What can I change in life?
There is only one thing we can change - the way we see things.
Can we apply this truth to the ageing
process?
We can change all kinds of things around
us.
We cannot abolish the ageing process; death
is certain.
What can we do?
We can see our ageing process differently.
We must face the facts of ageing:
if we fail to do this, we miss the treasure
that lies hidden in our fears.
Ageing brings diminishment. You can fill in the details for
yourself!
Besides
physical loss, there are the mental and emotional pains which can accompany
loss of job, of status and of independence.
Regret for past losses of close relatives, friends, for broken
relationships, for injustices suffered, for the harm we have done, the good we
have failed to do. There is also the pain we may suffer from ‘nice’ people, who
put us firmly into the elderly category and treat us as helpless objects of
their compassion!
Here is an imaginative exercise you can do
to enable you to catch a glimpse of the treasure within you. Write the kind of obituary you would love to
have after your death. Do not let
reality limit you in the slightest.
Keep asking yourself ‘What
do I most long for in my life?’ That
is the most valuable search you can undertake whatever your age. You have started on a journey of
discovery. Yes, you have thousands of
desires, but keep searching for the deepest.
The process takes time, a lifetime. We shall never find a neat, clear answer. The answer is greater than anything we can
think or imagine: the search is worth every moment. It is the diminishment we are suffering which
is forcing us down to new and very painful depths of ourselves. We are becoming aware of our fragility, our
feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
To acknowledge to ourselves the truth of this experience is the first
step to discovering the treasure.
The poet Francis Thompson called God ‘The
Hound of Heaven’, who pursued him down the arches of the years until God
cornered him, then spoke:-
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of his hand outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah fondest, blindest weakest,
I am he whom thou seekest!’
Our pain of diminishment is the pain of
desire, the desire to let God be the God of love and compassion to us and
through us, and this God is nearer to us than we are to ourselves!
Gerard W. Hughes sj
Edinburgh
Due to
weather conditions not many people were able to attend Father Gerard’s talk but
we were able to film it – we have a limited number of DVD’s available but could
get more if response is great. Cost £5
Please
contact info@fiop.org.uk if you would like a copy
