Laura Adams- Gladiator quote

12/3/09- This Life and the Next
I recently watched the movie Gladiator and was struck by a particularly philisophical quote one of the characters made. The quote that caught my attention was one spoken by the protagonist Maximus. As a Roman general fighting Germanic tribes on the northern frontiers of the empire, he is about to lead his men into battle. As he prepares the cavalry for their charge, he gives a short motivational speech in which he states, "What we do in life echoes in eternity." This line impressed me because I realized it is a concise summary of the beliefs of many people about the purpose of life on earth. The followers of many religions hold that one's fate in the afterlife relies on one's ability to in some way reconcile with a higher power. This realization in turn caused me to consider my own thoughts on the matter as a Christian. Christians believe that reconciliation with God comes in the form of believing in Jesus' sacrifice as the only way to salvation from both a fallen nature and consequent eternal damnation. Jesus died and was resurrected because he alone possessed a righteous nature, as both God and man, and so was the only perfect atonement for sinful mankind. By professing faith in these things, a person will receive eternal life in the presence of God in heaven after death. Of course I realize that not everyone has this point of view. However, I would argue that in some way, all people have within their belief systems some final goal of achieving peace with a greater being. Some think they will become part of that being eventually. Others view the being as one which needs to be appeased; one must perform various rites in order to curry favor. Still others think that one need only settle wtih oneself in order to end life peacefully. Whatever the individual beliefs, they all revolve around the central theme of fixing something gone wrong. Tying this truth back in with the above movie quote, I would say that all belief systems contain the idea that, if whatever needs mending is altered for the better, in the life of the individual follower, that person will receive a peacful afterlife. The quote assumes exactly this, proclaiming a universally recognized truth: what happens in the present life of each person directly influences what happens in the next.