St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Kingman shared a message on the topic of aging in the Sept. 27 bulletin.

The Rev. Victor Yakuba noted that as humans we naturally hate the idea— and the experience— of aging.

It can be easy to disrespect the elderly and fail to listen to them simply because they are old, but we see a similar instance like this in the parable of the father and his two sons.

“The first son promised his father that he would work in his vineyard and he never went," Yakuba said, quoting Jesus' parable. "The second son said he would not go but later went and did his father’s will. Among these two, whom did his father’s will? The chief priests and the elders replied, ‘The first.’” The Lord ended the parable by saying that those who we least expect to be saved were entering the kingdom of God, but the chief priests and elders did not believe his words.

Fr. Yakuba reflected that it is very natural for us to act in this way, as well.

“We always think that those family members working for our interest are unfair to us,” he said. “From this passage, we can see that God does not condemn us, we do. God does not justify us, we do.”

It is our job to humble our hearts and put ourselves under the leadership of those who are older.

“It is natural for the body to start breaking down when aging begins to set in, but determination does not break," Yakuba said. "Does anybody love to age? No way. Because we love being young and doing what young people do, dislike aging. But remember, listening to older people gives you new perspectives toward obeying God’s voice.”

If we will take the time to do so, we can learn so much from those who are older than us.