Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Back to basics


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Catholic Review Filed Under: Commentary, Wit & Wisdom

One of the challenges of aging is forgetting. Right now I’m trying to compose this column, but I’m forgetting how to enlarge the print. I’m literally straining to read my own keyboard. If this column appears in print it will be a miracle.

I’ve always heard “older people” talk about the perils of aging. I’m now experiencing them. My hope in sharing this is that it may help all of us to be kinder to all of us.

In the seminary, Sulpician Father James Brennan always emphasized in his canon law class to “be kind, be kind, be kind.” Laws were meant to help people. They were not meant to oppress them.

I’ve always found it easier in my own life to be kinder to others than to myself. I remember a pastoral counselor saying to me: “If anyone were as mean to you as you are to you, I would have them arrested.”

Obviously, a lot goes into our self-conditioning. Having grown up in poverty, I was used to not having much. Five of us lived in a one-­bedroom apartment in Mars Estates, near Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and its grade school.

In its classrooms, I learned about saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, who literally laid aside everything to follow Christ. That was my model as a child, and in the 12 years of seminary that followed. I have always been able to live with little and feel blessed. I still live in a one-bedroom apartment.

Happiness is not getting all you want. Our wants are endless. The thousands of commercials that come our way every day remind us of that. You can never have enough, if you believe the advertisers.

Happiness is putting God first, and letting everything else go. I can’t say I have always done that, but I know that is the secret of happiness. Jesus lived that way. His first followers lived that way. And  good and holy people throughout the centuries have lived that way.

Let go and let God. Let go of attachments to stuff and allow yourself to be filled with God. All the stuff in the world won’t satisfy us, but God will. It’s never too late to let go and let God. And while we will all one day have to let go of any stuff, we really can hold onto God forever.

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