![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/399\/blogger\/_iTncioBQZNk\/Sf31LeaMkFI\/AAAAAAAACt4\/o5uL2SscWu4\/s1600-h\/papa_smurf.jpg\")
<\/a>A<\/span><\/span>long the way, as we grow up, we learn some sayings that just seem to stick with us.<\/p>\nI remember one saying from a venerable teacher in my seminary days:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy age is the right age, and it increases annually.\u201d<\/p>\n
My age is the right age, and it increases annually.<\/span><\/p>\n One of our Parish Ministry Teams at St George, Houston, consists of a group of ladies (occasionally a gentleman) who, along with a priest, go together to call on the sick and shut-ins. <\/p>\n A couple years back, on one of the Visitation Team\u2019s outings, we were accompanied by a little girl. My wife had a doctor\u2019s appointment which, probably due to my<\/span> age, I\u2019d forgotten when scheduling the Visitation Day and, thus, my youngest got to ride around with the Team. <\/p>\n I\u2019m usually the youngest in the car; at the time I was 45 \u2013 a stage in life when one can join in the conversations about physical ailments, skin blotches, surgeries, creams, vitamins, aches, pains, and the like. <\/p>\n In fact, on that day, I mentioned something I\u2019d recently noticed about myself and one of the ladies said, \u201cFather, it\u2019s just Ay Gee Eee<\/span>.\u201d It took me a sec \u2014 A.G.E. \u2014 we laughed. This started the swap-a-woe dialogue where we all lamented our various ailments. After a while a four year old voice piped up from the back seat: \u201cI had an ear infection one time!\u201d<\/p>\n Even at an early age, we try to fit in, to make sense of it all, to find our place.<\/p>\n My age is the right age, and it increases annually.<\/span><\/p>\n My oldest, back when she was two or three, was sitting at breakfast one morning and happily said: \u201cDad, do your ears hurt like mine do?\u201d Hmmm.<\/span> An hour or so later, the doctor said something like: \u201cDouble ear infection.\u201d<\/p>\n Kids. Age. And to think: they\u2019re always wanting to get older!<\/p>\n While I\u2019m on the parenting part here, let me just mention that parents grow up, too.<\/p>\n When we had our first child a friend of mine got a good laugh when he observed me thoroughly washing off the pacifier that had fallen from my daughter\u2019s mouth. He, a father of four, said: \u201cYou know, when you have your first child, they drop their pacifier and you boil it before giving it back to them. The second child \u2026 you just rinse it off. The third child drops the pacifier on the floor and you stick it in your own mouth to clean it before giving it back to them!<\/p>\n Heh!<\/span><\/p>\n My age is the right age, and it increases annually.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the so-called Spirit of the Age<\/span>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019re often tempted to wish you\u2019d been born in another age \u2014 one with a little less of this, a bit more of that \u2014 leaning toward Virtue, goodness, Andy & Barney; fleeing today\u2019s fickle, flash, flesh and flunkies. <\/p>\n But, really: Age plays tricks on you.<\/p>\n Take, for instance, picture-taking. I\u2019ve been known to see the most recent picture of myself and think, even say: \u201cGosh! That doesn\u2019t even look like me!\u201d \u2013 or<\/span> \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t look like that at all!\u201d <\/p>\n Someone, usually a family member will say: \u201cYes you do!\u201d <\/p>\n I\u2019ll study the picture and think to myself, \u201cBoy, I\u2019m old \u2026 fat \u2026 ugly\u201d \u2026 something; something bad. Years later I might happen upon the same picture and think: \u201cWow! Look how good I used to look!\u201d Or, I think to myself, \u201cHmm \u2026 I was skinny, young \u2026 handsome\u201d \u2026 or some such nonsense.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s just me, but you really can\u2019t judge by age. I wouldn\u2019t trust pictures either. Watch the national news: \u201cThere\u2019s bad news tonight \u2026 the country is bad \u2026 the president is bad \u2026 global warming is bad \u2026 everything is bad (now a word from our sponsor).\u201d <\/p>\n Turn on the local news: \u201cA murder today \u2026 a kidnapping also \u2026 a gun at school \u2026 auto accident \u2026 poverty \u2026 (now this).\u201d The Internet is certainly no better.<\/p>\n \u201cMy age is the right age \u2026 and it increases annually.\u201d<\/p>\n This is true, not only for our individual ages, but the age in which we live. God knows what He\u2019s about \u2014 which means we are placed right where we\u2019re supposed to be. The earth continues to circle a star; that age increases annually.<\/p>\n Ages ago, St Paul wrote:<\/p>\n When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (Col.3:4-5).<\/span><\/p>\n Mind you, he\u2019s talking to Christians here!<\/p>\n On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth (Col.3:6-8).<\/span><\/p>\n Sound familiar?<\/p>\n Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all (Col.3:9-11).<\/span><\/p>\n Now, friends, I confess, it is true: We are, no doubt, living in the latter days. I mean, certainly we\u2019re one day closer to the Last Day than yesterday. But when it comes to sin, transgressing the law, prejudices, falling short, and really making a mess of things \u2014 there is nothing new under the sun. It has been so in every age. And, undoubtedly, this side of Paradise, the same shall occur till the end of the age.<\/p>\n In the meantime, this is our time. This time, ever fleeting and often disappointing, is the time that God has given us. It may look better in the rear view mirror or in the crystal ball, yet both are an illusion. The time that we have is now. We, by God\u2019s grace, are the light of the world \u2014 in our age, for this age \u2014 because we have entered into that Life which is the Light, none other than the God-Man, Christ the Lord.<\/p>\n Let us not be conformed to this age. Rather, whatever our individual age, this is our time \u2014 our age \u2014 to bear witness to the Light Who has promised to be with us always \u2026 even until the close of the age.<\/p>\n But, O, to be young again \u2026<\/p>\n We were on the way home one day and I was singing songs from the Divine Liturgy. My youngest, who \u2013 at the time \u2013 was a two year old, said, \u201cDo it again, Dad!\u201d I remembered this, especially from my oldest daughter, par<\/span>ticularly the Trisagion hymn: \u201cHoly God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us!\u201d So, between the grocery store and the house, I must have sung the Trisagion about twenty times.<\/p>\n Anyway \u2026 we got home, I laid my daughter down for her nap and she said, sing Holy God<\/span>! So I did. Then she said: \u201cSing Twinkle, Twinkle<\/span>.\u201d So, tearing up and appreciating the moment, I sang \u201cTwinkle, twinkle, little star \u2026\u201d When it was ended she demanded: \u201cNow sing your ABC\u2019s!\u201d That\u2019s when I told her it was nap time, time to go to sleep.<\/p>\n Hmmph.<\/span> Children. They form us \u2026 and vice versa.<\/p>\n A few years ago, as Vacation Bible School was ending, a young girl (about 10 or 11 years old) came up to me and said, \u201cFr Joseph, that talk you gave the other day on Confession? I just wanted to thank you. Something you said made me go to my father and confess \u2026 and now I feel like the Lord is with me and has filled me up, and I am changed. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, not knowing the young girl, I asked one of the leaders if she was a member of my church or one of the other Orthodox churches.<\/p>\n I found out: Neither. She lived in the area and wanted to come to our Vacation Bible School.<\/p>\n Children. God bless \u2018em! Children love to sing, love to dance, love to experience the joy in life. Children love to love and to be loved. God and children must be a lot alike. And to think, to get into the party \u2013 the Big Party<\/span> \u2013 we\u2019ve got to become just like them.<\/p>\n In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton wrote:<\/p>\n A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, \u201cDo it again\u201d; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough\u2026 It is possible that God says every morning, \u201cDo it again,\u201d to the sun; and every evening, \u201cDo it again,\u201d to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.<\/span><\/p>\n As I said in the beginning, along the way, as we grow up, we learn some sayings that just seem to stick with us.<\/p>\n My age is the right age, and it increases annually.<\/span><\/p>\n And Jesus came and said to them, \u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n And that, brothers and sisters \u2013 the very Gospel repeated at every baptism is Good News. No matter our age \u2013 God is with us; no matter our circumstances \u2013 God is with us; no matter that it may seem things are falling apart around us \u2013 Our Lord, who has all authority in heaven and on earth \u2026 is with us!<\/p>\n But Jesus called them to him, saying, \u201cLet the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n \u201cTruly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n Sure \u2026 \u201cMy age is the right age, and it increases annually \u2026<\/p>\n But, God is with us and God is \u2026<\/p>\n young. <\/span><\/p>\n For our sake \u2013<\/p>\n for goodness sake!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s become like Him.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Along the way, as we grow up, we learn some sayings that just seem to stick with us. I remember one saying from a venerable teacher in my seminary days: \u201cMy age is the right age, and it increases annually.\u201d My age is the right age, and it increases annually. One of our Parish Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1691,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n