“When we get old, it’s just like we’re babies,” my mom said as I tucked a naptime blanket around her thin shoulders.

She seemed so small and fragile, yet, at 90, her outward frailty belied a surprising inner strength.

I’d watched her for days hold my dad’s hand in the hospital as he slipped in and out of consciousness after a fall that led to neurosurgery.

Realistic yet hopeful, she kept an unwavering vigil at his side.

And hearing her prayers that stemmed from humility, I knew God gave her the strength she needed.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” God told St. Paul (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The same applies to each of us in our infirmities, our old age, our weaknesses . . . all the ways that make us realize our nothingness before God.

Like babies

Indeed, there is truth to my mom’s statement about being like babies when we get old.

It makes sense that Our Lord made us this way, to decline in our old age so as to make us outwardly more like the little children He desires us to be in front of Him.

To grow old and frail, to lose one’s independence, to have to ask for help to do things you once took for granted . . . all of these experiences invite an aging person to a sort of forced humility on the outside, which can lead to unabashed humility before God on the inside.

This is, indeed, a step on the path toward the inner humility needed to face Him at the end of life. 

How beautiful that He provides a physical way for us to fully embrace this humility — first exteriorly, then interiorly.

Child-like humility 

Think of the humility of small children — they depend utterly and completely on those who love them best.

Without reservation, they ask for what they want.

With overwhelming trust, they expect to receive what they need.

With simplicity, they take what they are given.

It is with this type of child-like humility that we must approach Our Lord when examining our souls.

“When a child-like soul tells our Lord of his desires to be forgiven, he can be sure that he will soon see those desires fulfilled. Jesus will tear away from that soul the filthy tail that it drags in punishment for its past offenses,” said St. Josemaria Escriva in The Way (#886).

“He will remove the dead weight, that residue from all its impurities, which keeps it tied to the ground. He will cast far away all the earthly ballast of that child’s heart, so that he may rise up, even to the majesty of God to be dissolved in that living flame of love.”

The ‘way out’

In all manner of trials —external and internal — Our Lord never leaves us. 

He allows these trials so that we may learn to depend solely on Him. 

And when all else is stripped away, He is all that remains.

This is a good lesson to remember during Lent.

“God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial He will also provide a way out” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The “way out” inevitably requires the deepest humility that is humanly possible, exemplified by the elderly — and babies.