“I am happy that you are going to join the Society of Jesus. But pray to the Lord that He calls you to Heaven before you reach old age.” This is what a family friend and former student of a Jesuit college told me as I was leaving home to join.

As soon as I reached the novitiate I started looking for ‘old’ Jesuits. But the community consisted mostly of young people: novices, juniors, and a few young priests. There was, however, a brother in his late sixties who was the treasurer of the community. Before long we became ‘friends’. Occasionally he would call me to pray the Rosary at the grotto. He often told me that devotion to our Blessed Mother is very important to persevere in the Society. By the end of our stay in that community he had become a hero to many of us.

I remember when I took leave I teary-eyed. After giving me the traditional Jesuit embrace he said affectionately, “Isha, I expect great things from you. Cling to our Blessed Mother Mary. Let us pray for each other.”

Years rolled by. After about eighteen years I went to meet him. Though he had a paralytic stroke, he was still continuing with his job as the treasurer. When I met him in his office, he almost jumped out of his wheelchair to embrace me. He spoke excitedly about many things. I still remember some of his affectionate words: “Isha, congrats for your Ph.D.! But remember, much learning can lead to pride. Be loyal to Mother Mary and to Mother Church.” Then the postman came to his office. “Ramji, how many letters for my office?” he asked. “Brotherji, not a single one for you,” he replied. “Then why did you come here all the way?” “Brotherji, my day goes well only after I have had your darshan.” Turning to me he said: “Isha, I have to be with the servants till the noon examen. After tea we shall spend some time together.” The employees wanted him to spend a few minutes with each of them, inquiring about their families and advising them on how to spend their hard-earned money. Deeply impressed by the lives of senior Jesuits like this brother, I am glad to write on Growing Old Gracefully in the Society.

A. SOME CROSSES OF OLD AGE LEADING TO THE RESURRECTION

1. The cross of physical weakness
Some years back I asked a senior Jesuit how he was physically. He said, “For a man in his seventies, I am fine. Have you ever seen a pump functioning for seventy five years without wear and tear, without repairs? In my body there are air-pumps, liquid-pumps and solid-pumps all clamouring for repairs? Do you know how many pipes in my body are asking for treatment? For more than seven decades the system in my body has been going on with only minor complaints.” Here is a senior Jesuit who is celebrating his old age.
It is not right to compare the human body to an old car or a dilapidated building. The mind has great control over the body and its welfare. Hence the cliché: age is not in the body but in the mind. We should not, however, forget that the body too has certain control over our mind: menssana in corporesano (a healthy mind in a healthy body).1

2. The crosses in psychic life
Erik Erikson points out eight stages in human development. His view of the eighth stage will suffice here. He calls it the “ego-integrity stage.” Dr C. George Boeree comments on Erikson’s theory of this stage: “It means coming to terms with your life, and thereby coming to terms with the end of life. If you are able to look back and accept the course of events, the choices made, your life as you lived it, as being necessary, then you needn’t fear death… We’ve all made mistakes, some of them pretty nasty ones; yet, if you hadn’t made these mistakes, you wouldn’t be who you are.”

3. The crosses of out-datedness
Alvin Toffler has said that if there is anything permanent in life it is change. Today the world is changing far more rapidly than a few decades ago. With TV, computer, smart phones, etc., what took a septuagenarian a few years to learn in geography or history is picked up by a schoolboy today in less than a week. In the ‘pre-computer’ era mathematical calculations that took a Nobel Laureate years of hard work, can be done today within a few minutes using a laptop.

B. GRACEFUL MOVEMENT, IN SPITE OF HURDLES, TOWARDS THE ‘SUNSET’

1. Awareness of the crosses on the way
Holding on to the cliché ‘age is in the mind not in reality’ can do more harm than good. We Jesuits have the tradition of building our convictions on the rock of reality, not on the sand of make-beliefs. If we keep in mind the three limitations of old age given above then, when we are assailed by our physical and psychological ailments, we will be able to take them lightly and say, “It is part of life.”

2. Growing fascination with a meaningful goal
Life is a journey. Viktor Frankl emphasises that according to logotherapy, striving to find meaning in life is the primary motivational force in man. Hence one speaks of a will to meaning contrasting it with the will to pleasure (pleasure principle) on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centred, as well as in contrast to the will to power stressed by Adlerian psychology.3

3. Resurrection as man’s meaningful destiny
If we are fascinated by the life that the Risen Christ gives us then we would say that it is not death but the life of the resurrection that is our goal. Jesus gives us an apt example of the interconnectedness between the two: “Truly, I tell you, unless the grain of wheat falls on the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn. 12: 24).

Often we consider resurrection as a ‘press-button reality’ realised in a moment. But it can be viewed as a process to be realised partially here on earth, and fully in the beyond. The transfiguration of Christ (Mt. 17:1-8) gives us a glimpse of the mystery of the resurrection as a process, as an already-not-yet reality. Some scripture scholars consider the description of the transfiguration of Christ as an anticipated resurrection narrative. But the transfigured body of Christ was, Christ’s body in the resurrection-process (Cf. Rom. 6; Phil. 3:11 & 12).

THE GREAT POWER AND VALUE OF OLD AGE

“Orare pro Ecclesia et Societate” (to pray for the Church and the Society): this is a respectful way of expressing the meaningful retirement of senior Jesuits. Some religious interpret it as ‘doing nothing.’ But the truth is that the intercessory prayers of any person, especially of an old religious, made with love and zeal for the cause of Christ, are of immense value. If the Church has declared St. Teresa of Lisieux as the Patroness of the Missions it is because of the Church’s faith in the great value of her intercessory prayers. Indeed, the very precious and immensely valuable ‘intercessory prayer capital’ is owned in a special way by senior citizens in the Church. An elderly Jesuit who is aware of the great value of the ‘prayer capital’ owned by him, and who is happy to distribute this priceless treasure among needy persons and communities, is bound to grow old gracefully.

For some scientific information about the physical problems of old age, Cf. Ishanand, Sanyasa,”From Jan. June, 2009, pp. 32- 56)
George Boeree on Erik Erikson. (Web-source).
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, New York: Washington Square Press, 1963, pp.154.