Fr. ROBERT MATHEUS: CATECHETICAL SERMONS (given in India)CATECHISM I. The Purpose of Our Existence1. When we open our catechism, we are immediately confronted with the most important and weighty questionthat every person asks at some point in their life: why am I here on earth? Every person who performs an actionhas a purpose, does so to achieve a goal. Thus, every rational person must also know what the ultimate goal oftheir entire existence, of all their actions, is. If someone is mistaken about this, they are like a ship without arudder, left to the mercy of the wind and waves until it eventually suffers shipwreck. Many never ask them-selves this question. Why not? Because they do not want to hear the answer they already know well: they aretoo proud to bow their scientific heads or too sensual to curb their impulses and passions. Avoiding this questionsuits their misused freedom.2. What is the answer? Is life a purely natural phenomenon? Being born like a flower sprouting from the earth,growing, and then disappearing into nothingness again? No, not the whole person dies. Their spiritual soul isnot subject to the laws of decay of material things. Therefore, humans have a destiny that is not limited to theirbodily existence on earth. They did not come into being by chance: no, God created them, as well as everythingthat surrounds them. And why did God create everything? The Holy Scripture (Proverbs) gives us the answer:"The Lord has made everything for Himself." All creatures proclaim God's glory by reflecting something of Hisinfinite perfections: His power, wisdom, beauty. The irrational creation thus praises God without knowing Himand serves Him without realizing it, simply by following the laws He has established in their nature.3. But man has been appointed by God as king and priest of this creation: he can and must recognize God's per-fections and must offer conscious praise to God. He will respect the order that God has established in himselfand his surroundi...