As a society, we tend to honor youth as a privileged stage in life. The newness, the passion, the zeal and idealism are all things we remember fondly once we grow a bit older. The Book of Ecclesiastes seems to echo this sentiment when it says, “let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart, the vision of your eyes.”
At the same time, the reading admonishes that in our youth we remember our Creator, for, God will bring us to judgment. Here’s the takeaway: we’re never alone in following our hearts if we believe that God speaks there and if we make time to listen!
As we mature and life continues beyond youth, most of us can look back and see many ways in which our desires were not quite in tune with God’s. If we’re reflective, we become aware of our many blind spots, of the things we did not understand and now do. We have the wisdom of experience.
In today’s gospel, the apostles find themselves in a place of not understanding. They have Jesus right in front of them, yet they are afraid to ask clarifying questions. In our own lives, God does not expect us to know and understand everything. What he does want us to do, however, is to turn to him in our not-knowing, in our misunderstanding, in our fallings. He will be right by our side to show us the way, the truth, and the life whether we are in our twenties or in our nineties.