Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Old? Not Really

I’ve got a year left until I reach the magic age of 65, when many of the perks of being a senior citizen kick in. It seems like passing that age means passing into the land of the old.

But last week I was in Washington, D.C., and visited the Air and Space museum at the Smithsonian. There I touched a sliver of stone from one of the moon rocks brought back by the crew of Apollo 17 — a rock estimated to be four billion years old! I guess 65 isn’t that old after all.

I also realized that though we human beings have been around for a long time, we’re really just newcomers to the universe so that, from the cosmic perspective, the Incarnation really happened quite recently and the Resurrection occurred only a few seconds ago. Instead of being a tired, old, run-down species, then, our human story and the story of our race’s relationship with God are just beginning.

It’s nice to feel young again.