The Fourth Sunday of July was chosen by Pope Francis in 2021 to be henceforth known as The World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The choice of date is explained by its proximity to yesterday’s Memorial of Saints Joachim and Ann, the parents of Mary. Today is the fifth annual observance on which we are encouraged to pray for and with those who are old.
Today is a day to pray in thanksgiving for the wisdom of the elderly, a gift that only slowly accrues to the young. It is a day to pray for an end to the growing tragedy that legalizes the planned and intentional killing of the sick and elderly by physicians. This killing is described, of course, using veiled terms, that required turning what had been the Oath of Hippocrates into a travesty so that it would fit the culture of death described by John Paul II.
Being an old man or an old woman in the age denying U.S. is not easy. We live in a country in which youth, productivity, and vigor are celebrated, if not worshipped and adored, while the elderly are increasingly marginalized. Australian Trappist Fr. Michael Casey writes: "Some societies reverence the old, seeing in them the embodiments of ancient wisdom and experience. We, on the contrary, seem to hanker after illusory youthfulness, an illusion that is quickly and irretrievably left behind." There are no viable arguments to counter Casey’s assessment.
In his letter for today’s observance, Pope Leo XIV wrote: "God teaches us that, in His eyes, old age is a time of blessing and grace, and that the elderly are the first witnesses of hope." Later he writes, "if it is true that the weakness of the elderly needs the strength of the young, it is equally true that the inexperience of the young needs the witness of the elderly in order to build the future with wisdom.”
Nothing horrifies Americans so much as the thought of aging. Among the most insulting of comments directed at old people is the ever popular "You're not 76 years old, You're 76 years young." Throw in a few high-decibel whoo whoo whoos and a fist pump or two if your are so inclined.
Few things cause as much anxiety as the prospect of having to live within the physical, cognitive, and functional limits imposed as we get old. Insisting that an octogenarian is young efficiently accomplishes two things. First, it strips the individual of his or her dignity giving the message that only the young who are vigorous, active, productive, and money earners are valued. Second, it reveals the speaker's terror of aging, fear of death, lack of compassion, and general unkindness.
Some do have an easier time with aging than others, at least for a while, but, no matter what, we cannot afford to deny the reality of the old by insisting they are really young. Cosmetic Botox is one of the saddest commentaries on aging in America.
If we truly honor and respect the elderly we accept each individual for who, what, and how he or she really is rather than demanding they be who, what, and how we want them to be, which is young, independent, vigorous, and ideally, not a bother.
Growing Old in Christ is a 20-some year-old book. with nineteen essays on ‘the Christian practice of growing old.’ In his essay, Stanley Hauerwaus writes, "one of the problems of our time is the assumption that we can and should live as if we will never grow old." In reality, however, the only sure way to avoid growing old is to die young. The Book of Job asks: “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” From the vantage point of turning 76 in a few weeks, the only possible answer is yes.
Wisdom is a gift meant to be shared with the young, even those who are unwilling to accept it. Sometimes bits of it stick even to those who would reject it. Wisdom is not innate or genetic. It is acquired through long experience of success and failure, it accrues through both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It is acquired most easily by those with a listening heart and the courage to enter into the silence and solitude of prayer so as to reflect on their lives with awareness that those lives are nearing an end.
Wisdom, for its part, is a force in the world that is critical to civilization, fundamental to being human, and the most significant factor that separates us from all lower animals. Wisdom is not an element of “artificial intelligence”a title that gets it only half-right: it is artificial.
When others insist that an old man or an old woman is YOUUUUUUUUNG they are denying his or her life-experience, disparaging the challenges he or she faced, and throwing in a complimentary dollop of hostility, in part because the old person mirrors what the speaker fears, if said speaker lives long enough.
The Swiss moral philosopher Henri Amiel correctly wrote.
"To know how to grow old
is the masterwork of wisdom
and one of the most difficult chapters
in the great art of living."
In light of today’s commemoration the final verses of the Book of Habakkuk, what is sometimes referred to as the Psalm of Habakkuk, are particularly relevant. They acknowledge the situation for many of us who are old and facing diminished strength along with loss of resources. Habakkuk simultaneously gives comfort, hope, and direction.
"For though the fig tree blossom not
nor fruit be on the vines,
though the yield of the olive fail
and the terraces produce no nourishment,
though the flocks disappear from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
Yet will I rejoice in the Lord
and exult in my saving God.
God, my Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet swift as those of hinds
and enables me to go upon the heights
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The photos are from the Church of St. Martin d'Ainay in Lyon, France. I could lose my mind, and came close to it, shooting photos in Lyon, a tremendously photogenic city with magnificent and ancient churches.
The bicycle? The geometry of a bicycle is oddly soothing. These were parked in front of the church.
Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
