These are all real issues but not the biggest issue you face
today. Personally I think the biggest problem is most young persons
seem to live in worlds that are not much bigger than themselves.
Most young people have tragically small horizons, very little
ambition, and hence live in very tiny worlds. When I ask teenagers
about what they would really like to do with their lives if they
could do anything at all, most speak in terms of getting something,
whether that something be a MP3, a car, a girl or guy or just
'a lot of money'.
One of the most depressing groups of young people I've encountered
in the past few years has been at my oldest daughter's school.
When she first started school they asked her whole class 'what
did they want to be when they finished school?', and almost every
other person there, apart from her, said 'a lawyer'.
Now I know I shouldn't be black and white about this, but my
daughter went around and asked her peers 'why do you want to be
a lawyer?' Some of them answered 'because my dad is a lawyer'
or something like that, but MOST of them said that it was because
being a lawyer was a 'good job', by which they meant what ….?
A job that can help a lot of people? NO! When people say a 'good
job' they mean a job that makes a lot of money.
Why do people who should know better want to make a 'lot of money'?
Is it because you think you need a lot of money in order to survive?
You don't! Is it because you think 'if I have a lot of money I
will be really important and people will look up to me?' GET A
LIFE.
I do not think that there is any greater tragedy in this community
than a highly trained intelligent young person who has all the
gifts and abilities necessary to really make a difference in this
society, but who has no idea where to direct those gifts and abilities.
It's like having a powerful loaded weapon and not caring where
it's aiming when it goes off.
This is the tragedy: that most of our young people, I fear, drug-addicted
and not drug-addicted, well educated as well as less well educated,
winners as well as losers, live a life wherein 'my life is basically
about me'. That's a tragedy.
I see a similar tragedy taking place in the lives of so many
of our young people who really have no hopes, dreams or ambitions
in this life that go beyond themselves. What a small life to live!
It's like trying to beautify the wallpaper in your bedroom!
It's important to have something that your willing to fight for.
Something that requires you to put forth some effort to get what
you want. Something that brings you satisfaction when you achieve
it.
The relevance of fighting to an individual's value system might
not be immediately obvious to everyone, but I do seriously believe
that fighting and idealism are intricately linked. The bottom
line is that I know it works. Fighting for something develops
character, staying power, teaches perseverance and gives a purpose
to one's life. If you go back to Plato's Republic, to the wisdom
of the Ancient Greeks, you'll find that Socrates assigned a very
high place to the value of 'themos', which we translate as 'fighting
spirit'.
According to Socrates, no individual and no society is complete
without properly developed 'themos'. Individuals and societies
need to know how to fight if they are going to know real harmony
and real justice.
Don't be content with a life that has no greater horizon than
your own wealth and self-importance.
We live in an extraordinary society in an extraordinary period
in human history. Think about it. At how many other points in
history, and in how many other places in the world, have any group
of people ever had the degree of choice about the future that
we have today.
Think about it. The rest of your life lies before you and you
can really choose to do with it just about anything you want to!
Your options are really only limited by your imagination and your
genetic potential. At how many times and places in human history
has that been true?
If you were born a few generations back in a village you wouldn't
have had these sorts of choices. If your dad was the village Smithy,
so that's what you were going to be. If you were born on a farm
you were probably going to stay on that farm until you died. If
you were a teenage girl you probably already had a couple of kids
by now and your path was fully set.
We're at the opposite end of the spectrum now. If you decide to
spend the rest of your life entirely devoted to playing your guitar
you can do it. You may become a great rock star, but even if you
don't you won't starve. The government safety net will still support
you in the end so that you can keep doing nothing but guitar playing
if that's what you really want.
If you decide to devote the rest of your life to scientific research
you can do that. If that's your vision and you're determined,
nobody is going to stop you from giving your life to that.
If you want to devote your life to feeding the hungry and healing
the sick you can do that, or if you just want to sit around as
a bum all day too, you can do that too! The choice is yours.
But this is our dilemma. Never before in human history have we
had such a wonderful variety of choices before us, and never before,
I fear, have we had so little idea of what we should choose.
One final illustration from a placard that I heard about at a
peace march. It said "nothing is worth dying for". I
thought that this was very clever at first, but then it occurred
to me if nothing is worth dying for, is anything worth living
for?
Friends, I believe that there are things worth living and dying
for. Find out what they are and live them!
Based on a message given by Father Dave in
Australia in 2003
