I used to wonder how the names of generational groups were assigned. I think I have discovered at least one way that these groups might have been labeled. I’m a Baby Boomer – those children born soon after the close of the Second World War. We are now seniors among those generation categories. The ones who followed have other sources for their nomenclature, with some bearing only a letter – known as Gen X or Z or Millennials. There are many circumstances that may have contributed to these titles. One such circumstance might well be found in the entertainment industry that have provided these young people with gadgets that we Boomers never had.
I have never been a gamer. I never owned an Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation or any of the successive gaming tools. They were simply not available during my youth. I also had to satisfy myself with bikes, wagons and a Hula Hoop or two and a paltry five or six television stations, most of which shut down at midnight. I am not complaining since I believe that I had a very happy adolescence. But my youth was certainly limited by entertainment boundaries of the time by comparison to what is now available. I begin to realize the chasms that separate my generation from successive ones when my wonderful young priest secretary now mentions songs, current personalities, movies and activities that are clearly foreign to me. We grew up at different moments in time and his references often verify that for me. On the other hand, some of my heroes and youthful references garner the same expressions of oblivion on his face as do his on my face.
However, when the two of us pray together, we use the same terms and words. The Church’s prayer has a unifying authority – or it should have. Some of our more recent candidates for sainthood bridge the generational gap between our worlds. It is rumored that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati may be canonized during the upcoming Holy Year. This wonderful young man from Turin, Italy was a mountain climber, a skier and a gregarious character. His contemporaries loved to be with him. He also had profound love for the poor – so much so that they lined the way to the church at the time of his funeral.
Blessed Carlo Acutis was a gamer whose love for the Eucharist was intense. He lies peacefully in his reliquary wearing Nike attire. The Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman was an electric evangelizer. She proudly sang the songs from our African American spiritual heritage, and she challenged our Church to be open to and honor the many spiritual and cultural gifts that people of color have to offer our family of faith.
These people and countless others transcended the generational norms of their time, and they now fill our world with their holiness and engagement with the world around them. They managed to live in their world and yet to find ways to anchor themselves in the world that goes beyond any specific time.
(Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, writes his “What I Have Seen and Heard” column for the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)
