Monday, November 8, 2021

From my youth

Remember your creator from your youth. Ecclesiastes 12.1

"What have you done, here you are crying incessantly,

Say what did you do in your youth ?"

When Paul Verlaine thus concludes one of his poems from the collection Sagesse, he is in prison in Mons in Belgium. His tumultuous relationship with Rimbaud almost turned sour : two revolver shots fired at his friend, whom he slightly injured, led him to a dungeon. In the silence of his prison, Verlaine reconsiders his youth wasted by a dissolute life and the emptiness of his existence. Little by little he discovers God and his love, and approaches him.

His poems then reflect his inner evolution. God only knows how far Verlaine understood and received the love of God. No doubt he would have spared himself many disillusionments and distress if he had sought it from his youth.

King Solomon invites young people not to wait for the approach of death to be concerned about God. Discovering the loving God and inviting him into your life from an early age can radically change a life and be a renewed source of blessings.

This is the testimony of the psalmist : O Lord Eternal, in you I hope, for you have been my support from my youth!... You taught me, O God, from my youth ; to this day I publish your wonders. (Psalm 71.5,17)

Young or old, don't we want this to be our experience too ?

Bernard Grebille

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Proposed reading : Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verses 1 to 7.

Source (Live Today)