Every life needs a purpose

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 45, 28 April 1987, Page 6

Every life needs a purpose

Victor Frankl's little book, 'Man's Search for Meaning' is now a very old book but I believe that some of its lessons are still very relevant today. Frankl was an Austrian doctor. As a young man he was arrested by the Nazis and thrown into a concentration camp. There in Auchwitz in the utter misery of the hell-hole he planned his book. It was there that he saw men in every stage of misery, loneliness, degradation and humiliation. Frankl was a man who suffered, who shared those terrible conditions, so what he wrote about he spoke of from first hand experience. One question he poses in this book is this — Why is it that so many hulking, muscular men succumb to the miseries of prison or indeed

to other degrading experiences, while many a frail and delicate victim survives. He came to the conclusion that those who perished in Auchwitz were those who saw no meaning in life, who because they had no reason for living sank into despair and dejection. On the other hand he observed that those who survivied the terrible conditions of the camp were those who had someone to love them, who had some work which gave their life a purpose or meaning, or those who were inspired by a religious belief that gave them some motive for suffering. He writes, "The religious interests of the prisoners, as far and as soon as it developed, were the most sincere imaginable. The depth and vigour of religious belief often surprised and moved a new arrival. Most impressive in this connection were

the improvised prayers or services in the corner of a hut or in the darkness of a locked cattle truck in which we were brought back from a distant work site, tired, hungry and frozen in our ragged clothes." Many a modern psychiatrist is now happy to tell us that nervous breakdowns, neurotic symptoms, melancholy etc. are at base spiritual. A true meaning to life is essential for health and sanity. Frankl learned his secret in Auchwitz Concentration Camp. In a sense he is saying no more than is proclaimed in the Bible. Isn't it a pity that this busy life of ours seems to preclude so many of us from reading regularly and frequently the Bible which has been referred to as The Greatest Story Ever Told?

Father

Michael

Tomasi