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 lack of 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.
Ignoring the plight of others, be they the poor, the young, the racially different, the old, or any other human being, is simply to ignore the fact that 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:
My longtime friend, Archpriest Basil Rhodes, rector of Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church (OCA) in Saratoga, California, was just awarded the mitre by Archbishop Benjamin. Axios! Axios! Axios!
Friday May 17, 2019 / May 4, 2019
Third Week of Pascha. Tone two.
Fast. Fish Allowed
Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Tarsus in Asia Minor (287).
New Hieromartyr John priest (1942).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas diacon (1943).
The Alfanov brothers: Venerables Nicetas, Cyril, Nicephorus, Clement, and Isaac of Novgorod, founders of the Sokolnitzki Monastery (1389).
Hieromartyr Erasmus, bishop of Formia in Campania (303).
Hieromartyr Albian (Olbian), bishop of Anaea in Asia Minor (304).
Hieromartyr Silvanus of Gaza and with him 40 martyrs (311).
Icon of the Mother of God “Staro Rus” Old Russian (1570).
Venerables Aphrodisius, Leontius, Anthony, Valerian, Macrobius, and others, monks of Palestine.
Translation of the relics of the Righteous Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, Equal-to-the-Apostles.
St. Nicephorus, abbot of Medikion.
St. Ethelred, king of Mercia and monk in England (716) (Celtic & British).
Venerable Nicephorus the Solitary of Mt. Athos, the spiritual father of St. Gregory Palamas (1340) (Greek).
St. Athanasius, bishop of Corinth (10th – 11th c.) (Greek).
Venerable Hilary the Wonderworker of the desert (Greek).
St. Monica of Tagaste (mother of Blessed Augustine) (387).
Martyr Florian and 40 companions, at Lorsch, Austria (304).
The Scripture Readings
Acts 8:40-9:19
40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
The Damascus Road: Saul Converted
9 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Ananias Baptizes Saul
10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.”
And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
11 So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. 12 And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”
13 Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
19 So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
John 6:48-54
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Amen!
Father Tryphon, evlogeite,
You state in paragraph 3, above, “while the interpersonal interactions between the generations has grown epidemic.”
Do you mean to say “while the “lack” of interpersonal interactions between the generations has grown epidemically.?”
My wife and I (who are in our 80s) experience this modern phenomena, the lack of inter-generational connectedness. But, God supplies; as in our case, we have Church family in the vicinity of the monastery. and the blessings of Gerondissa Markella, our priest, Father Gregory, and the sisterhood.
Thanks for calling my attention to the error in my article. I’m making the correction now.
Thank you father for the wonderful photo of Mitred Priest, Father Basil, and Bishop Benjamin. My wife and I were baptised into the Orthodox church in 1996 by (then Father) Metropolitan Jonah at Father Basil’s church in Saratoga, CA and we received our first Holy Communion from his hands.
That is, Father Basil’s hands on St Lazarus Saturday.
The family is the natural place for this intergenerational relationships to grow and be nurtured. With the breakdown of the family continuing apace, and couples now often not even getting married, the plight of the Millenials and Gen x when they get older is likely to be even worse than the current situation of the Baby Boomers. I work doing in home senior care, and see first hand how people are so involved in their own lives, they have little time for their parents. They generally care, but don’t have the time, the patience or ability to be self-sacrificial. The same parents now who are getting neglected are often the same ones who were not involved in their children’s lives in a meaningful way, but who themselves put career and self-first. The same ones who paid for child-care for their children are now having their children pay for elder care for them as a substitute for spending quality time. I do have to put a plug in though, while the government gets a lot of flack for waste of funds, there are an awful lot of elderly people who are able to get help and companionship who would otherwise be totally alone because of the waver program and other government funding for the type of homecare that I do.