When the moustache starts greying and the head gets balder, when knees or bellies making bending forward a luxury, when a game of basketball seems to be in the distant past and a brisk walk is the only option, when checking the lipid profiles become a routine and taking medicines a daily routine, when cataracts ripen and dentures embarrass, when prostate take away the liberty of unzipping and memory the luxury of zipping, when panting starts from the first step on the staircase and erratic BP a nightmare, when sleep gets interrupted and its hours fewer, when a trembling hand stirs the coffee and the walking stick becomes a soul companion, when a once pooh-poohed ‘life after death’ begin haunting or perhaps the hymn “coming home” sound soothing, we know age is knocking the door. With dwindling vocations the average age in religious congregations is shooting up and the infirmaries are becoming ever smaller. Such a phenomenon adds to a call within our call: the call to age gracefully.

In the Ignatian view, aging or illness are only a witness that root us and ground us once again in the Principle and Foundation with a gentle reminder to the forgotten “tantum quantum” (literally in so far as but denoting indifference). Paradoxically, in Sanskrit jijivisha (desire to live) and titiksha (desire to leave) are just the two sides of the same coin. Spiritual life is the first sanjivani (mythical medicine that lends immortality) that breaks the dusk of aging into a dawn of a new inning. A drama “102, Not Out” portrays a centenarian father infusing spirit of life in his septuagenarian son who in spirit has turned hundred much before his father with his constant complaints against life. The life line of prayer springs new horizons awakening one to the abundant blessings of aging.

How else should we navigate through the transition of aging to a higher level of existence? Gerard McKevitt, SJ quotes from Plato’s The Republic in his article The Gifts of Aging, (pg. 1): “The very old . . . have gone before us on a road we too perhaps must take, and I think we should inquire of them what sort of road it is.” Legacy is the gift of the aged and spiritual heritage is superior to physical monuments. Sharing the mature wine of experience (not advice) with the generations to come in the form of writings or retreats or counselling is another graceful aspect of aging.

To a newly appointed but reluctant, eighty five year old, director of a publication house in America, his Provincial said, “Your predecessor retired at the age of ninety one, you still have six years to work.” The concept of retirement itself is rather aged in the East compared to the West. It is the mind that ages before the body. While external beauty may wither, the sense of inner beauty begins blossoming. The ancient tradition of four ashramas (phases of life) reveals the beauty of every phase of life: the vanprasth ashrama (after 50) and the sanyas ashrama (after 60) highlight the detachment from this life and attachment to a new life hereafter. Every aging is drawing nearer to a new beginning.

Finally, aging is more a quality of the mind than the body. Matter corrupts, the spirit is incorruptible. An indomitable spirit is an ageless spirit. Truth never tires, it always wins. It makes the truthful one the most indefatigable of all. A life in truth is the key to all well-being which in turn leads to a divine agelessness. Some people never age!

Can we accompany those who are in this sacred journey of aging?

Vinayak Jadav, SJ