Msgr. Pope has, again, written a good think piece for us. Some will want to get ‘lost’ in the ‘literal’ vs ‘metaphor or allegory’ in believing the scripture he discusses, but that is not for me.
I think his closing sentence is excellent:
“How or even whether the patriarchs lived to such advanced ages is not clear, but what is theologically clear is that we don’t live that long today because of the collective effect of sin upon us.”
Amen on that last sentence.