Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
The nurse wheeled the almost mute, or at least pretty inexpressive, 84-year old down a corridor where college students walked, talked, yelled, laughed, and giggled. She says: "He likes to hear the kids." Maybe there's more going on in that head than meets the eye. Psalm 51 could be running through his head: "Make me hear rejoicing and gladness that the bones you have crushed may thrill." "The bones you have crushed" seems fairly apt for the condition of elderly bodies battered by time and debility. At that age we probably are not going to contribute a lot of exhilaration and singing, but we may still delight to hear it.
The old man was fortunate in that the retirement center was run in conjunction with a religious house and an undergraduate college. Some of the lively and laughing lads and lasses nearby were generous and daring enough to visit the elderly; they'd try to talk to them but, better yet, were willing to listen to hard-to-terminate reminiscences. The elderly benefit from interaction with livelier and younger generations. They can experience in the young and lively some taste of the new and resurrected life that awaits. — And the young? Who knows what it may do for them.
