Before this course, my initial position on the human predicament was the abuse of power by exploiting others to gain more power, but based on our course readings and from my own reflection I have learned that this is not entirely the case. Now, I believe the fundamental human situation is that we are insecure in our being as individuals because of the social norms that have taught us that it is right to exploit others for our own benefit. To solve this problem, we must take the time to think, ask questions, and trust God. When we take these steps, God will empower us to gradually learn to demonstrate "self-forgetting love," as Karl Rahner maintains, and bring us closer to social justice and confidence in our purpose in life. life. To support my point, I will rely primarily on three theologians who share a similar perspective on our predicament. To begin with, I was struck by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s view of anxiety. What I found enlightening was not the context of our predicament, as he argued, but the relevance of the word “anxiety” today. What I took away most from Niebuhr's text is that anxiety often leads us to overachieve or underachieve, and as a result, we fall into pride and sensuality. We either work hard to beat others in this corporate world or we settle for what is safe and comfortable, all because we are insecure. To give an example, compare two children: one born into poverty and the other born into wealth. The boy who is born into poverty may strive to succeed in school and in life simply because he wants to avoid being poor, but in doing so he begins to exploit people for his own gain. This child is an example of a person who falls into pride because of his insecurity. As for the boy who is born into fortune, he can n...... middle of paper ......, not only will we recognize the needs of others by redeeming ourselves from sensuality, but we will avoid being proud in recognizing how non-essential material wealth is in our own lives. By doing this, we will escape the “rat race of meaningless competition,” or the “vicious circle” (Arrupe 10), by choosing the love of God and the love of others. reflection, investigation, and recognition is whether I, or anyone else, can choose to trust God. Will we choose to overcome our insecurities and habits and do what promotes justice? Will we have the “courage to be” during this difficult realization, and the courage to choose God over ourselves? If and when we do, we will realize that the only thing more important than our insecurities are the people God tells us to call our brothers and sisters in our greater community..