- There is little that is so difficult for a person to bear as loneliness.
- Prisoners held in solitary confinement have told of rejoicing to see even a spider – at least it is something alive.
- God created us to be communal beings. Yet our modern world is frighteningly devoid of relationships.
- In many areas of life, technological progress has resulted in the deterioration of community. Increasingly, technology has made people seem unnecessary.
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a man deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost… Despair is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that he is above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny ourselves.But a man who is truly humble cannot despair, because in a humble man there is no longer any such thing as self-pity. We see here that pride is a curse that leads to death. Humility, however, leads to love. Love is the greatest gift given to humankind; it is our true calling. It is the “yes” to life, the “yes” to community. Love alone fulfills the longing of our innermost being. God created us to live with and for others.