The logic of life after death

Our lives cannot be pointless

Sister Catherine looked at Bill and could see that he was intensely interested in the discussion. His big, kind face was looking at her earnestly. She guessed he had suffered the loss of someone dear to him.
‘Over the years Bill, I have been with many people as they approached death. When people know that they are dying, and have time to come to terms with it, they often ask themselves the big questions of life – the ones they may have shied away from before. Questions like – what’s it all been for? And when people reflect on their lives it is not the big achievements that they value – like the big job, or the big house. No. What they value above all are the relationships they had with those they loved, and the acts of kindness they experienced in their lives. Sometimes it takes the imminence of death to make people see what really is important to them. And then they say, now that I have learned this wouldn’t it be such a waste if this knowledge was put to no use? In other words, the lessons of life are pointless unless they form the basis of what happens next. Therefore there must be a next or our lives now are pointless.’

From The Domini Conspiracy, chapter 82, page 264.