On 6th January 2025, the Associated Press reported, “A soccer-loving nun from Brazil tops the list of world’s oldest living person at nearly 117.”
To quote the article:
[Sister Inah] Canabarro took the title of the oldest living person following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December, according to LongeviQuest. She now ranks as the 20th oldest documented person to have ever lived, a list topped by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.
LongeviQuest is the organisation that tracks all the really old people around the world.
Today, the Daily Monsoon takes a look at what it means to live long and prosper in the new year.
Long life has always attracted attention. When Pharoah met old man Jacob for the first time, he asked him, “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
And Jacob answered, “130 years old but if you think that is old, you should have seen my fathers!”
The most impressive feat of longevity recorded in the Bible is Methuselah. The Bible says this:
Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
When we tell this to the children, they just accept it. They believe it and are amazed. But when people get older, they get sceptical because they know that nobody can live to nearly 1000 years old.
What I don’t get is how these sceptical people also believe that scientists can unlock the genetic code so that cells do not need to die and we can potentially live forever.
If science can promise to reprogram the cells to not die, then why not consider the possibility that during Methuselah’s time, the environment and the genes were different from today?
We are still in the New Year mood, but that mood is fast fading. You could wish someone “Happy New Year” today, and all is good. Wish people “Happy New Year” tomorrow and they stare at you as if you are stuck in a different time zone. Why not change it up and greet someone tomorrow, “Live Long and Prosper!”
If you watch the Star Trek TV show or movies or comics, you will know that this is how Vulcans greet one another together with the famous hand ‘salute’. You know, you raise one hand, palm facing out, then take your four fingers split into two to make a ‘V’. Now say, “Live Long and Prosper”.
What you may not know is that Leonard Nimoy, the actor, got this idea from his Jewish roots. The greeting is from a Jewish Priestly Blessing. And the text it is based on is one that is cherished by all Christians.
Listen to this:
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. – Numbers 6:24–26 (ESV)
Living to a ripe old age is a blessing. So what can you do to live long and prosper?
Let’s come back to the original article that sparked this episode: Sister Inah Canabarro, the oldest person in the world today.
When she was asked the secret to her nearly 117 years of age, guess what did she say?
Remember, she is a nun.
She attributed her long life to her Catholic faith.
Now, before everyone goes off to become a Roman Catholic … nun… in Brazil, let’s think about the connection between longevity and spirituality a bit more.
In a National Geographic article titled “The Secrets of Long Life”, written by Dan Buettner in November 2005, he travels to visit and interview centenarians; centenarians are those who live beyond 100 years old. He visits Sardinia, Adventists and Okinawans.
On the Adventists, he writes this line:
Baptizing a believer, Seventh-day Adventist pastor Scott Smith says spiritual and physical health go hand in hand. “To accept Christ is to be free, which reduces stress.” Indeed, says Dr. Ellsworth Wareham, who at 91 still assists with heart surgery: “God directs and God protects.”
It’s a great article, and you can read it in full with a Google search. One criticism of it is that it’s old. That was written in 2005, and there has been some further research since then.
So I thought, what does the latest research say? I searched in Google Scholar for Longevity and Faith, and the first hit was this review paper in the Aging Clinical and Experimental Research. The title is “The Link between Spirituality and Longevity”, written by three Italian medical researchers: Dominiguez, Veronese and Barbagallo.
They start by distinguishing spirituality and religiosity. Then, they look at the evidence of the association between spirituality/religiosity and longevity. They analysed 76 research papers that look at the impact of spirituality/religiosity on mortality, cardiovascular disease including hypertension and heart failure, cognitive decline, cancer and healthy ageing.
Then, they suggest pathways to explain why religious people live longer. In religion, you have social support, stress reduction, psychological well-being, positive coping, life meaning, healthy norms and forgiveness. These then lead to improved immune, endocrine and cardiovascular functioning, healthy behaviours and treatment adherence. Which then leads to healthy ageing and longevity.
For details on their method and nuances in their analysis and conclusions, I encourage you to read the paper in full.
But the simple take away is religious people live longer and happier lives. They may not live to 117 years old but I think they would live longer and happier than if they did have a spiritual core.
So, you may have made your New Year’s resolution to diet, exercise or quit smoking and drinking because you want to take better care of your health. All good things.
But if you can get one thing right for this year, something that will have multiple effects on every part of your life, not just on your mental and physical health but also on your relationships and life goals, then you should make religion and spirituality a priority. What is your relationship with God today, and how can you grow nearer to him?
This is the Daily Monsoon. My name is Terence, and to all of you, “Live Long and Prosper!”