Word to the Wise
Friday, May 9, 2008 - Friday in the Seventh Week of Easter
[Acts 25:13B-21 and John 21:15-19]Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
Church tradition holds that St. Peter did not die of old age! Yet, the Gospel of John interprets this statement of Jesus' as telling Peter how he would glorify Jesus in the way he (Peter) would die. More significantly, Jesus ends those words with two others, "Follow me!" Those two words probably say more because Peter would indeed be martyred. Nevertheless, the words quoted above are so evocative of a large segment of our population now, I cannot help but reflect on them, if only because I am right on the early edge of the "Boomer" generation that is so often cited as the major threat to the social security system! I was born in 1943 and turned 65 in February. Each day I celebrate the Eucharist for two congregations of mostly elderly Dominican sisters. One of the congregations is in a nursing care facility (the Sansbury Care Center) connected by an enclosed walkway to the Motherhouse. Physically, it is not a great distance to travel. But on other levels, for these women, it can be a great gulf. Their freedom, already limited by advancing age (the majority of the sisters in the Motherhouse are retired), is limited yet more by the institutional necessities of the Sansbury Center (the nursing care facility). It is a great spiritual, moral, and physical challenge to accept this journey down the walkway and into a new phase of life where many will "stretch out their hands, be dressed and led where they do not want to go." They are a tremendous example to me of the asceticism of aging and a challenge to me to recognize my own future. The contrast between this ministry and the one I exercise on a part time basis at St. Catharine College on the same campus with the Motherhouse and Sansbury Center brings it home every day. The age range I minister to is roughly 18-101 years!!!! The wonderful care received by the sisters accounts for the abundance of years that many of them enjoy. I am confident that I will receive similar care when that time comes, but I am also aware of so many in the same position age and health-wise as these sisters who have little to fall back on in their needs. Their asceticism can be cruel and the occasional media treatment of nursing care facilities is not reassuring. For the sisters to whom I minister, life is much better and the staff works hard to make that life as meaningful and enjoyable as possible. However, it ultimately comes down to those two words that Jesus says: "Follow me." AMEN
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