"What is life?" "What is death?" "Where do humans come from and where do they go?" "In the face of this bitter betrayal and pain, does life truly hold meaning?" Confronted with such pivotal questions of existence and "limit situations"—such as death, suffering, war, and responsibility—human objective knowledge reaches its limit, and each individual must face their own choices and beliefs.
A widow’s only son suddenly passed away in a traffic accident. She was already beside herself as she rushed to the scene. After wailing at the site of the accident, she later held her son’s body at the hospital, shedding tears of heart-wrenching grief. Objective knowledge can do nothing for a widow in such deep sorrow; it cannot bring her dead son back to life, nor can it wipe away her tears. Even the doctor can do nothing more than confirm the fact that her only son has died.
After the funeral for her only son had ended and everyone had gone home, the widow asked, with a hollow heart... “Why is life so sorrowful? What, after all, is life?” “Why must I endure this bitter pain? Is it because I have not believed in God faithfully enough?” “I, too, will die someday; where do human beings come from, and where do they go?” “Does God truly exist? If He does, how could He allow such suffering to befall me?”
The widow grapples with these fundamental questions of existence. Through them, she gains her own insights into life and God, ultimately arriving at some form of belief. Whether she believes that “life ends with physical death” or that “there is an afterlife and eternal life,” she inevitably embraces a conviction. Likewise, whether she believes that “God exists” or that “God does not exist,” she chooses her own path of faith.
Yet faith tells us that life does not end with physical death. It affirms that human suffering never concludes without meaning. It teaches that when we unite ourselves with the Passion and suffering of Christ and offer that pain to God, it becomes a foundation for salvation.
Furthermore, faith proclaims that “for those who believe in Christ, death is not an end but a transition to new life; when this earthly dwelling is destroyed, an eternal home is prepared in heaven.” This message wipes away the widow’s tears, and by believing in this truth, she finds the courage to rise again. Ultimately, faith is a fundamental human act—a response to the pivotal questions and experiences of life that erupt from within situations of extreme limitation—and it is the path to salvation in both life and death. While objective knowledge proves powerless in the face of suffering and death, faith leads us beyond them toward a life of eternal existence and a new way of living within this world.
Thus, objective knowledge marks the limit of finitude when confronted with life’s extreme situations and the abyss of suffering. It is precisely where knowledge ceases that one begins to question the true meaning of life and steps into the realm of faith—a realm that transcends the limits of reason. Ultimately, the point where knowledge ends becomes the very place where God’s saving grace and authentic human faith begin.
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