Oh, to live forever! Phooey!

During the week, I browse a dozen or so news outlets from around the world. Most of the time I only read the headlines, but this past week the most absurd story caught my eye and I read it.  It was about a 30-something person who has decided to live until the age of 150.  Then the article delves into their determination by describing their daily routine. (They claim, thus far, that they have turned back their biological clock by 10 years already).  Living longer and looking younger has been a mantra in the West for decades now, but this goes beyond the pale. 

The “routine” includes 2 ½ hours of morning preparation – biohacking as they call it – that includes scientific as well as homeopathic exercises. There is physical exercise, regular breaks from work to inhale pure oxygen, a strict diet regime, and sleep according to the circadian rhythm. Oh, and there are several visits per week to a hyperbaric chamber (you may recall seeing Michael Jackson in one).  All of this is done in an effort to reverse time and live longer.

Now, there is nothing absurd about a little exercise, proper sleep and eating habits, but this particular goal has got to take the cake – right up there with the Tower of Babel.  And it is certainly the extreme opposite of what God emphasizes.

One of the oldest, if not the oldest, Psalm is attributed to Moses. In Psalm 90:10 he says, The span of our life numbers seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we have enough strength. Most of them are marked by toil and emptiness; they pass swiftly, and then we fly away.

And the Apostle James and Peter both likened our body to little more than grass and flowers.  In I Peter 1:24, Peter writes, … All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, and the flower fades,

Have you ever wondered why Sacred Scripture says, “Bodily exercise profits little.”  Saint Paul wrote this to his young protégé Timothy (I Tim. 4:8) to stress the point that we are not created to fulfill our physical potential, but our spiritual potential.  The physical body is a temple, yes, and to be treated with moral responsibility, but it is not our physical dimension that is to be the focus of our being; it is the spiritual. Temples are destroyed, cathedrals catch fire and the human body dies; but the human spirit and soul are eternal and so much the more worthy of our daily attention – yes? 

Imagine if your routine began with 2 ½ hours of prayer, meditation and bible reading, and that throughout the day you took a deep breath and spent a few minutes talking to God. That is where true profit is manifested, and with benefits that last forever.  Indeed, as Saint Catherine of Siena put it, Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.