GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY

There's something about hand-weeding that is conducive to thought. Maybe it's the kneeling. Maybe it's getting down into the dirt, where I'm reminded that the word 'humility', describing the fundamental Christian virtue, derives from the Latin for earth.

As I tossed out the 'pingy' weeds and orange escholtzias (I'm so over orange) I found myself thinking about old people in rest homes. Wondering how many would answer, if asked what they'd do if they won Lotto, that they would "fly to one of those countries where they have euthanasia". I suspect the old woman I know who said that is not the only one to feel that way.

She feels she's outgrown her usefulness. That's the natural reaction to the humiliating situation of people who all their lives have served others and now must submit to being served themselves, in every way. It's only natural for them to feel useless. A burden on society, even.

So then how fortunate are the Christian elderly, who can transcend these natural feelings and respond supernaturally. Because people who know what the Church teaches (many don't, because the faith is rarely taught) know that their service to humanity in this situation, if their plight is accepted with love, with Christ and for Christ, far outweighs anything physical they might have done in the active lives they once led.

Death - which the old woman who wants to win Lotto looks forward to - and suffering in the way old people do in rest homes, in spite even of the best of care, and all other kinds of suffering too, are the consequence of sin: the sin of our first parents, and also actual sins.

Suffering in itself is an evil, but God can draw good out of evil. When the elderly sacrifice themselves and their sufferings for Christ, they win other souls to his love and reach 'the apex of the apostolate and hence of apostolic fruitfulness' (Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen O C D).

 Funny what comes to mind when you're on your knees among the weeds!