Mass in the Vatican for the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

Pope Francis invited on the occasion of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, July 25, to learn to share time with the elderly, to take care of them with love, to be grateful for everything they did for us.

“Brothers and sisters, grandparents and the elderly are the bread that nourishes our lives. We are grateful for their attentive eyes, which they fixed on us, for their knees, which cradled us, for their hands, which accompanied us and lifted us, for playing with us and for the caresses with which they consoled us. Said the Pope in the homily prepared for the Mass which was celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and attended by more than 2,000 faithful.

The Eucharist was concelebrated by the President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, Bishop Rino Fisichella, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell and the Pope’s Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis.

In the homily prepared by Pope Francis and delivered, in his name by Bishop Fisichella, the Holy Father commented on the passage from the Gospel of Saint John which relates the episode of the multiplication of the loaves.

In this sense, the Pontiff wrote that “the grandparents and the elderly are not the remains of life, the waste that must be thrown away” but rather “are those precious pieces of bread that have remained on the table. of our life, which can still nourish us with a scent that we have lost, the scent of memory ”.

“Let us not lose the memory that the elderly bear, for we are the children of this story, and without roots we will wither away. They have kept us throughout the stages of our growth, now it is up to us to keep their lives, to alleviate their difficulties, to be attentive to their needs, to create the conditions so that their daily tasks are facilitated and that they do not feel alone “, invited the Pope.

For this reason, the Holy Father invited us to ask ourselves: “Did I visit the grandparents?” To the elders of the family or my neighborhood? Did I hear them? Did I spend a little time on it? “ and added “let’s keep them safe, so that nothing is lost.” Nothing about his life or his dreams. It depends on us, today, that we do not regret tomorrow for not having paid enough attention to those who loved us and gave us life ”.

“Please don’t forget them. Would we go with them. Let’s learn to stop, to recognize them, to listen to them. Never throw them away. Let’s keep them with love. And let’s learn to share time with them. We will do better. And, together, young and old, we will be satisfied at the sharing table, blessed by God ”, he stressed.

In addition, the Holy Father dwelled on the story and the characters told by the evangelist Saint John in chapter 6 in which Jesus meets a young man, who has no name, and who offered all he had – five barley loaves and two fish – and the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves by which a multitude of people ate.

In this sense, the Pope said that on this Day dedicated to grandparents and the elderly, he stopped at three moments: “Jesus who sees the hunger of the crowd; Jesus sharing the bread; Jesus ordering to pick up the remaining pieces. Three moments that can be summed up in three verbs: see, share, keep “.

In the first place, the Holy Father underlined “the gaze of Jesus, who is neither indifferent nor occupied, but warns against the spasms of hunger which torment tired humanity” because “He cares about us, takes care of us, wants to satisfy our hunger for life, love and happiness ”.

“It is also the look with which grandparents and elders saw our lives. This is the way they, from our childhood, have taken care of us. Having often had a very sacrificial life, they did not treat us with indifference or ignored us, but had attentive eyes, full of tenderness, ”he said.

Then the Pope invited to question “and we, How do we look at grandparents and elders? When was the last time we kept company or phoned an Elder to express our closeness to them and let us be blessed by their words? “And acknowledged that” I suffer when I see a society that turns, busy and indifferent, busy through so many things and unable to stop to direct a look, a greeting, a caress.

“I’m afraid of a society in which we are all an anonymous crowd and unable to look up and recognize each other. The grandparents, who nourished our life, are today hungry for us, our attention, our tenderness, to feel close to us. Let us look up on them, as Jesus does with us, ”he warned.

Secondly, the Holy Father stopped at the generosity of the young man “who shares what he has” and who is “at the center of this miracle from which so many adults, some five thousand people, have benefited”.

Faced with this, the Pope again invited to perform “a new alliance between young and old, to share the common treasure of life, to dream together, to overcome conflicts between generations to prepare for the future of all “because” without this alliance of life, dreams and the future, we risk dying of hunger, because the broken links, loneliness, egoism, the forces of disintegration increase.

“The gospel calls on us to share who we are and what we have, that is the only way we can be satisfied. I have several times remembered what the prophet Joel said on this subject (cf. Jl 3.1): Young and old together. Young people, prophets of the future who do not forget the history from which they came; the old dreamers never tired who transmit the experience to the young, without standing in 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 ”, exhorted the Pope.

Finally, the Holy Father warned against the importance that “the Gospel says that there were many pieces of bread left” and that Jesus asked to collect “the pieces that remain, so that nothing is lost” and added that “this is how the heart of God not only gives us much more than we need, but also cares that nothing is wasted, not even a fragment. “

It’s a prophetic invitation from jesus, which recalls that “grandparents and the elderly are not leftovers of life, waste that must be thrown away” because “it is these precious pieces of bread that have been left on the table of our lives” .

“Now it’s up to us to protect their lives, to alleviate their difficulties, to be attentive to their needs, to create the conditions so that their daily tasks are facilitated and that they do not feel alone”, a concluded the Pope in his homily.

At the end of the mass, Cardinal Farrell and Bishop Fisichella stood in front of a painting of the Virgin Mary with a group of elderly people, including two African women in typical costumes, and all, with the congregation present, sang a song to the Virgin Mary.

The Holy Father has instituted this World Day for grandparents and the elderly who will take place every year on the fourth Sunday of July, near the feast of Saints Joaquín and Ana, the grandparents of Jesus.

The theme of this first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly was “I am with you every day” and for the occasion Pope Francis wrote a message, the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has also prepared a prayer. and the Apostolic Penitentiary has granted plenary indulgence to those who visit an elder for that day and meet the conditions established by the Catholic Church.