On 23 July 2023, the III World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly is celebrated. It falls on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ grandparents.
Against the throwaway culture
This Day was born from the heart of Pope Francis in 2021 and sounded somewhat like the Church’s cry against the “throwaway” culture, against this society that “loses pieces” and increasingly leaves the most vulnerable behind because they lack efficiency, because they cannot produce, and so it seems as though they do not exist.
Precisely in response to this perverse and unhealthy logic, in 2021 Pope Francis reminded everyone how fundamental the contribution of grandparents and older people is; in his first message for this Day, he identified three pillars of which older people are experts: dreams, memory and prayer. And in the pact between generations he envisioned the hope of a renewed humanity: older people will see their dreams fulfilled by the young, but this requires continuing to dream and remembering, which older people must embrace as a mission; finally, prayer is needed, an invaluable resource for the Church.
A meeting between different generations
This year’s theme is inspired by the encounter between the young Mary and her elderly cousin Elizabeth and echoes a verse from the Magnificat: “From generation to generation his mercy” (Lk 1:50). In the Message he dedicated to this 3rd World Day, the Pope indeed emphasizes that “The Holy Spirit blesses and accompanies every fruitful encounter between different generations, between grandparents and grandchildren, between young and old. God, in fact, desires that, as Mary did with Elizabeth, young people gladden the hearts of the elderly and draw wisdom from their life experiences. But above all, the Lord desires that we not leave the elderly alone, that we not relegate them to the margins of life, as unfortunately happens all too often today.”
He then notes the beautiful proximity, this year, of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly to World Youth Day, which will be held in Lisbon from 1o to 6 August 2023, almost an ideal passing of the baton between generations that must engage in dialogue, precisely because no one is saved alone.
Looking beyond
Pope Francis’s invitation, then, is that, in time and in the “action of God” - which spans the past, present, and future - we all feel invited to take part in a project that urges us to go beyond ourselves: the youngest beyond the immediate and the culture of “everything now”; the oldest beyond their gradually weakening strength and missed opportunities, aware that “in the encounter between young and old, God gives us the future”.
So let us live with ever-renewed hope, rediscovering in our days the rhythm of God’s steps, who never leaves anyone behind.
