Christ The Servant
Catholic Church
Cold Springs, Ontario
Homily Selections
The Art of Aging
First I want you to know that being a homolist at Christ the Servant is a very tough gig. When I listen to Heather and Margaret and Germain and Gary, Lawrence and Gerard and thankfully now Pauline, my first reaction is to happily drown in the inspiration that they give us all., and my second is to wonder how on earth I wound up with this group of spiritual superpeople.
I’m sure we all prepare for our homilies differently. I tend to let the homily roll around in my head and heart and soul for a while and then there is a click and I know I’m ready ro write. Usually I complete the homily in one writing and rarely change anything.
Well, guess what? No click this time! So I just decided that the Holy Spirit and I would sit down at the computer and see what happened.
I (we) want to talk about and combine a trilogy of subjects....The Art of Aging, The Pleasure Principle, and Christ the Servant!
In comparison to our parents, our life experience has been broad. My aging generation and the boomers who are right behind us have traveled more, and learned from the global village. We are willing to learn and risk. We have always had choices. We are comfortable with complexity but striving for simplicity in our lives.....and succeeding. We are problem solvers who have learned how to think and judge creatively. We know, particularly at Christ the Servant, how to make things happen. My (our) invitation to you today is to think about the art of aging.
Dr. Paul Pearsall, is a clinical psychologist and researcher. In his very well researched book “The Pleasure Principle” he proposes that health and fitness are accomplished by pursuing our natural preference for pleasure In doing so we can enhance our immunity, strengthen our hearts and bask in the wonder of being alive. This is not a celebration of hedonism nor is it new age gobbledegook. Dr. Pearsall proposes that the pleasure principle is the greatest healer when we suffer the most. He maintains that hospitals, in ignoring the role of pleasure as the number one healer in our lives, fail their healing task profoundly.
As a culture we think pleasure is suspect. We have pleasure guilt. Not at Christ the servant. If we understand that pleasure is joy, we understand that we at CtS radiate joy. Peace and Love and Joy is what we are about. We are used to being a suffering society, no pain, no gain to the point that we used to feel guilty and selfish if we were joyful. Now that really is nonsense. The truth is that the most important sense in the world is prewired in us....the pleasure (or joy) sense and it is a survival sense. All of the research tells us that
1.We have a built in neurological system for pleasure
2.If we tune into it, it will translate into an immediate enhancement of our immune system and our healing powers
3.We can control that impulse for joy, direct it, maximize and make it work in our favor to save our life when we are sick, to prevent illness, and to even help other people to heal because of our own pleasure. Pleasure is transmissible, we can feel it and when you transmit your own joy, you’re not only healing yourself, but you are healing other people. (Virginia’s hat)
Dr. Pearsal gives the pleasure principle a simple definition.....Health happens to you, the result of the joyful pursuit of a pleasurable balance of your personal, interpersonal, transpersonal, temporal and sensual life. Balance is the key. Accessing our own creativity, which we all have and developing curiosity about the world around us provides the fuel for the pleasure journey. Creativity and Curiosity are wonderful companions , essential ones, I believe, to the Art of Aging.
Pearsall believes that pleasure is a balance between having something to live on, someone to live with and most important something to live for.
I had always thought of joy as the top drawer of happiness Gradually I came to the realization that there is a significant and substantial difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is
primarily internal. We can see happiness in other people and we can be happy for them. Joy cannot remain internal. It radiates out to everyone, and at the same time it remains within us.
When we go into the doctors office we will be asked about our health history and that of our family....genetics. The doctor will explore what we eat and inquire about our level of exercise...environment, people job career, daily life. What is left out?? The magnical fifth factor is left out. The predictor question. Are you pleased to be alive? Is life very joyful to you? That is what predicts whether all the other factors are going to work in your favour.
Dr. Pearsall wrote his book, the pleasure principle, about ten years ago At that time there were more than forty thousand people in the world over 100 years old. There were consistent similarities among them.
1. They are engaged...They are with life, involved in their garden, in loving, their family, in their church, their golf, birdwatching, art They are connected to their world.
2. They seldon go to the doctor....but be sensible. If you are in pain or bleeding and think you”re going to die, go to the doctor. Most things get better. Wait two weeks. 8 out of ten people in a doctors waiting room are there to be reassured.
3. They have no health care program, they don’t work out regularly, they don’t go to the gym but they may walk every morning (that’s a health care program in my book!!) and they may bend tending the flowers in their garden.
4. They laugh and cry easily. They experience joy and pain full and in balance. When you cry and laugh all of those joy juices flow through your body.
5. They grieved, they all had serious losses, sometimes their children, sometimes even grandchildren Many therapists, myself amongst them, suggest that most of their practice is about grief. Helping people to grieve what they need to and helping people to put closure on unresolved grief.
6. They enjoy simple pleasures. For them a shower is a pleasure. Breakfast is a celebration. The data shows that the healthiest thing you can do is pleasurably and intensely enjoy the moment. They seek out and involve themselves in all the joys of the moment. They are very curious about the world around them and they live in the now, not for it
All of these characteristics generate and nurture a very strong will to live.
I think Dr. Pearsall did a fine job on his book...albeit and perhaps intentionally it is very secular, perhaps to capture a larger reading audience. I find it difficult to believe that a man of his emotional insight and sensitivity and ability to think outside the box would not essentialize spirituality.
Let me tell you about some important learning I did in Green Valley, Az.
I had been snowboarding to Tucson for a couple of years which I enjoyed but was unable to find an artistic dommunity that I felt comfortable with. The material I read on Green Valley Az indicated that there was an awful lot of artistic action going on there. I decided to give it a try.
What I found in Green Valley was a whole host of people involved in pursuing new interests which is turn spawned more new interests and relationships. They were vital enthusiastic, happily exploring roads they had never had the opportunity to travel before.
Particularly I recall one couple. A retired doctor and nurse who had raised six children. Barbara was in my sculpture class, doing wonderful work and reaching out to everyone in the class on an emotional and spiritual level.
She was also in my painting class which is where I met her husband. He was trying art for the first time, doing well but more important accessing his creative side. He was also being trained as a lay minister in his church, building on an established spirituality. Having always wanted to play the piano, he was now taking lessons. They were both risking, which means they were prepared to accept failure. It is difficult to take risks, particularly if we have decided we are already failures, but it is a necessary path to travel to access the art of aging,
Where there is no path, create one and leave a trail....These people were engaged in life. They were living the pleasure principle, They held an unconditional positive regard for others and for their world.
The average age in Green Valley is 81.
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