There is restlessness if you can sense it. All around you people are going around in circles not really knowing what they’re looking for. And in the bottom of all these is the question, “What are these all for?” Yes, I’d like to dare ask the question, “If finding the meaning of life in this meaningless world is such a futile effort, why even bother find it just the same?”

M. Scott Peck said it so well when he began one book of his with the line, “Life is difficult.” When I’m alone with my thoughts in a spot like a bus or a jeep with nothing much to do, I find myself echoing what this author said. Yes, life is difficult as you glance at everything – the headline of the newspaper manong is selling, the number of shanties mushrooming above that estero and even just the number of minutes you’re stuck in traffic. I wonder if I’m saying this just because I’m in the Philippines, in a country unfortunate enough to be in constant struggle against development. But no, I don’t think so. I believe someone will echo Peck’s line in whatever part of the globe. The difficulty of life, if one would look closely, really extends beyond anything material.

Point is that everything is pointless. There is no point in life, that is, if you do not see any point in it. If you live life as meaningless as it presents itself to be, meaning will evade you. I do not speak as if I’ve found an oasis in the middle of life’s barren desert. I’m on the constant search for meaning myself. I write this in the context of my 17 th Ignite. Recollections and retreats are indeed very important in finding where we are in the road we travel in life.

My personal recollections and retreats and every other experience have helped me see that life makes more sense when one has faith – a certain belief that there is a God up there who has made everything possible for you. Equating life’s meaning with everything else besides faith does not guarantee long-term satisfaction. Money dwindles. Friendships do not last. Even intimate relationships can be torn apart. I guess I don’t need to mention the other things that really do no more than sweeten life’s bitter taste but not really fill the hunger of the searching individual.

God makes a lot of sense. And everything in life makes a lot of sense when taken in His context. Yes, even the seemingly worst and most painful experience you’ve gone through. Finding meaning in this life is actually our journey to deepening our faith. Faith is a treasure you find at the end of a tiresome search. It is that treasure you find that will lead you to other treasures like the strength to survive life. In many a young Catholic, the search for this treasure often begins with the very first significant experience of a recollection.

And then of course, faith and strength are those blessings that allow us to find that particular role in life that was meant just for us – and we make meaning by living out this one. A recollection can do more than just spark some fire within us only if we nurture the flame along the way.

Therese is the moderator of Hoofprint, the award winning school organ of Xavier Grade School. Her essays have been published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Young Blood.

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