18 October 2026 #1Cor13:4-8 #CCC2276

It’s Week 3 of our 4-part series on protecting those who are the most vulnerable among us. We spoke about the poor two weeks ago and the unborn last week. Now we turn to another group of folks… the elderly. Speaking from experience, I generally see what goes on in their hearts and minds and what the folks who care for them are thinking. Eldercare is sheer love in the midst of muddled drama. It’s a lot like the Israelites in exile.

You see, in our first reading today, the Israelites have been in exile for about seventy years. Yep, that’s right. Seventy. Years. They were forced into this new realm, leaving most everything they knew and loved behind. Nothing was familiar in this new space. The native Babylonians spoke a language they didn’t understand, ate foods they couldn’t eat, and worshiped foreign gods. The Israelite Temple was destroyed, their religious leaders carried away, and the only thing they had remaining to remember their faith was what they could carry with them into exile. And the Israelites were vulnerable; they were open to attack, had a sustained loss of privacy, and could no longer move freely from one place to another. All they wanted was to go home. But none of those who went into exile survived long enough to return home. Most of all, they wondered, “Where is God in the midst of our suffering?”

Fast forward 600 years and a similar picture emerges in Thessalonica. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have founded a Christian community in the capital city of a bustling trade route, the heart of the Roman empire. Thessalonica was home to some amazing pagan temples, had an outstanding Roman cult, and was a hotbed of diverse religious beliefs, albeit none of them Christian. Yet our intrepid evangelists (and the Holy Spirit) managed to convert a number of influential people to The Way of Jesus. Unfortunately, persecution arrives and Paul and Silas flee in the dead of night. The community they leave behind face some of the same challenges as the Israelites – they are vulnerable, persecuted, and their lives are turned upside down.

For those of us who are in the midst of eldercare, these scenario sounds ominously familiar. Where is God in the midst of suffering?

I am not sure I have a perfect answer to that. But I do know a few things that weave through the readings today: God looks out for his Beloveds, who are the least and the lowest among us. Every soul is called by name (even the pagan King Cyrus) and each is precious to him. Every suffering has merit - from the Israelites in exile, to the beleaguered Christian community in Thessalonica, to Jesus with his cross on the Via Dolorosa. No one enters or leaves this earthly life without suffering – it’s in our sufferings that we are uniquely united to our Savior and there is something redemptive about that.

Lastly, like Jesus, we must walk away from the cultural programs that promote euthanasia, dismiss redemptive suffering, and this thought that the elderly have nothing left to give. Should we alleviate the physical pain of the elderly through appropriate medication? Absolutely yes. Do we need to prolong their lives by using every method that Caesar has to offer? Absolutely not. Must we treat the elderly and infirm with the dignity inherent as a Beloved of God? Yes. May we purposefully end the life of Beloved soul? No.

I know these sentences can feel like today’s Pharisee speech-trap conundrum about paying the census tax. And I know that eldercare is sheer Love in the midst of muddled drama. #1Corinthians13:4-8 #CatechismoftheCatholicChurch2276-2279