can really to do this. But, I hope so. At least, I have desire to do so. For me, in this time, it’s enough to have such desire to love and give myself as the most precious thing in my life.