A FAVORABLE YEAR

A new year always reminds us of time passing… so quickly. It escapes us. Of course, our relationship with time varies greatly depending on our moods and our interests. One person was surprised that when she listens, the time is very long and when she speaks, it is suddenly very short. There are also strong moments that mark us for life. Even Ben Sira the Wise said in the Bible that “worries make you grow old before your time” (30, 24)

After these observations, we see clearly that a choice is offered to us: to despair or to live fully this time, these days, this old age that are offered to us, live them positively. The same Ben Sira exclaimed “How beautiful it is, at the age of white hair, to have judgment and, in old age, to know how to advise!” How beautiful is the wisdom of the ancients, as well as the reflection and advice of venerable people! The crown of old men is their great experience; their pride is the fear of the Lord. » (25, 5-6)

Pope Francis says that “longevity is a blessing”. As the word signifies, God speaks well of long days and old age. Time is therefore given to us. It is the favorable time, the Kairos as developed in the Bible. It is the opportune time, the favorable time. It is the time when God acts. It is at the very heart of what constitutes our days that we receive this gift. Over the years, this Kairos, this action of God, continues to be at work. "God's plan of salvation, in fact, is also realized in the poverty of weak, sterile and powerless bodies...The elderly person, even when they are weak, can become the instrument of the history of salvation..." recalled the Pope Francis in 2020.

The work of salvation continues in our time which needs it so much and we are always invited to receive and develop it. The elderly are “the present and the tomorrow of the Church”.
So Happy New Year !

Father René Aucourt
Chaplain of the French Mouvement chrétien des retraités

You, the Lord, have come to share our limited days.
You, Lord, have entered our time.
You, Jesus, have grown “in age and your spirit has been strengthened”.
You have also experienced rejection, ordeal, and even death.
You are victorious, alive… and our days are transfigured.
Our old days are becoming a favorable time.
With the limits, the fatigue, the declines, the fragilities
We receive and invent life.