A Well Lived Life Essay

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What constitutes a well lived life People have different meanings and explanations on how to live a well and happy life. Some may say living a great life is to be successful, having a family and all the materials you want in life. others might argue and say that a great life or living a better life is not always about having or seeking the best materials in life, but helping those that are around you, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor in other words taking care of the people or benefitting the least well off. However, if we keep asking people about a well lived life, we will get as many answers as possibly. Growing up religiously, we were told a well lived life is a life measured by love and joy and by how helpful you were to the elders. In the Catholic Intellectual class, this was a hot topic that was discussed with the help of the following works: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, from Book 7 of The Republic; Books One & Two of Aristotle’s Ethics; Exodus Chapter 19-20 (The Ten Commandments) and The Gospel of Matthew (with emphasis on the Beatitudes and the Corporal Works of Mercy); and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13 (on love). These wise writers had a different view on what constituted a well lived life, what made the human beings lead a happy life and what was the meaning and purpose of life. The ancient …show more content…

We see in Exodus and Mathew that God and Jesus mentioning that people should seek the ultimate good which is God or obey God and do good to people around you to be blessed with a happy life. However, Paul emphasizes on these two by telling the people that you have to have love doing these things to live great. “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1Corinthians 13 vs 3). Paul here tells the people that love is the greatest virtue or path to

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