The Need to Reunite a Society Divided by Age
There are two major populations within our society that are seeing a statistical rise in the number of suicides. At a time when a growing body of research shows that people with the most social power pay scant attention to those with little such power, our nation’s youth, and the elderly, are suffering the most. A whole generation of young people are without hope for the future, and are without hope of ever fulfilling their dreams. Even with college degrees, many will not find work that gives them a sense of fulfillment, and they are increasingly feeling a hopelessness that has become overpowering.
Turning a blind eye to the plight of these young people, our society is also ignoring the same growing despair that is overwhelming large numbers of our senior citizens. Many of our seniors feel discounted, and feel as though they are now an invisible segment of our society, with nothing to offer. Both of these populations are experiencing poverty, marginalized from the job market, and feeling an increased sense of worthlessness. Both segments have been disenfranchised, and made to feel they have little to offer, and with no hope for the future.
The social distance between those with greater power and those with less is bad enough, but our youth and our seniors have become the most disenfranchised, of a nation that has seen the middle class wiped out, while the interpersonal interactions between the generations has grown epidemic. Inequality is soaring in the United States, and these two bodies of our population are suffering the most.
A prerequisite to the empathy that would help alleviate the pain of our young and our old, requires that we all start paying attention to those around us who are suffering. If we are to turn this horrid societal downturn around, we must make sure we do not ignore the cause of this suffering. We must be compassionate regarding the despair experienced by our young and our old, and find solutions that unite all of us.
We must find solutions that rekindle a sense of hope for the future, that involves both our young and our old. In past generations, these two segments of our society were interwoven in everyday life. The young experienced the love and support of senior citizens, valued members of our communities. The young knew they had a future because the rest of society affirmed them, loved them, respected them, and offered them hope for the future. Such affirmation must begin anew.
A healthy society values both their old and their young, and we must return to those root values that instilled in all of us a sense of belonging. We need to promote the all important inter-exchange between our young and our old, while demonstrating the importance of living and working together, united in our common humanity, where age does not divide us, and where we see the innate value in everyone, regardless of financial status, race, education, or age.
Tuning in to the needs and feelings of another person is a prerequisite to empathy, which is so desperately needed in these difficult times. The very old offer us wisdom that comes with age, while our young offer hope for a future that will be better for all of us. The old can help us avoid the pitfalls and dangers of societal mistakes of the past, while our youth can energize a future that gives hope to a humanity that has lost its way. Dismissing as inconvenient either of these generations, dooms us to no future, and to a lost past.
Turning a blind eye to the plight of others, be they the poor, the young, the racially different, the old, or any other human being, is simply to ignore God created all of us in His image and likeness, and we are as one family, even if religion, or sociological differences seem to separate us. To ignore even one family member is to go against God’s plan for His children. That even one member of this family would feel worthless, reflects on our own failure to love.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
I’m in Roswell, Georgia, for the next ten days. Having arrived on Friday, I will be attending the ordination of Isaac Weaver into the holy priesthood on the Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt, by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia’s Metropolitan Nicholas. I was ordained on this very feast day by Archbishop Kyrill in San Francisco’s Holy Virgin “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Orthodox Cathedral.
On Friday, April 26th, I will be speaking at 7 pm in Saint Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church (1765 Woodstock Rd, Roswell, Georgia). If you are a follower of my videos or blog articles, and live within driving distance from Roswell, please know how blessed I would be to have an opportunity to meet you.
Sunday April 21, 2024 / April 8, 2024
Fifth Sunday of the Great Lent. Tone five.
Great Lent. Food with Oil
Venerable Mary of Egypt (movable holiday on the 5th Sunday of the Great Lent).
Holy Apostles of the Seventy: Herodion, Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon, Hermes, and those with them (1st c.).
New Hieromartyr Sergius priest (1933)
St. Niphont, bishop of Novgorod (1156).
Venerable Rufus the Obedient of the Kiev Caves (14th c.).
Martyr Pausilippus of Heraclea in Thrace (117-138).
St. Celestine, pope of Rome (432).
New Martyr John Naukliros (“the Navigator”) in Thessaly (1699).
Monk-martyrs Josias and Joseph of Mt. Kharasam, Persia (341).
New Martyr John (Koulika) (1564).
St. Philaret of Seminara, Calabria (1070).
Spanish Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (792).
The Scripture Readings
Mark 16:1-8
He Is Risen
16 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Hebrews 9:11-14
The Heavenly Sanctuary
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Galatians 3:23-29
23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Sons and Heirs
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Mark 10:32-45
Jesus a Third Time Predicts His Death and Resurrection
32 Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: 33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; 34 and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
Greatness Is Serving
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
37 They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”
38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
39 They said to Him, “We are able.”
So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;40 but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.”
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. 42 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Luke 7:36-50
A Sinful Woman Forgiven
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”