Not like when I was younger

People often say something like this as they age and encounter some physical or even mental limitation.

Sometimes in the nostalgia of the old and in the fantasy of the young, youth means unlimited vitality and even invulnerability.

Experience proves otherwise.

Today’s first reading (Isaiah 40:25-31) reaffirms this reality, but adds glorious words of hope for us all.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

Young, old or middle-aged – no matter how long the road or steep the climb, no matter what we may enjoy or what we may have to suffer – we can find truly unlimited strength in God: absolute vitality and ultimate invulnerability – not like when we were younger, but infinitely and gloriously better!