The answer: We are here. God would not have asked us to live, and die, for nothing. We must be here to do something that even He could not do for us. And what could this be, that even God could not do for us? What is the one thing we could not simply be given?
It is clear: To be our own person is the one thing we could not simply be given. To be our own person, we need to be involved.
It is just as clear that to be our own person is something good. This we can see in our satisfaction with anything we have done ourselves, especially if it was not easy and required all our inner strength.
We become our own person by participating in our own creation. We begin our life as babies, and we are called to grow, to make ourselves into something more.
How do we know that growing means growing in love? How do we know that it is love that makes us greater? There are several ways:
We know that love makes us greater because, when we love, we feel greater. We feel more real.
We know the greatness of love from the fact that love is what we want more than anything else. Let us not be fooled: When people spend their lives seeking wealth, power, or fame, what they really want is respect-it's just an inferior form of love. When people do things that are wild or even destructive, what they really want is attention-another inferior form of love.
We know the greatness of love because, if love is really the way, it should be the way for everyone. Well, if everyone loved everyone else, the world would be the best place that it can be. When everyone is selfish, the world is at its worst.
Finally, we know the greatness of love from the fact that love is the reason we are here. It was because God loved-because God was interested in something besides Himself-that He made us to share His life. To share His life, we will need to be like Him, interested in something besides ourselves.