The Upside of Aging

The Upside of Aging

There is no escaping aging, and with it the gradual physical deterioration; our reflexes slower, our senses, mind and memory failing, and perhaps sickness in some form, or other health issues. At some point we also lose our good looks. That's just how life is. It's hard to grow old, so they say.

But on the brighter side we ought to celebrate aging and birthdays, if by the passing of years we grow spiritually–in wisdom and in grace. More and more we ought to realize that the soul is the greater part of our composite nature; we come to appreciate its greatness, and calmly accept the mortality of our body.

Now spiritual growth, for us Catholics, can only mean growth in the supernatural life of grace, that divine life in us we call ‘Sanctifying Grace’- through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the depths of our being, in our soul; the Holy Spirit becomes the SOUL of our soul.

This is much more than a personal relationship with God. We can have God within us REALLY, though not substantially as in the Eucharist. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls gives us SANCTIFYING GRACE, which makes us “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pt 1:4). For “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). We are truly DIVINIZED (Deified).

And why should we doubt the possibility of being divinized? Actually, it is the very plan of God for us, to be his adopted children in Jesus. In his farewell discourse (Jn 14ff) Jesus assured his disciples: “I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, that Spirit of truth…because he is with you, he is IN you (‘will be IN you) (Jn 14:,16-18). And again: “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14: 23-24). We take these words of our Lord LITERALLY the same way we do his promise to give us his flesh and blood to be our spiritual food. Truly the Blessed Trinity is present in our soul when we are in the state of grace. God's life in our souls is the principle of our gradual inner transformation into becoming more and more like Jesus. We become god-men/women in the God-Man, Jesus, through His Holy Spirit in us.

This divine life in us ought to increase and intensify through a life of PRAYER–an ever growing, constant, deep communion with God, frequent and worthy reception of the Sacraments, and good works.Then more and more it will manifest in our thoughts, words, and eventually in our actions. We will grow in humility, purity, and charity, even heroic charity. Even our tastes and affections will be transformed to a godly level. Perhaps we can liken it to a liquid gradually seeping through a surface, or water going inside a soaked object, (or marinating food). Increase in Sanctifying Grace would affect more and more our mind, our affections, and our will, conforming it more and more to God's will. We will see worldly pleasures for the baubles that they are. In short we will grow in holiness.

Still one may be inclined to explain away the reality of the invisible grace, even as we take for granted the reality of the invisible WiFi or electricity, because these are proven by external manifestations. Thankfully we do have observable manifestations/proofs of the reality of divine life (holiness) in us, this intimate union with God through grace (interior life): First, there is the odor of sanctity, that sweet fragrance which many Saints emitted even during their lifetime. Then there are the many marvels these great men and women of God performed during their lifetime. Then there are the 'incorruptibles' (Saints), evidence of the extraordinarily high degree to which God's life/grace has permeated their souls, so that it could not but manifest also in the body through freedom from decay. In short, these are obvious manifestations of divine life in their souls.

These of course are the more extraordinary cases. But actually when we are in the state of grace, and able to conquer temptations, do works of charity, or some other 'miracle', we are manifesting ‘God's life’ in us. The life of grace bears fruit in us. We have only to deepen and intensify this upward thirsting supernatural life that we have. And if because of weakness we fall into sin, then we go to confession. A worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance gives us the moral certainty that we are restored to grace.

This growth in supernatural life is the only upside of aging. And so “we are not discouraged; rather although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2Cor 4:16). This is our destiny, to be DIVINIZED, and be transformed from within until our full divinization on the last day, when our Lord “will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body.” (Phil 3:21, cf.1Jn 3:2) But even now, “we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.” (2Cor 3:18).

May we all age gracefully. It is never too late nor too early to begin aging. Let the passing of years be for us an opportunity to work out, not only our salvation, but our divinization, our gradual transformation from within, to be more and more like Jesus, until our full divinization in Heaven. Let us also be reminded that the degree of our happiness/glory in heaven will depend upon the degree to which God's life has permeated our soul here on earth.