“Lent is an important time to go into the interior crevices of our lives and communities, and ponder yet again who is there, and what voices we are hearing.”

This article is from the Forward to the Lenten Study for Congregations on elder abuse. It includes seven lesson plans for Ash Wednesday and the Sundays of Lent, including Palm Sunday. The Rev. Dr. Bud Holland is a priest and “fellow sojourner along the way” and a member of the  Older Adults Ministries Task Force of The Episcopal Church that created this resource. Visit the Older Adult Ministries page of The Episcopal Church Center for more information.  

Silent Voices
Our lives and spiritual journeys take us to a journey outward and a journey inward. As we engage in this rhythm, we realize that these journeys are of the same cloth and both lead to the other. Lent is a time of consideration of our interior journeys where we are open to hear the voices that come to us and ponder once again who we are, whose we are, and who is the “we” that we yearn to be. As we journey down this path, we are also drawn to the outward journey as the answers to these questions are found in part in our relationships with others, and the created world. Such is the walk into our baptismal covenant, our consideration of conversations and work that matters, and an understanding that ours is an incarnational faith. What we do matters. All people who are in our memories and who share the planet with us matter in the sight of God.

Lent is an important time to go into the interior crevices of our lives and communities, and ponder yet again who is there, and what voices we are hearing. Elder abuse is often a silent voice as it occurs within the noise of our living. It often occurs outside the earshot of our daily living, and happens within institutions, families, and on the street corners of life, all of which may present some barriers for our response. Yet the abuse of people of any age grieves God, and all of us, when we are made aware of its existence. Abuse takes many forms and not all of it is calculated or intentional but its pervasive effects on young and old alike is often destructive beyond imagining.

A Lenten Series on Elder Abuse
In this journey, this Lent, we offer to you the Lenten series as a way in which you might consider hearing and seeing what is often not perceivable (elder abuse) so that the reach of love, healing, and reconciliation might be available to them. Case studies are presented in such a way to demonstrate the harsh reality of this abuse, but also to suggest that we all can do something about it.

Sometimes elder abuse might be likened to voices crying in the wilderness. Now can be a time during this re- entering the wilderness in Lent to become especially aware of older adults living amongst us and in our communities. It can be a time to connect with them in ways that bespeak of the high value we place on their lives and to exclaim what treasures they are in our midst. As we seek to reach out, we will be surely aware that older adults, who are at risk of abuse, have gifts and treasures to share with us.

Hope in the Journey
So let us re-engage this inward and outward journey with hope and promise, with integrity and honesty, and with the undying belief that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In this way we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves and respect the dignity and freedom of every human being. That just may be a Lenten discipline worth doing and may be life-changing along the way.

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