The Great Gap

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 a 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

Photos: Young people from the Greek Orthodox All Saint Camp on Raft Island, visited the monastery, along with our friend, Father Dean, rector of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle. We also enjoyed a two day visit from Hieromonk Dimitrian, rector of Our Lady of Kazan Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in Post Falls, Idaho, together with Monk Pavlin of New Skete on the Holy Mountain of Athos. Coming with the monks from Spokane was Nun Photini, whom I tonsured many years ago.

Saturday July 16, 2016 / July 3, 2016
4th Week after Pentecost. Tone two.

Martyr Hyacinth of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Translation of the relics (1652) of Hieromartyr Philip, metropolitan of Moscow (1569).
New Hieromartyr Anthony, archbishop of Archangelsk (1931).
Uncovering of the relics of Sylvester, bishop of Omsk (2005).
Venerable Anatolius, of the Near Caves in Kiev (12th c.).
St. Anatolius (another) recluse of the Far Caves in Kiev (13th c.).
Holy Princes Basil (1249) and Constantine (1257) of Yaroslavl.
Repose of St. Basil, bishop of Ryazan (1295).
Venerables John and Longinus, wonderworkers of Yarenga (Solovki) (1544-45).
Blessed John of Moscow, fool-for-Christ (1589).
Venerable Nicodemus, abbot of Kozha Lake (1640).
Martyrs Diomedes, Eulampius, Asclepiodotus, and Golinduc of Caesarea in Cappadocia (108).
Martyrs Mocius (Mucian) and Mark (4th c.).
Venerable Alexander, founder of the Monastery of the Unsleeping Ones (430).
St. Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople (458).
Venerable Isaiah the Solitary of Seeds and Palestine (370).
Blessed Michael, Herodion, Basil, and Thomas, fools-for-Christ of Solvychegodsk (17th c.).
St. Germanus, bishop of the Isle of Man and enlightener of Peel, nephew of St. Patrick of Ireland (5th c.) (Celtic & British).
Martyrs Theodotus and Theodota, martyred with St. Hyacinth (Greek).
Venerable Gerasimus the New of Carpenision (1812) (Greek).
St. Claudianus, patriarch of Alexandria (167).
St. Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, and his successor, St. Eusebius (3rd c.).
St. Symeon, the third stylite of Cilicia (6th c.).
St. George the God-bearer of the Black Mountain, teacher of St. George of Mt. Athos (10th c.)
St. Basil, archbishop of Novgorod (1352).

Scripture Readings

Romans 6:11-17

11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

Matthew 8:14-23

Peter’s Mother-in-Law Healed

14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

Many Healed in the Evening

16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

“He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.”

The Cost of Discipleship

18 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Wind and Wave Obey Jesus

23 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.