How’s It Going?

FROM A GOOD WHERE TO A GOOD HOW

We ask each other all the time, “How’s it going?” and the answer’s usually the same. “Fine. I’m good, thanks.” Neither are true of course. We’re not fine and God alone is good. But saying we are is easier than answering a much harder question, namely, “Where’s it going?”

The question about where my life is heading compels me to consider meaning and purpose and direction. But who’s got time for those when we’re just trying to keep our heads above water?

But if we refuse to ask about the where our lives will be reduced to how. The problem with reducing life to how is that everything (even people) begin to look like a problems to be solved. Push that a little further, they start to feel like projects to be manipulated. A little further still and they become objects in our way.

For example, we’re doing some work on the parish grounds: beautification, upkeep, maintenance. How long will the completed work last? It’s hard to say. Barring some natural disaster it may last 25 to 40 years. But even then there will come a time when not one stone of this place will be left upon another. In the end, all things fade; all things die. God alone is eternal.

But what if God were to begin imparting to us some of His divine life now, in this life, little by little, all along the way, until He finally takes us to Himself. Then - even if we were to have a bad day, or someone were to betray us, or we were to get sick - then, we would be able to call life good because of where it’s ultimately going.

But without a where I’m abandoned to a life of incessant hows, and every day feels like an endless (and pointless) hamster wheel of things to do, and people are useful to me only insofar as they serve my immediate needs. But this kind of Nihilism (life goes nowhere) and this kind of Utilitarianism (something is good only if it serves my personal gain) are philosophies of despair.

Pope Leo’s warning about the dangers of using AI without reference to the ultimate destiny of the human person is his way of inviting us to remember to ask where AI might lead, instead of asking only how it might be used. Only if we first ask where it’s going can we answer how it’s going.

Why wouldn’t I want to ask where my life’s going? Maybe I’m afraid of judgment. Maybe I’ve lost confidence in myself, like a student who chooses not to retake a test for fear of failing again. Maybe I’m angry at someone and I relish that my resistance to God hurts that person. Or maybe I’ve lost interest in the question altogether. In any case, people have their reasons.

But today’s Feast of the Holy Trinity is an invitation to reconsider the question. Last week, the Holy Spirit confirmed that the Father sent His Son not to condemn us but to save us. Then after asking the Son, “Where are we going?” and He replies, “to the Father,” we have some sense of how to live in the meantime. Jesus said it best: “Follow Me.” +