|
INTENTION : |
That the aged, marginalized, and those who have no one may find - even within the huge cities of the world - opportunities for encounter and solidarity.
|
Grandpa's table
[...]
"We live in a time when the elderly don't count", he said. "It's unpleasant to say it, but they are set aside because they are considered a nuisance." And yet, he added, "the elderly pass on history, doctrine, faith and they leave them to us as an inheritance. They are like a fine vintage wine; that is, they have within themselves the power to give us this noble inheritance."
Pope Francis then pointed to another man who was "advanced in age and of noble presence", the aged Polycarp who was sentenced to the stake. "When the fire began to burn", the Bishop of Rome recounted, "those around him could only smell the pleasant odour of fresh-baked bread. This is what the elderly are for us," he continued, "Fine vintage wine and good bread." "And yet", he lamented "especially in this world they are considered a nuisance."
The Pope then recalled a story he was told as a young child. "There was a father, mother and their many children, and a grandfather lived with them. He was quite old, and when he was at table eating soup, he would get everything dirty: his mouth, the serviette ... it was not a pretty sight! One day the father said that, given what was happening to the grandfather, from that day forward he would eat alone. And so he bought a little table, and placed it in the kitchen. And so the grandfather ate alone in the kitchen while the family ate in the dining room. After some days, the father returned home from work and found one of his children playing with wood. He asked him: 'What are you doing?' to which the child replied: 'I am playing carpenter.' 'And what are you building?' the father asked. 'A table for you, papa, for when you get old like grandpa'. This story has stayed with me for a lifetime and done me great good," Pope Francis said. "Grandparents are a treasure."
Returning to what the Scriptures teach us about the elderly, Pope Francis then cited the Letter to the Hebrews. "There we read: 'Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God: consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith' (13:7). The remembrance of our ancestors leads us to imitate their faith. It is true that old age is at times unpleasant, because of the illnesses it brings. But the wisdom of our grandparents is the inheritance we ought to receive. A people that does not care for its grandparents, that does not respect its grandparents, has no future since it has lost its memory. Faced with martyrdom, Eleazar was aware of his responsibility to the young. He thought about God, but he also thought about the young, saying: 'I must give the young a credible example to the very end.'"
Pope Francis concluded: "We would do well to think about the many elderly men and women, about those who are in rest homes and also those - it is an unpleasant word but let us say it - who have been abandoned by their loved ones. Let us pray for them that they may be consistent to the very end. This is the role of the elderly, this is the treasure. Let us pray for our grandfathers and grandmothers who often played a heroic role in handing on the faith in times of persecution. Especially in times past, when fathers and mothers often were not at home or had strange ideas, confused as they were by the fashionable ideologies of the day, grandmothers were the ones who handed on the Faith."
POPE FRANCIS
|
|
