The Autumn of Life
Deacon Alex
In 1999, His Holiness Pope John Paul II wrote a personal letter to the elderly1. “As an older person myself, I have felt the desire to engage in a conversation with you.” (para. 1) Following the famous Roman orator Cicero, the saintly Pope called old age “The autumn of life”. If I may paraphrase a popular political jargon, old age is our “harvest time”. Compared with another imagery of the “setting sun”, “the autumn of life” is forward-looking indeed!The life expectancy of ancient people was very much shorter than modern men. They rarely lived beyond seventy. So goes the Psalms, “Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong.” (Psalms 90:10) Nowadays, medical technology has so greatly advanced that if a person or his family is able to afford, it is possible to lead a life beyond one hundred and twenty which is a limit set by God (Genesis 6:3). Isn’t that a blessing to be born a modern man?
In ancient times when knowledge grew at a snail’s pace, senior citizens enjoyed respect and dignity because they were the embodiment of wisdom! But nowadays, knowledge explodes at such a pace that nobody on this planet is able to master a small fragment of it even if they have the will and the power, not to mention senior citizens who lack both. Senior citizens are no longer able to command respect because fast-paced modern people don’t buy their “wisdom”! As such, longevity is becoming more a curse than a blessing!
Let’s stay positive my dear older brothers and sisters! Memory failure is not as bad as you imagine. There are indeed many happy people who only remember “good” things in their lives. They are grateful to everybody they have met. Losing those good memories seems to be a pity. On the other hand, for those bitter people who only remember how others have cheated them and have bullied them, isn’t losing those bad memories a good thing? Exactly! Alzheimer’s disease is an indifferent equalizer. It wipes out both good and bad memories without showing any favouritism. Why then did I exhort you at the beginning of this paragraph to stay positive? It is because charity is a Christian duty. Stay positive, be grateful and remember only good things in your lives so that in your old age, you as well as your care-takers in the future will be happy! Stay negative, be cynical and remember only bad things in your lives, you’re heaping coals of fire on your own heads as well as your future care-takers’. Everybody suffers until Alzheimer disease comes to your aid!
My dear older brethren! At the end of the day, we are all path-finders showing people how to cross over the threshold to eternal life --- death. Sooner or later, all of us would return to our Creator and eternity is our destiny. We’ll either be gaining infinitely good experiences in eternal life in the company of all the angels and saints or infinite bitterness in hell in the company of Satan. The present social milieu is a depressing one. Let our remaining days be a guidepost to those around us, showing them different paths to eternity which shall be bitterness or sweetness of different degrees. With the support of Our Lady of Mount Carmel who went all the way to support her elderly cousin Elizabeth, let us show people the true colours of autumn and a gleam of hope in eternity. Amen!
God bless!
1 https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_01101999_elderly.html
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