Youth Quest for Meaning

            Quest for meaning in life is a usual monograph. And being young is a period where you have got quest for meaning. Youth is fleeting so feels there is no time to lose. In other way yout quest is a turbulent head of steam of inexpressible yearning which must find expression. Youth quest constitute a good mirror to society today. Today’s youth are not concerned merely with building a society for tomorrow; they are a reflection of our own age and not merely the heralds of tomorrow.Their concerns are those of the present.

            Each youngster gives a different answer to each question. Each answer is a reflection of his evaluation of the ideologies personalities and life styles prevalent in society. The youths are an emerging generation; they are full of energy. They are enthusiastic. They constantly search for genuine values that can make a success of life find meaning of life. In this search they encounter the adult world, often only to be disillusioned and disappointed. The world of the adult is far from the world of their dream.The future does not belong to those who are content with today; rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment.

              

Risk to Let Go

            There is no such thing as zero risk. Life is full of risk. For example, every car journey involves an element of risk; that doesn’t mean that we walk to cover distances. There are risks associated even if we stay indoors. However that does not mean all risk is unavoidable. Most of the risks can be managed and measures taken to avoid or to reduce the harm. There is also risk in the youth work and ministry. We have a responsibility to create a safe environment for the young people we serve. They are far too precious to be exposed to harm, especially when it is unnecessary or avoidable.

            Young people often take enormous risk just to prove their worth to others. Without giving a second thought to the consequences of their take steps these rash decisions eventually leads to their downfall.

Bitterness towards Jews  

Hitler’s hatred was blind towards Jews and referred to them as “carriers of filth and disease.” He forced hundreds of young children to scrub the sidewalks and buildings; also they were forced to paint the word Jew on their parents store windows. More than a hundred Viennese synagogues and Jewish prayer houses were demolished. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend School; also business and homes were set on fire. All Jews were forced to wear a six pointed yellow star on their clothing, identifying them as Jews. Jews left for places as far away as China, India and Kenya to escape the terrors of Nazism. Hitler had written, “Germany’s final objective must unswervingly be the removal of Jew altogether.” Then Britain and France declare war on Germany, and World War II began.

The understanding of the subjective truth

Christianity is the highest truth of existence, for it brings man to an inwardness that is the deeper than his own subjectivity. Subjective truth is very important for Kierkegaard. He regards it as the highest truth available to mankind, and he makes it clear that by subjective truth he does not mean that a belief is true simply because one believes it to be true. Instead, he is referring to the subjective experience of being, or living, within truth of immersing oneself in the subjective, inward activity of experientially exploring and discovering truth of one’s own self in the process of existing, which is the process of becoming, a direct personal involvement in the living moment by moment process of unfolding reality. This is why subjective truth is sometimes called existential truth because it is essentially related to one’s actual existence; ‘the inward deepening in and truth. Constantly, Kierkegaard says, “Judge for yourself.”  This judging or examining one’s life according to the truth can lead the person on the path of self perfection. 

When Kierkegaard speaks of the inwardness of subjectivity, he is in no way referring to introspective reflection on our own mental and emotional states, for this would merely be the mode of detached contemplation. Instead, he is referring to active involvement, manifested by passionate self-commitment to one’s innermost moral or spiritual commitments. Kierkegaard gives absolute precedence to subjective truth for dealing with matters of moral and spiritual or religious truth. The truth about how human should live their lives. The truth can only be truly known and are only of use once they have become inwardly appropriated through subjective experience. 

Kierkegaard believed that ultimately, the highest level of subjective truth available to a human being is faith- a state of consciousness of infinite in which one is no longer confined to the perception of reality imposed by intellectual reasoning.  It is only through a leap to faith that we can commit ourselves totally to a god whose existence is logically and rationally uncertain. Kierkegaard had complete faith that the highest form of selfhood-man’s highest form of self-realization as spirit – is a religious existence defined by passionate self- commitment to the personal Absolute through the sustaining standpoint of faith; for him this meant Christian faith. It is only through the medium of faith that one can accept the paradoxical nature of Christianity and live in the presence of eternal, absolute truth. Kierkegaard sees becoming religious in terms of up building and forming the individual.

              

Witness

            In the New Testament Christ calls the Apostles and the disciples to witness. A witness is a person who directly demonstrates the truth of what he proclaims directly. The performative gesture of witnessing includes more than the simple message it conveys, because it is primarily a demonstration of inwardness, of who I am as a self before God. The point here is that it is a poor proclamation of Christianity that occurs only in words, in direct communication. Why? Because Christianity can be communicated only by witnesses that is, by those who existentially express what is said, actualize it. Being a Christian is, without a doubt, neither more nor less than being a martyr. Because martyr bears a witness to God. Every Christian, that is, every true Christian, is a martyr.Suffering for the truth is the only possible awakening.

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Following Jesus

              In discussing the teaching of Christianity, especially on the imitation of Christ, he states that the life of Jesus itself, and not the volumes of catechism, is the key teaching of the church. Following Jesus Christ’s entire life must supply the norm for the Christian and for the life of the whole Church. One has to take every particular aspect of Christ’s life straight from his baptism to his resurrection and show correspondence. Christianity means to be like Christ. It does not say that you should try to resemble Christ. No, you are to put on Christ, put him on yourself.  Christ comes to the world as the example, constantly enjoining: Imitate me. We humans prefer to adore him instead.  Just as the name of Christ is the one and only name in heaven and on earth, so also is Christ the one and only predecessor who has gone ahead to prepare a place. Between heaven and earth there is only one road: to follow Christ. In time and eternity there is only one choice: to choose this road. There is only one eternal hope on this earth: to follow Christ into heaven. To follow Christ means to deny oneself, and so it means to go by the same way as Christ went, in the humble form of a servant, in want and scorn and mockery, not loving the world, and not beloved by it.

To suffer christianly

             What is influential in Christian suffering? It lies in the fact that it is voluntary “on account of the Word” and “for righteousness’ sake.” “Everyone has a cross to bear.” Christ unabashedly speaks of what would await his disciples when they witnessed to him in the world. “This I have told you so that you will not be offended. They will exclude you from the synagogues; yes, the time will come when whoever kills you will think he is offering God a service” (Jn. 16:1; Mt. 16:23). The possibility of offense consists in being persecuted, ridiculed, cast out from society, misunderstood, and finally put to death and in such a way that those who do it think they are doing God, or the cause of righteousness, a service. It is to this suffering Christ speaks and promises heaven’s reward.

            Whether you experience adversities in life, whether things perhaps go downhill for you, though you as a Christian will most assuredly bear these sufferings patiently, unlike many others in the world, however patiently you bear them, this suffering is not yet akin to Christ’s suffering. To suffer christianly is not to endure the inescapable but to suffer evil at the hands of people because you voluntarily will and endeavor to do only the good: to willingly suffer on account of the Word and for the sake of righteousness. One must act in conformity to the pattern; experience the act and the response it prompts, before he fully understands the meaning of the act. It is not difficult to understand that, according to Kierkegaard, Christianity requires suffering for the Gospel. But in order to comprehend the full significance of suffering for the Gospel, not must actually suffer for the Gospel. To grasp the thought of suffering, and the message of joy in suffering, to endure suffering and truly find good in it, to choose to suffer and believe that this is true wisdom unto blessedness, a man requires the guidance of God.

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