Today as I was reading, Theology in Practice: A beginner’s Guide to the Spiritual Life, I came across a wonderful perspective on old age.
From the perspective of spiritual life, old age should not be identified with retirement just because one’s potential for work in decreasing and he is less and less capable of learning in the secular sense of the word. According to ancient human experience, we acquire wisdom only in old age. This includes a deeper understanding, a unified vision, and a summation and digestion of accumulated experiences. The theology of death points out that death invites us to summarize our lives. But in order to surrender to God with on definitive gesture the totality of our existence, we first, as a rule, need to review our life and at least attempt to understand its meaning. Ordinarily, old age is the time to accomplish this task. Another responsibility of old age Is to make sure that the insights we have gained from an evaluation of the accumulation of our life experiences may become a source of learning for a new generation. There is no more difficult and more necessary task for us in our old age than to remain open to the world of the young people. Only then can we present the fruits of our experience in such a form and language that the upcoming generation will be inclined to take them to heart.
Just something that I thought worthy of sharing.
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