The instinct of conservation and the lack of
faith, make us have horror of irremediable aging. We have made youth a myth.
"Youth, divine treasure, said the poet, and losing youth we consider a
drama.
It is sad to see mature and post-mature people,
try to defend themselves from baldness, gray hair, wrinkles ... They do not, of
course, manage to deceive anyone, least of all stop time.
All the plastic surgery operations they undergo,
neither preserve the youthful beauty, nor subtract a single day from their
advanced age. All these vein attempts to drink in the fountain of eternal youth
only show that we have lost the meaning of life and death.
Age not only makes us put temporal things in their
proper measure (something that young people have not yet learned) but they
bring us closer and closer to God, our ultimate end. The elders have an
advantage over the boys. They are already reaching their full realization; they
are reaching the goal.
The great St. Paul writes to us: "That is why
we are not discouraged. On the contrary, while our exterior is being destroyed,
our inner man is renewed day by day. The light and soon-passing trial prepares
us for eternity a wealth of glory so great that it cannot be compared. We,
then, do not look at what is seen, but at the invisible, since the visible
things last a moment and the invisible things are forever." (2 Cor.4,16-18)
And it is not that we meekly resign ourselves to the inevitable. It is on the contrary the joyful awareness that we are being called by God.Gray hair and wrinkles are the signs of this joyful calling. And diseases and ailments tell us the same thing: the goal is already near. Soon you will see God.
The great Saint Ignatius of Antioch, an old man on
his way to martyrdom, joyfully advances to the encounter with God and writes to
the Romans: "My love is crucified and the fire of earthly desires is no
longer left in me; I only feel within myself the voice of a living water that
speaks to me and says to me, 'Come to the Father. I no longer find delight in
the material food or pleasures of this world."
How wonderful to come to understand that death is
the beginning of true life and that all this has been nothing but an essay, a
path, an invitation!
