Foundations of the Future

 

This society is getting old. It is a sociological observation. Now, the fact that there are increasingly older people could be something very positive. It means that life expectancy, and a quality life, is getting longer thanks to advances in medicine. The serious thing about aging would be that it lead to hopelessness, isolation, loneliness; it would be equally serious if care did not reach everyone, or if it were conditioned by the economic situation, because this would be a sign of a wealthy society, in which many human beings are often forgotten, isolated, and despised.

Among the elderly, as occurs in all social groups, there are some who are more integrated, or have a higher economic or cultural level. But, in one way or another, everyone has a richer experience and memories than those of the young. Sometimes they have lost some vitality. It would seem that the elderly, from the outset, should have more dissatisfactions than the young. It's not really like that. Satisfaction does not depend on age, but on how life is lived, on the loves that are preserved, on the look with which we address others, on the inner wealth that one has and, for the believer, on his degree of encounter with God. Of course, each stage of life has its own needs. And it is possible that, in relation to the so-called Third Age, It is true that the ability to be heard is not precisely proportional to the needs that one has. Hence the importance of discovering under many silences the cries that cannot be heard.