We cannot say that to grow old is desirable, but learning the proper way of growing old is definitely appreciable. The Bible teaches it. It suffices to think that surprisingly it is men and women advanced in age that open journeys of life and of future. In this perspective, we shall follow the caravan, which leaves Ur of the Chaldaeans, guided by the Voice that always sets us on new journeys, even at the age of 100 years. The God of the Bible is young, never gets tired of walking and provokes fatigue, but also joy and the smile that Isaac carries written in his name. He who follows the Lord renews his strength like the eagle and in the old age teaches us slightly how to dance. Like Miriam, the prophetess of the Exodus, like Debora who awakes her vigour and sings; like Anne, the prophetess who never goes far from the temple, serving God day and night with fasts and prayers, with immense joy and is granted to enjoy the consolation of Israel by embracing the awaited One.

A caravan of people, signed by death, left Ur of the Chaldaeans - It was led by Terach, the father of Abram, who might have been almost hundred years old, according to Genesis 11.26. More than his age, he might have felt oppressed by the sorrow for the sudden death of his son Aran, which happened in his presence. However, Terach looked ahead and shouldered the future. He took Lot with himself, the son of Aran, and his own son Abram who actually did not seem to be a promising person for a great future, since his wife Sara was sterile and without children. (See: Genesis, 11, 27-32). That strange caravan risked its life and left, without knowing that it was going to open a future of salvation for the entire humanity. However, the God of the Bible is young and full of fantasy; he surely does not find it boring to play with the aged, he rather forbids the faithful ones to grow old. However, the years passed by, the beauty of Sara withered and her womb kept on remaining terribly shut up. Abram was going to lose his hope of having a son from his beloved Sara, so much as to say, "If at least Ishmael could live before you!" And God answered, "No, Sara, your wife, will give birth to a son and you will call him Isaac". .

How to believe in words that appear to be ridiculous? We need the faith of Abram who, however, cannot help laughing, "Abraham bowed to the ground, and laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man who is one hundred years old, and will Sara have a son at the age of ninety?" (Genesis, 17, 17).

The scene of the smile is repeated for Sara in the following chapter. It was the hottest time of the day, when three men reached the tent of Abraham. The old patriarch welcomed them with exquisite hospitality. While eating "he remained standing near them" (Genesis, 18,8) like one who serves, Then they asked him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" "She is in the tent", he replied. Then the text passes from the plural to the singular, as if the three men were only one, ‘I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son’ (v.10). Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him’ and as she heard those words, "she laughed to herself" (v. 12). It was not a laughter out of joy, but out of incredulity. And God was not pleased. He wanted Sarah to laugh tastefully and truly in narrating that nothing is impossible for him who believes, "Nothing is impossible for Yahweh. I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son" (vv. 13-14).

And so it happened. Sarah conceived in her old age, gave birth to a son and started laughing joyfully, with a full and freeing laughter, a contagious one that spread in the neighbourhood, "God has given me cause to laugh! All who hear about this will laugh with me", she added, "Whoever would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son in his old age" (Genesis, 21,6-7).

The prophecy that does not allow you to grow old starts by causing you to enter the joy of Eternal life. The consecrated life needs to go on and never to stop dreaming; we need to keep hope alive even if the womb withers without generating. Isaac will come, the promised son will make you to sing, and it will be a universal joy.

The Bible and the old Judaic sources give to Miriam/Maria, sister of Aaron and Moses, a particular importance. They attribute to her the title of Prophetess and greet her as an authentic leader. At the age of ninety, along the shore of the Red Sea, she takes the tambourines and involves girls and women in singing and dancing. Miriam’s history, however, starts much earlier. She was hardly 10 years old when, hidden among the canes of the Nile, she watched little Moses from a distance. The Judaic Jubilees book adds a graceful detail: "Your mother came by night to breast-feed you and by day Miriam, your sister, protected you against the birds" (47, 5).

Almost eighty years after this, Moses and Miriam are again together along the Red Sea where they sing and make the people to sing in honour of Yahweh. It is "the song of the sea", one of the oldest pages of the Bible, "The prophetess Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took up a tambourine, and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing" (Exodus, 15, 20). She teaches them the refrain, "Sing to Yahweh, for he has covered himself in glory, horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!"(V.21). This woman who sings and dances with enthusiasm seems to be in the full vigour of her youth, while she is ninety years old. Her enthusiasm, therefore, arouses more admiration and is contagious, dragging behind the entire stream of women.

Miriam knows the art that does not make a person grow old. She learns it directly from God who "renews our youth", strengthens the tottering knees and puts a new song on the lips of the people, "I waited, I waited for Yahweh, then he stooped to me and heard my cry for help. He pulled me up from the seething chasm, from the mud of the mire . He set my feet on rock, and made my footsteps firm. He put a fresh song in my mouth, praise of our God" (Psalm, 40,1-3).

Undoubtedly, it does not suffice to cross the Red Sea to feel capable of freedom. It is not enough to intone songs of victory to the end of living as free men and women. Freedom can be learned with patience day after day. This is why we can consider the forty years journey in the desert as a traineeship of freedom. The people must learn how to trust God in adversities, when bread and water are missing. This, of course, is not very easy! Punctually, whenever water or food is missing, people complain and regret Egypt. It sounds as a paradox, yet slavery finishes by giving a certain security, while freedom implies risks and adventure. In this context, the charismatic guidance of Miriam, who supports the people with her prophetic charism, reveals itself very precious.

In the book of Numbers we find a narration that, at first sight, does not honour her. It is about a sin of jealousy against Moses, which she and Aaron commit. Miriam pays for the consequences of her sin and that of Aaron, who is spared from leprosy because of his priestly dignity (See, Nm 12, 11-13). She will have to stay in isolation outside the camp for seven days, during which the march is suspended, "The people did not set out until she returned" (Nm 12,15).

This detail about seven days of waiting is interpreted by the Judaic tradition as symbolising the dignity of this woman; all of them wait for her: the people, the priests, the glorious cloud, namely God himself, just as we wait for an important woman! She deserved to be waited for because in her turn she knew how to wait along the river Nile, until the life of Moses would be safe: "Miriam waited for one hour… and God, because of her, made the ark and the Shekinah, the priests, the Levites and the whole of Israel with the glorious cloud to wait for her in the desert during seven days.

Miriam was an important woman not because she was without defects, but despite her limits and defects. They could not leave without her! Also the prophecy in masculine voice must remember it. In fact, with the mouth of Micah the Lord says, "My people, what have I done to you, how have I made you tired of me? For I brought you up from Egypt, I ransomed you from the place of slave-labour and sent Moses, Aaron and Maria to lead you" (Micah, 6,3-4). God led the exodus by the hands of two brothers and one sister all advanced in age (Moses was eighty years old!) and yet very young, capable of dreaming a future and freedom. The prophecy of consecrated life does not consent to grow old because it fixes its eyes on God, the source of eternal youth.

When the people of God entered the promised land, soon the temptations foreseen by Moses started peeping out: fascination of the well-being, presumption of self-sufficiency with the consequent oblivion of God (See Deuteronomy 8, 12-14).

The people turn their heart towards pagan divinities, but experience new forms of oppression. Then they once again turn to invoke their God who is moved with compassion and arouses the "Judges" to re-establish the destiny of Israel.

The Judges are rather improvised political-military heads who face the difficult situation. They do not practise forensic activities, as at first sight we would understand, but there is a case in which they take place: it is the case of Debora, Judge and prophetess. She is a woman who undoubtedly does not shine through a reflex of masculine light, like the wife or sister of an illustrious man. Rather, it is she that throws light even on General Barak, whose name means "Ray" (of sun).

The book of Judges introduces her as wife of Lappidot (Judges, 4, 4). However, nothing is said of her husband besides his name, while Debora, which in Hebrew means "bee", is a famous prophetess and a wise judge. She anticipates Solomon in wisdom and, in spite of being a woman, she settles controversies of the Israelites. "She used to sit under Deborah’s palm between Ramah and Bethel, in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her for justice" (Judges, 4,5).

The palm is a tree rich in symbolism; in the old East it was a sacred tree indicating the glory of God. In fact, the walls of the Holy of Holiest in the temple of Solomon as well as the double doors were decorated with carved palms (1 King, 6,29-35). However, the glory of God near Bethel is not revealed in a closed sanctuary, but in the open, in the temple of creation, under a palm tree that picks up the complaints and the misunderstandings of the people. The glory of God illumines the daily life, becomes a prayerful listening, justice and a freeing strength under Deborah’s palm.

The prophetess who guides the General

Debora is a daring prophetess who faces the powerful fearlessly. She takes the initiative of convoking Barak and, in the name of the Most High, she commands him to recruit ten thousand men and fight against the bellicose army of Jabin, the Canaanite King, who had been oppressing harshly the Israelites for more than twenty years. Fearing a failure, Barak hesitates, but then comes to an arduous condition, "If you come with me, I shall go; if you will not come, I shall not go (Judges: 4,8).

Thus, the General secures the possibility of consulting God during the battle and can rely on the charismatic support of the Prophetess. She will encourage the ex-tempore army, which will have to face the over well-trained army of Canaan (nine hundred war tanks!) headed by Captain Sisara. Debora accepts: she will go to battle with Barak, but announces that the palm deserved for the killing of Sisara will not be awarded to the General: it will be the glory of another woman.

Here she is, at the side of Barak on the peak of mount Tabor, sure of God’s intervention in the battle-field, just as during the Exodus before his people. At the end, Debora sings the hymn of victory to God. The torrent Kison, like the Red Sea, witnesses a great spectacle: once again the God of Israel upturns the destinies, crushes the powerful and frees the oppressed. Once again the feminine prophecy gives voice to the deepest feelings and intones the song, "From me, from me comes a song for Yahweh. I shall glory Yahweh, God of Israel! Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake and declaim a song!" (Judges: 5, 3.12).

A man and a woman, advanced in age and filled with the Holy Spirit, go to meet Mary and Joseph who present the newly born Jesus to the temple, the beating heart of Jerusalem. Old Simeon, "an upright and devout man, looked forward to the restoration of Israel" (Luke 2, 25), namely the messianic consolation (See Is 40, 1; 49, 13; 52, 9). Luke introduces him as a spiritual man (the term pneuma appears three times in this short passage): the Spirit of God rested on him; the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord; prompted by the Spirit he came to the temple (See Luke, 2,25-27). Simeon is a familiar man in the world of God; he allows the Spirit to move him within, thus he can sing, "Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised; for my eyes have seen the salvation, which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel" (Luke: 2,29-32).

This is the joy of the eyes that see what they have been waiting for, the light of Christ destined to shine before the nations. It is the joy of each faithful servant who can go in "peace", according to the words of the Lord.

And here is now the feminine person who has turned the temple into her home, "There was a prophetess, too, Anna the daughter of Fanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. She came up just at that moment and began to praise God, and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem" (Luke: 2,36-38).

Anna has made of divine praise the sense of her daily life: "She never left the Temple". This detail is to be interpreted in a spiritual sense, and not in a logistic way. Luke calls her "prophetess" though she does not utter a single word. It is intriguing to think of Anna as a silent prophetess. Her prophecy seems to be entrusted to the simple fact of being there, an inalienable testimony, an eloquent presence. This woman incarnates praise and an enthusiastic style of proclaiming Jesus. Having grown old in fasting and prayer, Anna passes the threshold of the Old Testament and is in the New One, "she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem". (Luke: 2, 38).

Our journey through the Scripture has allowed us to catch some essential hints and to learn the best way of growing old in Him who renews our youth. I limit myself to remind some of them as conclusion.

1. Exodus from self to the following of the Lord. We never end setting on our journey again and again, following Him who called us and who precedes us. This trait equalises all the persons we have been meeting, from old Terach to his son Abram, father of all believers; to Sara who on her ways learns how to amuse herself with the jokes of the good God, so much as to call her son "smile": to Miriam who keeps people happy in the Lord and transmits happiness to the generation of the exodus; to Deborah who sat under the palm tree listening to and settling controversies for the sake of justice and peace and who, for the same reasons, rises, re-awakens her vigour and calls men to battle; to Anna, the prophetess daughter of Fanuel, who grows old in fasting and prayer until she can embrace the awaited One and speak of him to all those who wait fro redemption.

Consecrated life should proceed in this exodus from self to the following of the Lord. You have no time to grow old, beloved sister, if every morning you set on your journey after Him who is your Future. You have no time to complain that the surprises of the journey –no matter whether in very

green prairies or in a dark valleys- fill the whole day…you have, instead, the time to praise and to sing, because you do not have to think of yourself but only of love.

2. The art of listening. We know that the prophecy, which does not grow old, and of which consecrated life should be a luminous sign, nurtures itself with listening. Prophet, in fact, means relation to the Word, the "Word that comes out of silence", according to the beautiful expression of Saint Ignatius, "There is but only one God, who has manifested himself through Jesus Christ, his Son, the Word who has come out of silence and who in everything has pleased the Father, by whom he had been sent"(Ai Magnesii 8,2). He who welcomes him becomes incandescent. He burns in the very fire of the Word and cannot keep it for himself; he feels the urgency of proclaiming and donating it to his brothers. Thus, the art of listening to the Word is inseparable from the art of listening to our brothers and sisters. The man, who every day practises the demanding art of listening to, does not shoulder the burden of vain things, but keeps his mind sober and goes on hoping. (See: 1 Peter 1, 13).

3. The joy of singing. The feminine prophecy in the Bible has its specific peculiar voice: it is woven with songs more than with oracles. The feminine prophecy is charged with listened words, a custody of the heart, woven with flesh in the womb and brought to light with yearnings which entwine joy and sorrow. This is because, "a woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world" (John: 16,21). It is a song of joy and liberation, as the prophetess of the exodus in the shore of the Red Sea and Mary in her Magnifcat (Luke: 1, 46-55), teach us.

The feminine prophecy knows that to grow old in singing means never growing old: it is the young waiting for the generation of the Son who carries with himself an ineffable joy.

ELENA BOSETTI
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