A Soul’s Mission

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Work n’ Reward

Society

 Rewards us,

  To work us,

God

 Works us,

  To reward us.

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For quite a number of years, I have been saddened whenever I heard people say that so and so passed on because he or she completed his or her life’s mission. What in particular about  such a statement saddened me is that it seemed to reduce the value of a human life to a mission, an accomplishment; i.e. something with a price tag - even if a spiritual one. This flew in the face of the notion that a human life is too valuable to measure.

This didn't seem to me to be much different from a mindset which places a value on a human being based on his or her contributions to society. Then once “too old” to truly contribute, the rights of the elderly need to be advocated for in the legislative and / or legal systems. They become vulnerable to the highly unfair accusation that their very existence drains society’s resources.

Similarly, casting someone's life in terms of a “mission” had rung to my ears like a manifestation of the same mindset, just on a different scale - one divine and the other societal.

Recently, a potential direction for reconciliation has dawned on me. When speaking of a soul’s mission, what is it that we’re really referring to? We're likely referring either to a soul’s main mitzvah or to behavior closely associated with that main mitzvah. From a certain perspective, the whole purpose of a mitzvah is to earn one’s eventual spiritual bliss. Why? What's earned does not come with the humiliation of a free handout. Rather, it comes free from the sigma brought on by the bread of shame.

Based in this, the divine motive behind sending a soul on a life mission is opposite from the human motive behind employing someone on a job which contributes to society. Human society rewards a person in order to provide an incentive to work. Often enough, the reward comes with a heavy reluctance. It's viewed as a price to pay - which, if possible, society may try to get around.

In contrast, God sets up a system of work, called “mitzvahs” which contribute to the repair of all the various worlds, only in order to reward us. Mainly, the whole system is driven by the kindness of His desire to give. So, society rewards us to work us. In contrast, God works us to reward us.

So, when we speak of a soul completing his or her mission, perhaps we are not attaching a value to the human being on that mission. We’re merely affirming that so and so did whatever he or she can in life to earn spiritual closeness to God in the hereafter.

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