(Rivista Internazionale - December 1994: We are as old as our hopes - 5/6)

But if nothing can comfort you save God, truly God will console you.» (12)
The solitude and emptiness of an old intellectual, surviving the cultural and technological madness of war can be defeated by the thought that God alone is our peace and our consolation. Mr. Sammler, despite the uncertainty of his faith, has come to this truth after much wandering.

Make the «useless age» the age of transparency
As we have seen, the old can redeem the greyness of their age by encountering friendship, love and transcendence. And they can even transfigure it, making it the age of transparency, that is the age which sees beyond, which sees deeper. The intelligence of the heart takes over from the failing strength of the mind, and the horizon is illuminated by a consoling light bringing meaning and value. «Old age needs meaning, and not mechanical lengthening in which death is anticipated without interiorization». Thus wrote the literary theologian Olivier Clément in luminous pages, in which he demonstrates that old age can become the age of transparency because «it fosters another awareness, that awareness which the Christian orient calls the union of the intelligence and the heart».
«Look at the monks of Athos and Moldavia, when age frees them from a reserve that often seems affected to us, but which is the cocoon of the silkworm: the lips become finer and more spiritual, the brow expands and turns into mother-of-pearl, the white hair and beard testify to a transfiguration, the eyes regain the grave amazement of infancy, but with something opaque, impassable, beyond any passion and any fear» (13).
Clément, an Orthodox, recalls the transparency and radiance of the monks of Athos and Moldavia, and with reason; Julien Green, a Catholic, recalls a great friend of his, J. Maritain, in his Journal.
«Maritain is dead. His hand will no longer cover mine [...], he won't send his kisses to Anna and me any longer, leaving us [...]. That marvellous clochard, prince in the kingdom of God, with his angel's smile, his gentle, precise words, his entire soul behind his pale blue eyes, is now in the blessed abode with He whom he loved, in the light of Jesus» (14).
Maritain was 88 years old. He had really become transparent, because of the proximity of his encounter with the Light, and because accustomed by love. «Old age does not exist, or rather, old age only exists where there is no love» (15) Julien wrote to him; and he, Jacques, had an abundance of love.
The transparency of old age inhabited by Light and Grace is beautifully demonstrated by Luciano Radi in his epistolary tale Don Marzio e Don Fabrizio. Don Marzio is an old parish priest, burdened with age and aches and pains. When he realises the emptiness around him - of his friends, plans and interests - he feels tempted to close into himself and give way to tiredness; but the claims of faith win over.
He writes to a friend: «Denying ourselves to see beyond things», and accomplishes it in himself. To see what? To see God who lives in our hearts: «My heart is a tabernacle of Jesus today more than yesterday». To see the multitude of souls beside us: «When I think that in the reality of the Mystical Body I am already together with Paul and Augustine, Francis and Benedict, Bonaventure and Thomas, my heart fills with joy». And so the old priest can admit victory: «Yes, this old age of mine is good: it is nice to feel one's physical energies quenched and realise that the spiritual ones remain entire. The soul is freed in the infinite: I have no taste for things any more, they don't interest me. People consider me useless, dead, but I am already living in Him» (16).
In another novel by Radi, Non Sono Solo, the theme of the transparency which old age can offer is developed further. The solitude and old age of the hero are changed into authentic richness. It enables him to find himself and discover unknown worlds, to understand and transcend material reality and see beyond things, it helps him to construct new spaces for the country of the heart, to foster the sense of the Absolute and the nostalgia of the High, to meet God and man («Communion with God placed me in the centre of history») (17).
These same concepts, expressed in a different, apparently light-hearted and jaunty, way are the heart of a fine, densely packed novel by Ferruccio Parazzoli entitled Carolina dei Miracoli. It tells of a 64-year-old widow, rather ugly, tied up in herself. When she dies, she is not received into heaven; she has to return to her body and go on living, but a new life. In what sense new?

_______________________
(12) S. Bellow, Il pianeta di Mr. Sammler, Feltrinelli, Milan 1971, 224.
(13) 0. Clement, L'altro Sole.
(14) J. Green, La Bouteille à la Mer (1972-1976), Plon, Paris 1976.
(15) Gren - J. Maritain, Une Grande Amitié. Correspondence (1926-1972), présentée et annotée par J. - P. Piriou, ivi, 1979, 102. (16) L. Radi, Un Grappolo di Tonache, Rusconi, Milan 1981, 18 I.
(17) Id., Non sono solo, ivi, 1983, 11. A French book entitled Quand les vieux parlent offers the surprising testimony of a lay person: "Next spring I'll be 72. This means that I have belonged to old age for a long time, and because of a long illness I also became an invalid early on. I can assure you that this last decade is the happiest part of my life. Old age is the age of rest, that not of inertia. There are so many things to do, a multitude of small services to perform, so many hands held out, so many hearts to love, so much suffering to which one can listen and bring consolation, so many joys to bring or to share.
Certainly it is the age of solitude. The ranks are closing, friends have gone. All the past is gradually cancelled out, leaving only memories. But this solitude is enjoyable and restful. One has more time to think, to reflect. Over the years, one has become detached from so many things that everything becomes simpler, everything leaves and God comes. He becomes more present, He is there beside us, He looks at us, listens to us when everything is silent. He watches over us and leads us. It is the time of trust, of surrender, of hope. And it is also the time to give thanks. After benefiting from so much divine consideration, so much love, a song of gratitude comes instinctively to our lips: the Magnificat. It is the time of recollection, of silence. The denials, the separations, the delusions of life have left the space free for God to occupy. And, anyway, is not the time of the Meeting near? Old age is a good age. Nothing is useless in it and if we can't do anything but little things, for God nothing is little. Everything is contained in the Eternal" (Quoted in L. Paulussen, Adattamento Apostolico - Pastorale della Terza età, CIS, Rome 1979, 54s).

next page
back to previous page
back to summary