Isaiah exhorts us to “cease doing evil; learn to be good, Make justice your aim: redress the wronged.” The Psalmist tells us “to him that goes the right way, I will show the salvation of God.” This seems simple enough – just be good and do the right thing. But life is always a bit more complicated. How do we find our way through a maze of alternatives to know– the “right thing”? Finding the “right way” gets to the very core of Christianity and life. What is our path to this truth? Who can help us in this effort?

Viktor Frankl is an extraordinary guide. His time in four Nazi Concentration Camps resulted in his masterful Man’s Search for Meaning, a beacon for many in their search for the ultimate values in life. Frankl tells us that: “Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Sometimes, our own inner response to a decision tells us that it was the right one: “As soon as I told him with finality that I had made up my mind to stay with my patients, the unhappy feeling left me. I did not know what the following day would bring, but I had gained an inward peace that I have never experienced before.” Frankl adds that “Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life…This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone.” We learn that: “the more one forgets himself, by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love, the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”

Lent is, indeed, a time for reflection. A time to ask ourselves: What is important to us? Why are we here? What can we do to make an impact, to make a difference in the lives of others? How can we learn to “do good”? The ultimate answer to these questions must come from us, and us alone. In our own inner search for the “right way,” we benefit greatly from the wisdom of Frankl: “Each man is questioned by life, and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life.”