POPE FRANCIS SPEAKS ON AGING

STILL ON THE POTTER/'S WHEEL IN THE BUCKET

One of the surprising and touching aspects of the Pope's remarks to  the American  public has been  his emphasis on the  process of aging.  He mentioned the loneliness of the aged and also  he reminds us of the wisdom of the aged.  One of the  most poignant  insights is his  stressing of the  mixed nature of all things and of all of us. 

This thread  teaches us of the  ways we should examine polarity and refuse to see everything  as either black or white.  He directly  points to the inadequacy of seeing reality always as  a duality. In  calling for a  universal global ending  of the death penalty, he  focuses on the fact of death's  finality--that it erases  the chance of change and  rehabilitation. 

 I believe that applies to the  experience of aging and dying--as long as  we are breathing we have  within us the potential to change, to repent, to seek forgiveness and like the Prodigal Son to  turn back  to the loving arms of our FATHER who is always watching for us  on the road with arms ready to embrace us.

There is a golden thread that weaves  through every remark of the Pope-- to be at the service of dialogue and peace.  One of the most disturbing trends in our recent national conversation is the tendency to demonize certain groups and label them as rogue states or monsters. 

 We must not write anyone off, must not declare anyone  as finished or hopeless. Especially we must not numb our hearts to the tender  mercies that flow constantly from God to each and every one of us on this planet.

 Each of us so different in our  circumstances and our DNA but each of us united by our  human dignity and our participation in the divinity that we each carry in our immortal soul.

One of the  images that has struck me  vividly in recent readings of the Bible is how often God is compared to a Master Potter and we are compared to  clay on the wheel.  One great solace I  gain from this persistent image is  the thought that --it is never too late for the  Potter to perfect the clay vessel as long as  the clay is on the wheel. We are all still on the wheel and we  can  trust that if we  allow Him to, the Potter will perfect us,