In the wake of the pope’s death, the Vatican shared a timely preface Francis wrote for an upcoming book
Before he died, Pope Francis wrote a preface for Cardinal Angelo Scola’s upcoming book Awaiting a New Beginning: Reflections on Old Age, which is set to be published later this week
“We must not be afraid of old age, we must not fear embracing becoming old, because life is life, and sugarcoating reality means betraying the truth of things,” Francis wrote, according to the Vatican
The late pontiff also wrote that death is a new beginning “because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity”
Pope Francis reflected on old age and the “consoling certainty” of death more than two months before he died at the age of 88.
On Tuesday, April 22, one day after the pontiff’s death, the Vatican shared a preface that Francis penned for an upcoming book in Italian by Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop Emeritus of Milan.
In the preface for Awaiting a New Beginning: Reflections on Old Age, which Francis wrote on Feb. 7 — just a week before his monthlong hospitalization began — the pope praised Scola, 83, particularly for reclaiming the term “old.”
“Yes, we must not be afraid of old age, we must not fear embracing becoming old, because life is life, and sugarcoating reality means betraying the truth of things,” Francis wrote. “Restoring pride to a term too often considered unhealthy is a gesture for which we should be grateful to Cardinal Scola.”
“Because to say ‘old’ does not mean ‘to be discarded,’ as a degraded culture of waste sometimes leads us to think,” Francis continues. “Saying ‘old’ instead means saying experience, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, thoughtfulness, listening, slowness.”
“It is true, one becomes old, but this is not the problem: the problem is how one becomes old. If we live this time of life as a grace, and not with resentment; if we accept the time (even a long one) in which we experience diminished strength, the increasing fatigue of the body, the reflexes no longer what they were in our youth — with a sense of gratitude and thankfulness — well then, old age too becomes an age of life which…is truly fruitful and capable of radiating goodness,” he added.
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Later, Francis described Scola’s writings as a “heartfelt confession” of Scola’s own preparations for his “final encounter with Jesus.” By the end of the book, Francis wrote that the reader is presented with a “consoling certainty: death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something. It is a new beginning.”
“It is a new beginning, as the title wisely highlights, because eternal life, which those who love already begin to experience on earth within the daily tasks of life — is beginning something that will never end,” Francis added.
“And it is precisely for this reason that it is a ‘new” beginning, because we will live something we have never fully lived before: eternity,” he continued.
The Vatican has announced that Francis’ funeral will take place on Saturday, April 26, in St. Peter’s Square in front of Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica. The service will be led by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.
Following the funeral, the pontiff’s body will be taken into St. Peter’s Basilica before being transferred to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, his favorite church in Rome, for the burial.
