Pope at Audience: Elderly must resist temptation to knowledge without action

By Devin Watkins

Pope Francis reflected on the Old Testament Book of Qoheleth, or Ecclesiastes, at the weekly General Audience, noting how its refrain “everything is vanity” represents a particular temptation in our own day and age.

He said the wise man Qoheleth bounced back and forth from sense and meaninglessness in his quest for knowledge of life, saying he teetered on non-sense when leaning toward knowledge detached from “passion for justice.”

Qoheleth, added the Pope, concluded his book with an indication of how to get out of the trap: “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.”

Elderly must embrace passion for justice

Pope Francis said each of us has been tempted toward indifference when we see that our efforts seem to produce no results and reality appears to turn everything—both good and bad—into nothingness.

He added that “a kind of negative intuition” especially tempts people advanced in years, possibly leading them to disenchantment.

The Pope said our contemporary world believes it can “measure and manipulate everything”, which then results in “a collective demoralization of meaning, love, and goodness.”

Truth without action leads to paralysis

The Holy Father went on to reflect on why knowledge detached from action is so harmful to a person.

Pope Francis said modern culture “combines knowledge and irresponsibility” in an attempt to take away the moral impact of our actions, and takes us down the path of “paralysis of the soul.”

Inaction opens door to evil aggression

Qoheleth, said the Pope, called this temptation “a delirium of omniscience”, something the early monks of the Church called “acedia” or a “surrender to the knowledge of the world devoid of any passion for justice and consequent action.”

Pope Francis noted that giving in to this temptation “opens the door to the aggressiveness of the forces of evil” in the form of ideologies.

“This an-affective and ir-responsible reason also takes away meaning and energy from knowledge of truth,” he said. “It is no coincidence that ours is the age of fake news, collective superstitions, and pseudo-scientific truths.”

Wisdom of old age can save young from knowledge trap

In conclusion, Pope Francis called on the elderly to help younger generations turn away from the “delusion of a truth of the mind devoid of a desire for justice.”