At the heart of every human life beats a yearning that never grows old: hope. With this certainty, Pope Leo XIV addresses his Message for the Fifth World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, reminding us that old age, far from being a sunset, is a time of blessing, grace and light for those who know how to look with faith.
Under the biblical motto “Blessed is he who does not see his hope vanish” (cf. Si 14:2), the Holy Father invites us to contemplate our elders as the first witnesses of hope, guardians of a living memory that sustains the faith of the new generations.
Elderly: living signs of God’s love
The history of salvation is full of men and women advanced in years, to whom God entrusted great missions: Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Anna the prophetess… With them, the Lord shows us that age is never a limit to be instruments of his providence.
Today too, the elderly are bridges between the past and the future, transmitters of wisdom and faith, and witnesses that even in physical frailty God’s strength can shine forth.
The Jubilee: freeing from loneliness and abandonment
The Pope calls us to live the next Jubilee as a time of liberation for our elders. Liberation from loneliness, forgetfulness and indifference. He invites us to a “revolution of gratitude and care”, visiting, accompanying and creating networks of closeness with those who have walked so long before us.
Because to visit an old man alone is to visit Christ himself.
Loving and praying: freedoms that are not lost with age
Even if the body weakens, there remains intact a freedom that no one can take away from us: the freedom to love and pray. Old age, says the Pope, is a time of interior renewal, of serene prayer, of the Eucharist that strengthens and consoles. It is the time to continue to be a light for others, trusting in God’s fidelity.
An echo in our spirituality: Mother Candida and care for the sick
Some ideas of this text were already shared in a previous article on the occasion of the World Day of the Sick. World Day of the Sick.
On this occasion, we highlight the coincidences of both messages in three major axes that illuminate our path:
To care for the sick and the elderly with tenderness and gratitude, recognizing in them the face of Christ.
To give meaning to suffering: to see it not as an end, but as an opportunity to be more united to God and to offer one’s life for others.
Keep prayer alive: as support, as nourishment, as strength to continue loving even in fragility.
A call for all
This message is not only for the elderly, but for the entire community. It is a reminder that hope is contagious, that caring for those who have gone before us is also caring for our own history and our future.
Today, listening to the Pope’s words and rereading the spirituality we inherited from Mother Candida, we want to renew our commitment to be closeness, tenderness and consolation for the elderly and the sick, and to learn from them the art of waiting trusting in the Lord.
“For happy is he who does not let his hope fade, and keeps it alive, like a flame that never goes out.”
