In the end, everything does matter

April 29, 2007 -- Fourth Sunday of Easter

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. Do you have to struggle with the temptation of futility - that nothing matters? 2. What truly matters in your life? 3. How do you imagine "eternal life"?

In the periodical "America," there was a book review of Victoria Glendinning's Leonard Woolf: A Biography, (Free Press, p. 25-26). Two paragraphs from the review present a vision of life that is in total contrast to our Christian faith. Would that Leonard Woolf's philosophy were limited to just him? Unfortunately, it is all too common.

The reviewer, Peter Heinegg, writes: "For many reasons, starting with his immersion in the bloody horrors of modernity as visited upon the Jews, Leonard was, in some way, the starkest of pessimists. He never stopped repeating his argument-stopping motto, 'Nothing matters,' to anyone who would listen. By that he meant that the human race was a meaningless, momentary blip in an accidental cosmos. Putting it more personally, he wrote near the end of his life: 'I achieved practically nothing.' That is, the world he was leaving 'would be exactly the same if I had played Ping-Pong instead of sitting on committees and writing books and memoranda.' So he calculated, some 150,000-200,000 hours of 'perfectly useless work' had gone down the drain."

"But such futility was not the whole picture. He admitted to his friend Virginia Browne-Wilkinson that 'nothing matters, and everything matters.' Apart from his tireless campaigning for 'justice and mercy,' Leonard lived life with zestful intensity."

Jesus came to help us understand that everything matters: a kind word, a smile, a pat on the back, a visit to the nursing home, yes, sitting on committees and writing books and memoranda. We may not see the results or feel that these activities have an impact, but they do. Life is different because of the choices we make, for good or ill.

Jesus is clear. We will never perish. Though things appear so mortal, we believe that with death, life is changed, not ended. Jesus offers us not only the fullness of life here on earth but also eternal life. What this is like, our imagination cannot comprehend. But that there is eternal life is a conviction of faith.

Thus Paul and Barnabas traveled all over the Mediterranean world urging people to "hold fast to the grace of God." That grace is one of light, love, and life. And although it appears frail and temporal, it has the quality of eternity for those who believe. No wonder Paul and Barnabas were filled with joy: everything mattered. Nothing would be lost.

The book of Revelation repeats this assertion in that God will wipe away every tear and the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, will shepherd His people and lead them to the springs of life-giving water. With this gift of eternal life, all hunger and thirst will cease. The trials of doubt and pessimism will come to an end. The great banquet will begin.

Interesting, the wife of Leonard Woolf, Virginia by name, wrote this: "What is the meaning of life? That was all - a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with the years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark." Perhaps, for the Woolfs, in the end, everything did matter.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor of Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)