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25 July 2021 "We have all passed from the knees of our grandparents, who held us in their arms, it is also thanks to this love that we have become adults". These are words from the
homily for the mass of the first day of
grandparents and the elderly.
The anniversary desired by Pope Francis, which will be repeated every year, on the fourth Sunday of this month, was announced on January 31 last. Archbishop Rino Fisichella president of the Pontifical Council for the new evangelization attended the celebration and read the homily. The Pope is still too weak due to the colon surgery he suffered a few days ago.
The goal is to reflect on the value of these
figures who represent our roots and pass on traditions:
"The look that grandparents and the elderly have had on our life", on "the way in which they have taken care of us since our childhood". "After a life often made up of sacrifices, they were not indifferent to us or busy without us. They had attentive eyes, full of tenderness. When we were growing up and felt misunderstood, or afraid of life's challenges, they realized that we".
It poses existential questions about the emotional and social relationship with those who have lived longer than us "What gaze do we have towards grandparents and the elderly? When is the last time we have kept company or phoned an elderly person to tell him our closeness and let us be blessed by his words? "
"I suffer when I see a society that runs, busy and indifferent, taken by too many things and unable to stop to look, greet, caress. I'm afraid of a society in which we are all an anonymous crowd and are no longer capable of look up and recognize
ourselves
", the Pontiff continues and our thoughts turn to these long days of pandemic in which it was
the elderly who suffered most from Covid-19.
Hence the inexorable appeal of Francis "The grandparents, who nourished our life, today are hungry for us: for our attention, for our tenderness. To feel close to us. Let us look up at them". "
Today there is a need for a new alliance between young and old,
to share the common treasure of life, to dream together, to overcome the conflicts between generations to prepare the future of all ", he says in the homily for the Mass of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, read during the liturgy by Msgr. Rino Fisichella.
"Without this alliance of life, dreams and the future, we risk dying of hunger, because broken ties, loneliness, selfishness, disintegrating forces increase. Often,
in our societies we have given life to the idea that 'everyone thinks for himself'. But this kills! "
Referring to Joel, he exhorts his children to pass on and ferry the values of Christian history into the future" I have often recalled what the prophet Joel says about it: young and old together - continues Bergoglio.
Young people, prophets of the future who do not forget the history from which they come; the elderly,
never tired dreamers who transmit experience to young people, without blocking their way. "" Young and old, the treasure of tradition and the freshness of the spirit. Young and old together. In society and in the church: together ", he adds.
" Grandparents and the elderly are not leftovers from life, scraps to be thrown away. " roots we will wither. They have guarded us along the path of growth, now it is up to us to guard their life, to lighten their difficulties, to listen to their needs, create the conditions so that they can be facilitated in their daily tasks and not feel alone ".
And then "Let's ask ourselves - says the Pope: 'Did I pay a visit to my grandparents? To the elders of my family or neighborhood? Did I listen to them? Did I dedicate some time to them?' let's keep them, so that nothing is lost: nothing of their life and their dreams ". "It is up to us, today, he continues, to prevent tomorrow's regret for not having paid enough attention to those who loved us and gave us life".
"Brothers and sisters - concludes the Pope - grandparents and the elderly are bread that nourishes our life. We are grateful for their attentive eyes, which have noticed us, for their knees that have held us in their arms, for their their hands that accompanied and raised us, for the games they played with us and for the caresses with which they consoled us ". "Please, let's not forget about them.
Let's ally with them.
We learn to stop, to recognize them, to listen to them.
Let's never discard them.
Let's keep them in love.
And we learn to share time with them.
We will come out better ".
And it is precisely on the act of sharing that Francis also dwells
on today's
Angelus
"The logic of giving is so different from ours. We try to accumulate and increase what we have; instead, Jesus asks us to give, to decrease", he said. Pope Francis at the Angelus, commenting on the Gospel episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.
"We love to add, we like additions - he continued. Jesus likes subtractions, taking something away to give it to others. We want to multiply for ourselves; Jesus appreciates when we share with others, when we share". "Let's try to share more, let's try this path that Jesus teaches us", he exhorted. According to the Pontiff, "even today the multiplication of goods does not solve problems without a just sharing". "the tragedy of hunger comes to mind, which affects children in particular - he observed.
It has been calculated that
every day in the world about seven thousand children under the age of five die for
reasons related to malnutrition,"
who do not have what they need to live "." in the face of scandals like these - added francis - Jesus also addresses an invitation to us, an invitation similar to the one that probably received the boy in the Gospel, who has no name and in which we can see us all: 'Courage, give the little you have, your talents and your goods, make them available to Jesus and to the brothers. Do not fear, nothing will be lost, because, if you share, God multiplies. Cast out the false modesty of feeling inadequate, trust me. Believe in love, in the power of service, in the power of gratuitousness' ".