Expensive brothers and sisters!
“His mercy is from age to age” (Lk 1:50). That is the theme of the Third World Day for Grandparents and the Aged, and it takes us again to the joyful assembly between the younger Mary and her aged relative Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:39-56). Stuffed with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth addressed the Mom of God with phrases that, millennia later, proceed to echo in our each day prayer: “Blessed are you amongst girls and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (v. 42). The Holy Spirit, who had earlier descended upon Mary, prompted her to reply with the Magnificat, through which she proclaimed that the Lord’s mercy is from technology to technology. That very same Spirit blesses and accompanies each fruitful encounter between completely different generations: between grandparents and grandchildren, between younger and previous. God desires younger individuals to convey pleasure to the hearts of the aged, as Mary did to Elizabeth, and achieve knowledge from their experiences. But, above all, the Lord desires us to not abandon the aged or to push them to the margins of life, as tragically occurs all too usually in our time.
This 12 months, the World Day for Grandparents and the Aged takes place near World Youth Day. Each celebrations remind us of the “haste” (cf. v. 39) with which Mary got down to go to Elizabeth. On this means, they invite us to mirror on the bond that unites younger and previous. The Lord trusts that younger individuals, by means of their relationships with the aged, will notice that they’re referred to as to domesticate reminiscence and acknowledge the great thing about being a part of a a lot bigger historical past. Friendship with an older particular person may help the younger to see life not solely by way of the current and notice that not all the things depends upon them and their skills. For the aged, the presence of a teenager of their lives can provide them hope that their expertise is not going to be misplaced and that their goals can discover fulfilment. Mary’s go to to Elizabeth and their shared consciousness that the Lord’s mercy is from technology to technology remind us that, alone, we can not transfer ahead, a lot much less save ourselves, and that God’s presence and exercise are all the time a part of one thing larger, the historical past of a individuals. Mary herself mentioned this within the Magnificat, as she rejoiced in God, who, in constancy to the promise he had made to Abraham, had labored new and sudden wonders (cf. vv. 51-55).
To raised admire God’s means of appearing, allow us to keep in mind that our life is supposed to be lived to the total, and that our biggest hopes and goals are usually not achieved immediately however by means of a means of development and maturation, in dialogue and in relationship with others. Those that focus solely on the right here and now, on cash and possessions, on “having all of it now”, are blind to the way in which God works. His loving plan spans previous, current and future; it embraces and connects the generations. It’s larger than we’re, but contains every of us and calls us at each second to maintain urgent ahead. For the younger, this implies being prepared to interrupt free from the fleeting current through which digital actuality can entrap us, stopping us from doing one thing productive. For the aged, it means not dwelling on the lack of bodily energy and considering with remorse about missed alternatives. Allow us to all look forward! And permit ourselves to be formed by God’s grace, which from technology to technology frees us from inertia and from dwelling on the previous!
Within the assembly between Mary and Elizabeth, between younger and previous, God factors us in direction of the long run that he’s opening up earlier than us. Certainly, Mary’s go to and Elizabeth’s greeting open our eyes to the daybreak of salvation: of their embrace, God’s mercy quietly breaks into human historical past amid considerable pleasure. I encourage everybody to mirror on that assembly, to image, like a snapshot, that embrace between the younger Mom of God and the aged mom of Saint John the Baptist, and to border it of their minds and hearts as a radiant icon.
Subsequent, I’d invite you to make a concrete gesture that would come with grandparents and the aged. Allow us to not abandon them. Their presence in households and communities is a treasured one, for it reminds us that we share the identical heritage and are a part of a individuals dedicated to preserving its roots. From the aged we obtained the reward of belonging to God’s holy individuals. The Church, in addition to society, wants them, for they entrust to the current the previous that’s wanted to construct the long run. Allow us to honour them, neither depriving ourselves of their firm nor depriving them of ours. Might we by no means permit the aged to be forged apart!
The World Day for Grandparents and the Aged is supposed to be a small however treasured signal of hope for them and for the entire Church. I renew my invitation to everybody – dioceses, parishes, associations and communities – to rejoice this Day and to make it the event of a joyful and renewed encounter between younger and previous. To you, the younger who’re making ready to satisfy in Lisbon or to rejoice World Youth Day in your personal international locations, I’d ask: earlier than you set out in your journey, go to your grandparents or an aged one that lives alone! Their prayers will defend you and you’ll carry in your coronary heart the blessing of that encounter. I ask you, the aged amongst us, to accompany by your prayers the younger individuals about to rejoice World Youth Day. These younger individuals are God’s reply to your prayers, the fruits of all that you’ve got sown, the signal that God doesn’t abandon his individuals, however all the time rejuvenates them with the creativity of the Holy Spirit.
Expensive grandparents, pricey aged brothers and sisters, could the blessing of the embrace between Mary and Elizabeth stumble upon you and fill your hearts with peace. With nice affection, I provide you with my blessing. And I ask you, please, to wish for me.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 31 Might 2023,
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
