In the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a group of highly intelligent beings creates a supercomputer named Deep Thought and asks it for the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Deep Thought calculates for seven and a half million years, finally revealing the answer: “42.”

The author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, Douglas Adams, was an atheist, and his humorous story was meant to poke fun at our efforts to make sense of the meaning of human existence. His story was a subtle critique of the notion that there is a single, comprehensible answer to the complexities of life. In effect, the story suggests that we shouldn’t bother looking for an ultimate purpose, because we don’t have one.

In contrast, the Catholic faith offers a more hopeful and meaningful perspective on life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life (CCC 68).

What “superabundant answer” has God given to our deepest human questions? The meaning of life is found not in a number, but in a person: Jesus of Nazareth. The Second Vatican Council taught beautifully:

The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light… Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear (Gaudium et Spes 22).

The central mystery of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God who became man. For all eternity, the Son of God has lived with God the Father in the perfect love of the Holy Spirit. He became man to reveal that we are called to enter that same divine communion of love. Jesus lived his life entirely defined by love of God his Father and of us, even to the point of laying down his life on the Cross. Then he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, revealing the heavenly glory that we will receive if we believe in him, hope in him, and love like him.

This might sound overly theological and abstract, but isn’t it exactly what our hearts most deeply desire? Every single one of us longs to be seen, known, and loved. In the person of Jesus Christ, we discover that the Creator of the universe himself is pursuing us and inviting us to live forever as his children through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit. The God who is love longs to give himself to us, now and for all eternity.

How should this change the way that we live our daily lives? We are called to open our hearts to the grace of Jesus through daily prayer and the sacraments, to turn away from sin, and to live in communion with God. We are empowered by the Spirit to love with the love of Jesus amid our ordinary routines. As the Second Vatican Council taught, “man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (Gaudium et Spes 23). As Pope St. John Paul II further explained:

God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being (Familiaris Consortio 11).

In other words, the God who is love created us out of love so that we might have the joy of love. This does sound overly simplistic, doesn’t it? When we consider the magnitude of human suffering and the complexities of life, it seems naïve to just say, “Jesus is the answer.” The witness of the saints demonstrates, though, that pressing into communion with Jesus amid the drama of life brings light to even the darkest of situations. Jesus really is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.

May each of us more fully embrace this meaning of our lives in Jesus Christ and help others to discover that meaning!