Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 191


The elderly


191.  "Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent" (Ps 71:9). This is the plea of the elderly, who fear being forgotten and rejected.  Just as God asks us to be his means of hearing the cry of the poor, so too he wants us to hear the cry of the elderly.211  This represents a challenge to families and communities, since "the Church cannot and does not want to conform to a mentality of impatience, and much less of indifference and contempt, towards old age. We must reawaken the collective sense of gratitude, of appreciation, of hospitality, which makes the elderly feel like a living part of the community.  Our elderly are men and women, fathers and mothers, who came before us on our own road, in our own house, in our daily battle for a worthy life".212  Indeed, "how I would like a Church that challenges the throw-away culture by the overflowing joy of a new embrace between young and old!"213

211 Cf. Relatio Finalis 2015, 17-18.
212 Catechesis (4 March 2015): L'Osservatore Romano, 12 March 2015, p.8.
213 Catechesis (11 March 2015): L'Osservatore Romano, 12 March 2015, p.8.

© LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA.



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