Fun - The Meaning of Life

On the way home this morning I saw a bumper sticker that said Life is Meant To Be Fun! and then linked to a website no doubt promoting this philosophy.  Undoubtedly we should have fun in our lives and when things are fun they can be more enjoyable.  Even menial or dull tasks can be made to be fun, rendering them more pleasant to do.  But is 'Fun' really the meaning of life and where does this lead society if we make it the goal rather than something we enjoy along the way? Because when we encounter situations that cannot be made fun, we will be tempted to despair or become disheartened.

Last week after the Canadian women's Olympic hockey team won the gold medal they spent hours after the game, on the ice, celebrating their victory while smoking cigars and drinking champagne.  It is one thing to enjoy the moment with joyful exhuberance but quite another  to show up your opponent by turning the whole thing into an on ice victory party in front of them.  Add in the fact that a number of the girls were under the legal drinking and smoking age and you have a situation that showed a considerable lack of class and sportsmanship for the fans and opponents.  Why I mention this is that there were comments from a number of people following the article in the news that condoned their actions by reducing them to a common thread that, "they were just having fun."  It is one thing to have fun but quite another to make it your life's identity and excuse any type of behavior because it was "fun". 

Without going to deeply into the subject I think that there is a different philosophy that I believe is more Catholic and get's us to our ultimate goal, Heaven, without having to slog through a life absent any joy.  This idea comes from the title of a book on the lives of saints and is called Saints Are Not Sad.  It opens with a quote from St. Francis de Sales who said, "A sad saint would be a very sorry saint indeed."

So as we make our way through the remainder of Lent let us remember that the sacrifices and penances we undertook might not be 'fun' but we should still find joy in doing them.  For by God's grace they help us grow in holiness, to become saints and anything undertaken for the glory of God should bring us happiness, even if it isn't fun.