Seneca on living life to the full

I have just come across Seneca the Younger’s essay ‘On the Shortness of Life’ and my first impression is that it contains some remarkably good advice – advice that could have been tailor-made to incorporate into Christian spirituality. So relevant did his writings seem to the Church Fathers that he was adopted as a quasi-Christian author in the Western Church. In fact, Jerome and Augustine treated him as if he were a Christian.

Here is a sample from the introduction to the essay:

It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while wealth however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly. (De brevitate I.3–4)

Of course, the question arises, what constitutes good use of our time? Seneca thought that quiet meditation on the classical philosophers was a good use of time. A Christian perspective would be rather different – it would likely start with Christ’s summary of the Law:

Jesus said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’ (Matthew 22:37-40)

So, for the Christian, the good life is one devoted to prayer, to seeking to understand God (as far as is possible), and to loving our neighbour. The gospel defines ‘neighbour’ very widely to include our enemies and it presents a daunting picture of what loving our neighbour should look like:

I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. (Matthew 25:35–36)