Living on the Surface, Never Going Deep: Jenny, Jesus, Carl Jung and Bill W
A stark contrast emerges between a world without God—where life drifts into meaninglessness—and a world where we embrace our divine purpose, discovering our true identity.
Upon arriving at a friend’s lake house on a beautiful summer day, I was greeted at the door by a young woman—his daughter’s college roommate—who had come for a long weekend on the water. She introduced herself as Jenny, and we spent a few minutes chatting about the drive up before I walked in to greet everyone else.
Later that evening, after a day on the lake, we gathered for wood-grilled steaks and a delightful bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. The conversation eventually turned to the young people’s thoughts and experiences on dating, relationships, casual hook-ups, and the prevailing gender ideologies on college campuses. I asked a few probing questions about love and happiness, encouraging them to go a bit deeper, and found opportunities to share snippets of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. It was an engaging discussion, one that revealed many of the misconceptions and confusion so prevalent in today’s culture.
Later that evening, as we carried logs over to the outdoor fireplace, my friend told me that his daughter had shared something striking—after dinner, Jenny confided in her that she felt lost, as though she had lost her identity. “She said she no longer knows who she is,” he said. “Jack, it’s such a confusing time for young people. What’s that expression you always quote from Gaudium et Spes?”
I replied, ‘When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible.’
Isn’t that the truth? One doesn’t have to look far to see a world spinning out of control, a culture losing its way. God has been systematically pushed out of our country, our culture, our marriages, our families, and—most tragically—our individual hearts. If God has been forgotten, wouldn’t we expect humanity itself to become unintelligible?
The next morning, as fate would have it, Jenny came out onto the deck where I was enjoying a cup of coffee while watching a spectacular sunrise over the lake. The clouds glowed with brilliant magenta streaks, soft wisps of gray drifting through them, while birds sang in the trees—a truly magical moment.
After a pause, I turned to her and said, “Jenny, think about the day you were born. You arrived on the stage of life, suddenly existing at a particular time, in a particular place, in a world you didn’t create and a story you didn’t write. As a newborn infant, you were completely dependent on others—for food, for warmth, for love. And regardless of the exact circumstances of your birth, you were no accident. You were brought into this world not as a mere spectator but as a vital part of a larger story.”
I continued, “Jenny, you are a beloved child of God. I am reminded of God’s words to the prophet Jeremiah: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I set you apart’ (Jeremiah 1:5). This is the lens through which you will understand your identity, the meaning, and the purpose of your life. Your life is part of a love story—one that has always been a love story.”
God’s plan is that as we grow and develop, we learn how to love and be loved. This story is inscribed in our hearts and even stamped into our very bodies—as male and female, created for love. But here lies the danger: our culture has lost its story. It has abandoned truth, goodness, and beauty—especially the beauty of authentic love.
Modern culture screams at us: Forget about God, the Church, and the Bible. There is no Creator. We are all here by accident, just random atoms colliding. Life has no meaning, no purpose, no truth—only my truth or your truth. But the human heart does not function well in a world devoid of meaning and purpose.
The desire for God is written in our hearts. Saint Augustine, after his long search for identity and purpose, famously wrote, ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.’
So, where do you come from? You must decide between two possibilities:
1. You are an accident of history, free to do whatever you please—indulge, waste, even destroy your life—because, ultimately, it is meaningless.
2. You are a created being, and if that is true, then you were created for a purpose.
If you have never opened your heart and mind to this fundamental question of existence, you will never have peace. There will always be a void that nothing in this world can fill.
Jesus understands the human heart’s yearning for identity, meaning, and purpose. It’s fascinating that Christianity begins with Jesus asking a question of the first disciples who encountered Him. As the Gospel of John recounts:
‘The next day, John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see”’ (John 1:35-39).
This invitation—Come and see—has echoed through history as the essence of the Christian journey. Jesus never imposed, never used propaganda, never forced an ideology. He simply invited, trusting the human heart’s ability to recognize truth.
We all ask: What is my true identity? What is the meaning and purpose of my life? Why were we created male and female? How can I find happiness, joy, and peace? Does true love exist? Jesus answers our thirst with an invitation: Come and see.
To find the answers that our hearts yearn for, we must have the courage to journey beyond the noise and false promises of the world.
I am reminded of what Carl Jung wrote in Modern Man in search of a Soul:
“However far-fetched it may sound, experience shows that many neuroses are caused by the fact that people blind themselves to their own religious promptings because of a childish passion for rational enlightenment. The psychologist of today ought to realize once and for all that we are no longer dealing with questions of dogma and creed. A religious attitude is an element in psychic life whose importance can hardly be overrated. And it is precisely for the religious outlook that the sense of historical continuity is indispensable.”
“Among all of my patients in the second half of life, that is to say over thirty-five, there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers and not one of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook.”
I think this applies to everyone. Speaking of Carl Jung, let me share one more story:
In 1961, Bill W., cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, wrote a letter to Dr. Carl Jung. This letter described in his own words the chain of events that changed Bill's life and influenced the spiritual emphasis of Alcoholics Anonymous -- events in which Jung played a key role.
It all began, Bill wrote, in a 1931 conversation between Jung and a hopeless alcoholic named Roland H. Roland-young, gifted in business, rich-had tried every "cure" for alcoholism available at the time. All his attempts failed. In despair, he traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, and placed himself under the care of Dr. Jung for nearly a year. Jung was blunt. He told Roland that any further medical treatment was pointless. Stunned, Roland asked if there was any other hope. Jung held out only one- -- that Roland experience a "genuine conversion," a spiritual transformation. According to Jung, such experiences were rare among alcoholics. But alcoholics who had them stopped drinking.
This shred of hope was enough for Roland. He returned home and began his spiritual search.
Bill, in his letter to Jung, told of his firsthand knowledge of conversion. For Bill, it happened in 1934 during his last "detox" at Towns Hospital in New York City. At that time, Bill was also an alcoholic at the end of his rope. Dr. Silkworth, Bill's attending physician, laid out the options to Bill's wife: She could let the authorities lock Bill up, watch him go insane, or let him die.
Bill knew the doctor's prognosis. "My depression deepened unbearably and finally it seemed to me as though I were at the bottom of the pit," he wrote to Jung. "All at once I found myself crying out, 'If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything.'" At that moment, Bill wrote, his hospital room seemed to flood with white light. "I was caught up into an ecstasy which there are no words to describe. It seemed to me, in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Dr. Silkworth encouraged Bill to hold on to this experience, whatever it was. Bill did and never took another drink.
Released from the hospital, Bill immediately began work on two tasks: understanding that "white light" and helping other alcoholics to experience something equally powerful.
Pope St. John Paul II left us a prayer in a homily he gave for the dedication of the Divine Mercy Shrine in Poland; let us pray it together, for ourselves, for Jenny, for all souls searching for meaning, so that in confusion, there may be clarity, so that in despair, we find meaning, so that in darkness, we are flooded with light . . .
God, merciful Father,
in your son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love
and poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
We entrust to you today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman.
Bend down to us sinners,
heal our weakness,
conquer all evil,
and grant that all the peoples of the earth
may experience your mercy.
In You, the Triune God,
may they ever find the source of hope.
Eternal Father,
by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son,
have mercy on us and upon the whole world!
Amen.