Value Added

I've been thinking about what we value in our society and why it is we value it. It all started like this...
My dad's sister married a guy from France, moved there and had 5 beautiful kids and they all come to visit every few years. My cousin Jérémie who is 13 and the only boy with 4 sisters seems to lack a good mentor in the faith and is starting to think like his friends, who are atheists as so many in France are now. His father is a faithful man, but what 13 year old wants to be like his dad? He is struggling with the concept of God in general as he is finding it hard to defend to his friends.
I raised the question of the value of a human being to him; "are you valuable as a human being"? He of course responded yes and I asked him why, which he could not answer.
The thing is that we as humans have absolutely no value. We are finite and the universe is infinite. Even if the universe was finite, the empty space surrounding it has no conceivable boundary. Things that are finite in comparison to that which is infinite are relative to zero. This is a mathematical principle, in fact calculus is based on the assumption that as X approaches infinity the relation 1/X becomes 0. Since the universe is infinite and we are finite, in comparison to the whole universe, we are meaningless organisms who have no value of our own.
Funny enough, if I killed someone just because I wanted to, that would be tragic and unjust. Why is that? Even if I were to kill a homeless person it would be a tragedy, and society who was so quick to forget the person in life would be as quick to convict and punish me for the murder. Why? Simply put because that person has value because they are a person and so does every other person. However how can this be since we have shown human life to be insignificant?
Just at the same time that finite things are meaningless, infinite things are meaningful since ∞/∞ is 1. It is only because finite things mean nothing that the infinite means what it does. The only source of value that exists is the infinite, which we as humans call God.
As Catholics we know that God is infinite and that God is the source of life, but in this perspective we know that God is the source of our value as well. The catechism proclaims this very truth clearly. We mean anything because we mean everything to God. He created us that way. It is easy to forget sometimes that we are valuable only because we mean something to God.
So this was the explaination I gave my cousin about the existence of God. I think it made a difference to him, but one can only hope and pray. However it opened another interesting train of though as well. If we are valuable only because God gives us this value, what else is valuable? Are the things we find valuable really valuable? In fact, if we don't have any value in and of ourselves we don't even have the authority or ability to define what is valuable. This means that we must look to God, the source of our value, to tell us what is valuable. We have all sorts of ideas about what is valuable, but without divine blessing, they aren't really valuable at all.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first letter:
3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw 13 the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14 If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire
Whatever survives will earn the builder a reward. Whatever survives the testing fire is valuable if it rewards the builder. What will survive the fire? Works of faith, love and charity done for the Lord in his work in accordance with his will.
It is a sobering thought for me because my priorities just don't line up with that sometimes. I think we all need a wake up call sometimes.