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The phenomenon of an aging population tends to be analysed through an economic lens and the issue of care for the elderly is often used as a political football. But how often do we step back and think clearly about our hopes and expectations for old age? Writing in Thinking Faith this week, Jesuit theologian, Edward Vacek puts forward a positive vision for the Christian life of the elderly, in which the most important activity is love of others, self, and especially God

It has been postulated that someone, somewhere in the world, has already been born who will live to be 150. Scientists predict that over half the persons who are born today will live past the 100 year mark. Whatever the truth of these prognostications, it is already true that people are living longer and longer. In Jesus’s time, the average life lasted perhaps 35 to 40 years, and the same was true as recently as 1850. One hundred years later, that rose to 65 years; now in countries like Britain the average is 80 years. As people lived longer and longer, contemporary societies encouraged a stage in life called ‘old age’ or ‘retirement’.

To read more of Fr Edward's piece see: http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120911_1.htm