“Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something (…) is a new start,” writes Pope Francis, who died on Monday at age 88, in an unprecedented text: the prologue of a book by Cardinal Angelo Scola, which will be published on April 24.
“Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning, as the title stands out, because eternal life, which those who love already experience on earth in everyday occupations, is the beginning of something that will not end. And it is precisely because it is a new beginning, because we will live something that we have never lived fully: eternity,” reads the text that the Italian media publish on Tuesday.
This is the preface, on February 7, the book of Cardinal Scola, Archbishop Emeritus of Milan, entitled Waiting for a new beginning. Reflections on old ageand that will be available in bookstores this Thursday.
Francisco also reflects on old age: “Already in the choice of the word with which it is defined, ‘old’, I find a consonance with the author,” wrote the pontiff before being hospitalized by bilateral pneumonia, which was admitted 38 days, until March 23.
“Yes, we should not be afraid of old age, we must not be afraid to accept aging, because life is life and sweetening reality means betraying the truth of things. Back to give pride to a term that is too often considered to be a bad gesture that we must thank Cardinal Scola. Because saying ‘old’ does not mean ‘being discarded’, as it sometimes makes us think of a degraded culture of the discard.
And he adds: “Saying old man, on the other hand, means saying experience, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, reflection, listening, slowness … values that we desperately need!”
The Pope also indicates living the time of old age “as a grace, and not with resentment.” “If we welcome with gratitude and recognition the time (even long) in which we experience the decrease in forces, the increase in body tiredness, the reflexes no longer equal to those of youth, well, even the old age becomes a living age,” adds the Argentine pontiff.