The “Generation Gap” is a lie

Many years ago, someone once said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years." (This statement is commonly attributed to Mark Twain, but he actually was 11 when his own father died.)

Sadly, this same mistake and this same lesson are too often repeated by too many people in their lives.

Horribly, this mistaken idea – the superiority of the young generation (not just technologically but as human beings) – is commonly pushed by the opinion-makers of this world, with special style and effect among the “baby-boom” generation.

And yet again and again, the young generations make the same mistake and even the narcissistic boomers would come to recognize the greatness of the generation they once disparaged (and even to excess: naming them the “greatest” generation – in ignorance or disregard of the generations and generations of heroism and greatness that went before).

The classic words of Ecclesiastes (1:4) come to mind:

One generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever.

But while Ecclesiastes looks at the generations of humankind with jaded erudition, in today’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-56), the Blessed Virgin Mary looks at the generations of humankind with the joyful eyes of God’s grace:

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.

May we neither disparage nor idolize any generation, neither the generation of today nor the generations before.

Rather, in every generation – the young, the old, the middle aged, the generations long past, and the generations that may yet be to come – may we look for the signs of the mercy of God and nurture the grace that he extends to all.