Friday of the
Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
(Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 5:33-39)
It is always perplexing to hear people seemingly without a
prejudiced sentiment in their soul deride old age. Perhaps they invert a friend’s age saying
that she is thirty-seven rather than seventy-three. Or maybe they repudiate that the friend has
any age at all be calling her “seventy-three years young.”
What is it about old age that we don’t like to think of
ourselves or those whom we love as having a part in it? When living things become old, they naturally
die so humans at least fear growing old for that reason. Similarly, we know that in old age people
experience a decrease in ability, be it the physical capacity to work day and
night or the mental ability to recall facts immediately. But becoming old has positive sides. People often correct destructive behavior patterns
in old age, and there is some truth to the celebrated “wisdom of old age.” Antiques have a definite charm as they imply
craftsmanship and originality. In
today’s gospel Jesus reminds us of an item that generally improves with years –
wine.
American Catholics need to be wary of denigrating old age
because both their faith tradition and their government are practically
ancient. The Catholic Church is
sometimes dubbed “the oldest institution in the world.” Likewise, there are few constitutional
governments older than that of the United States
