It’s nearly June, that time of year when we celebrate the gifts and contributions of the seniors in our diocese with the Senior Citizen Day Mass and luncheon.
All my life, I have looked up to my elders with respect and, many times, awe (an early lesson taught to us by our parents). These icons showed me how to live a good, decent, humble, giving, serving life. It is now in awe that I realize I am an elder, and I wonder what legacy I will leave.
I believe that the current world situations (war, COVID, hunger, etc.), not just my aging self, has added challenges and temptations I could not have envisioned. I want peaceful coexistence, I want children fed, I want an inner sense of security. I so want to make a difference.
At times because of COVID, I have felt disconnected with my faith community. Zoom just doesn’t provide the warmth of actually being with people in 3D. Lent was a terrific time for me to assess where I was heading (and why I felt I was in a hand basket).
With distance and isolation, I realized I was allowing myself to turn inwardly to my feelings and my needs (which actually were pretty miniscule). What kind of legacy would this leave?
Then I thought about Eleazar, who lived at the time of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Maccabees 6:18-31). Jews were being forced by a king’s decree to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Out of respect and to keep the old Eleazar from being tortured and killed, the king’s officials advised him to pretend to eat the meat without actually doing so. A small indiscretion, a tiny hypocrisy.
I believe that, in the past couple of years, I saw my seemingly small lapses of faith – pretending to eat but not eating – as just little indiscretions. Eleazar would see them differently. When challenged, he responded by saying that dishonoring the faith in old age to gain a handful of days cannot be compared with the legacy it must leave to the young for generations to come. Well done Eleazar! I want to be an Eleazar!
This old man, who lived his faith for his whole lifetime, would not condemn the new generation to thinking that our whole faith is just some inner reality whose outer covering can be put on or cast off at will. That kind of thinking, that kind of faith, would be a sham.
In our current society and culture, the practice of faith suffers from a negative portrayal, sometimes in the form of cultural irony, sometimes with covert marginalization. We elders need to step up.
Pope Francis said it best during a weekly Wednesday audience this month.
“Faith deserves respect and honor to the very end: It has changed our lives, it has purified our minds, it has taught us the worship of God and the love of our neighbor. It is a blessing for all! But the faith as a whole, not just a part of it.
“Like Eleazar, we will not barter our faith for a handful of quiet days. … It’s a matter of life. Believe in the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new, and He will gladly help us. … Please look at the young people: They are watching us. … Our consistency can open up a beautiful path of life for them. Hypocrisy, on the other hand, will do so much harm.”
Eleazar died leaving a model of nobility and an unforgettable example of virtue not only for the young but also for the whole nation. I want to be that example: living my faith every day and in every way. I am more focused on truth, not spin. I want no doubt on where I stand with the Church and Jesus Christ. Join me.
We all can be an Eleazar!
The Senior Citizen Day Mass and luncheon is Tuesday, June 7 at Reynoldsburg St. Pius X Church. Mass is at 10:30 a.m. with the luncheon to follow. For details and to register, contact the diocesan Office for Social Concerns at (614) 241-2540 or socmailbox@columbuscatholic.org, and check The Catholic Times.