During Holy Week, Christians remember Jesus Christ’s final hours as the Way of the Cross: his trial with Pilate, excruciating walk to his crucifixion and death by suffocation. On Easter Sunday (and the Saturday vigil), we celebrate his glorious Resurrection. While people today who age do not have the same experiences as Jesus, they lose various skills and abilities, which is psychologically painful. They experience physical suffering as their bodies deteriorate.
A nurse I know participated in a professional development exercise intended to help medical professionals better understand the aging process from the older person’s perspective. The activity began with the participants’ current health and then, bit by bit, they imagined one capability after another taken away from them. She found that this workshop gave her new insight. Aging can be seen as the opposite of growing up: instead of acquiring new skills and abilities over time, one loses one ability after another.
While all Christians should take up their cross and follow Jesus, sometimes the Cross picks us in various ways, such as during our later years.
Jesus’ Way of the Cross
Jesus had a contentious relationship with the leaders of the Jewish faith throughout his ministry. The leaders appeared threatened by his presence and teaching, often questioning him and sometimes speaking with people he had healed.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus appears before Annas and Caiaphas before he sees Pilate (John 18). Pilate wants to return Jesus to the Jews but they could not punish Jesus via the death penalty while Pilate had that power. Jesus was at Pilate’s mercy. Pilate’s conversations with Jesus did not convince him that he was a threat or had committed a crime. He offered Jesus as the man he could release according to the Passover custom. The crowd asked for Barabbas, so Pilate condemned Jesus to death though it appeared that he did not want to (John 19). Luke’s Gospel tells that Pilate had sent Jesus to King Herod who then returned him to Pilate (Luke 23)
Soldiers flogged him, put a crown of thorns on him, hit him, and made fun of the idea that he was a king. The soldiers made him carry his cross to Golgotha though they recruited Simon of Cyrene to help Jesus.
From the time of his arrest, Jesus loses his freedom and is further injured before dying the awful death of crucifixion.
An Older Person’s Way of the Cross
Aging is a natural part of human existence. From birth, people age. In this essay, aging refers to the period of time when one’s abilities decline.
Physical changes are part of aging. An athlete finally needs a knee replacement after years of running or a person’s hearing loss isolates them. For others, aging might mean that a person can no longer do their taxes or must stop driving because of declining cognitive impairment. Asking someone else to do taxes may not cause suffering, but needing transportation from other people feels like a big loss of autonomy.
According to the Pew Research Center, quality of life while aging is closely linked to income. Bit by bit, aging men and women may have to stop activities they enjoyed. They may need someone to take them to the store, gym, or church. In the case of my mother, she started getting faint until we determined she was not preparing food and eating it. My brother arrived at her home one day to find her with her hand down the garbage disposal. Eek! (That was the last straw for him after we had found solutions for her meals.)
It was very painful for her to give up her home especially because it was the last place she had lived with my father, who had passed away. Luckily, we were able to move some of their shared furniture to the Memory Care facility, so she retained the feel of home.
On many Sundays, we take her to church and out to lunch afterwards. I think that she really needs a break and some time in the “real world.” She likes the Catholic parish and enjoys going even though her hearing loss and one of the priests’ accent makes it difficult to hear him.
Jesus and the Aging People in Our Lives
I think it is important to remind ourselves that older people were once young and able. Thinking of this stage in their life in the context of Jesus’ Way of the Cross is a helpful reminder that they do not want to be slower than others, have to ask people to repeat what they have said, or otherwise deal with challenges they now face. Jesus went through in a particularly intense and agonizing way.
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