‘BLESSED ARE THEY WHO HAVE NOT LOST HOPE’ – A COMMENTARY ON POPE LEO’S MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY – 27TH JULY 2025

Fr Billy Swan

'BLESSED ARE THEY WHO HAVE NOT LOST HOPE' (SIR. 14:2)

Each year on the Sunday nearest to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus, the Church celebrates the ‘World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly’. This year, the day falls on Sunday 27^th July and for the occasion, Pope Leo has published an inspiring message in keeping with the Jubilee Year of Hope with the title ‘Blessed are they who have not lost hope’ (Sirach 14:2).

Perhaps the first thing to note is the need of the Church to highlight the dignity of grand-parents and elderly people in the first place. I recently spent two nights in London visiting a former parish where I ministered 28 years ago as a deacon. I remember arriving in London from rural Wexford in 1997 and the culture shock I experienced there. A big part of that shock was the pace of life and how millions of people were constantly on the go on the streets, on the Tube, on buses, cars, taxis and trains. 28 years later and in 2025, I would say that the pace is even faster now as it was then. During my recent visit, one day on the Tube during rush hour, I noticed something striking – the vast majority of the people travelling were able bodied and young. There was a marked absence of the elderly. This meant that for every thousand young people frantically travelling about London, thousands more elderly people were invisible, confined to their homes with many of them living alone. The same is true of any big city. Being invisible can easily translate to being forgotten.

Another reason to highlight the dignity of the elderly is the constant threat of assisted suicide here in Ireland being pushed by lobby groups and gaining political traction. Tragic stories of individual lives are put forward as evidence for the need for change in the law. But it is never that simple as doctors and medical professionals point out. If assisted suicide becomes law, it changes everything because no longer is the protection of life the ultimate good but rather the carrying out of an individual’s wishes. This will lead to a sea change in ethics and the ethos of health care, as has already happened in the case of abortion. In other countries where euthanasia has become legalised, cases have arisen whereby families with elderly and sick relatives have been told by government and state agencies that there is funding available to help them to die but not enough funding to help them to live.

All the more reason why Pope Leo’s message is timely to highlight the existence of elderly people, their dignity and their need for hope.

Having acknowledged the dignity of the elderly, Pope Leo turns to Scripture and points out an interesting and important truth – namely that the people God chooses as key figures in the history of salvation, are often elderly. He writes:

“In the Bible, God repeatedly demonstrates his providential care by turning to people in their later years. This was the case not only with Abraham, Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, but also with Moses, who was called to set his people free when he was already eighty years old (cf. Ex 7:7). God thus teaches us that, in his eyes, old age is a time of blessing and grace, and that the elderly are, for him, the first witnesses of hope”.

If we were to choose someone for an important role, the first people we might think of are those who are fit, young, intelligent, reliable and so on. While God does sometimes choose the young – as he did in the cases of David and Mary – to fulfil an important vocation, he often calls the elderly as in the cases mentioned by Pope Leo above. In Scripture, it is often the elderly that God chooses.

God’s choice is not determined by the perfection or powers of those he chooses. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Pope Leo quotes St Augustine who enlightens us as to the reason why:

‘Augustine asks, “What do we mean by old age?” He tells us that God himself answers the question: “Let your strength fail, so that my strength may abide within you, and you can say with the Apostle, ‘When I am weak, then I am strong’” (Super Ps. 70,11).

This means that God’s power works through us, not only through our strengths and abilities but also through our frailties and limitations. What matters is faith in Him for, in the words of St Paul, ‘when I am weak, I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:10).

This is a valuable lesson, not just for the elderly but for all of us. As we get older, the wear and tear of the years seem to bring more visits to the doctor, grey hair, less hair, more wrinkles and a realisation that life indeed is very short. The effect that the years have on our bodies challenge us as to where our securities lie. Growing old can be very difficult to accept especially if it forces us to let go of something or someone that gave us pride and security when we were younger. For many of us, ageing can bring with it a host of issues around the meaning and direction of our lives and our acceptance by others. At first glance it can seem as if there are many losses and few obvious gains. But gain we do. We who suffer losses ultimately become stronger and more mature provided we are open to the gift of faith and the spirit of God. Here are some examples of what we may lose in life and gain as our journey progresses:

•         In middle age we may lose our youthfulness but realize that what’s inside is just as important as how we look on the outside.

•         In retirement we may lose income, but we find more freedom to do the things maybe we had no time for before.

•         In old age we may lose a little independence, but we receive back some of the love we gave to others.

•         Oftentimes when we lose possessions in life, we find after mourning their loss we are freer and less burdened, realizing that we were meant to travel lightly through this world.

•         Sometimes when relationships end, we learn who we are- not in relation to other people, but just as ourselves.

•         We may lose items or abilities, only to realize how much we appreciate that which we have left.

From a faith perspective, these are experiences that challenge us to deepen our trust in God’s eternal love for us. Getting older and edging closer to death can make us feel terrified or can be seen as God’s way of drawing us closer to himself and to the place we are destined to be for all eternity. Realizing this can bring a wonderful peace and acceptance. We are constantly dying to one type of reality and rising to another. In the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, ‘Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day’ (2 Corinthians 4:16).

As Pope Francis wrote during his last hospitalisation:

“Our bodies are weak, but even so, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being there for one another, in faith, as shining signs of hope” (Angelus, 16 March 2025).

In his message, Pope Leo is anxious to keep in close proximity the generations of young and old and how one benefits from the other. He writes:

‘If it is true that the weakness of the elderly needs the strength of the young, it is equally true that the inexperience of the young needs the witness of the elderly in order to build the future with wisdom. How often our grandparents have been for us examples of faith and devotion, civic virtue and social commitment, memory and perseverance amid trials! The precious legacy that they have handed down to us with hope and love will always be a source of gratitude and a summons to perseverance’.

The Holy Father then urges the whole Church to draw close to our elderly members because:

‘We are called to help them experience liberation, especially from loneliness and abandonment. This (Jubilee) year is a fitting time to do so. God’s fidelity to his promises teaches us that there is a blessedness in old age, an authentic evangelical joy inspiring us to break through the barriers of indifference in which the elderly often find themselves enclosed’.

In order to put flesh on the bones of this dream, Pope Leo urges that:

‘Every parish, association and ecclesial group is called to become a protagonist in a revolution of gratitude and care, to be brought about by regular visits to the elderly, the creation of networks of support and prayer for them and with them, and the forging of relationships that can restore hope and dignity to those who feel forgotten. Christian hope always urges us to be more daring, to think big, to be dissatisfied with things the way they are. In this case, it urges us to work for a change that can restore the esteem and affection to which the elderly are entitled’.

Here in the parish of Wexford, this is the spirit of care we try to embody with the ‘Pastoral Care Group’ headed by Noreen O’Leary who co-ordinates team visits to the homes of the elderly and our local nursing homes. It is the spirit we try to sustain and improve so that no elderly person feels forgotten or discarded by our parish community. Feeling forgotten leads to despair while being remembered, included and valued gives birth to hope. In the words of the Scriptural theme of this World Day for Grand-parents and the Elderly,  ‘blessed are those who have not lost hope (Sirach14:2).

To conclude. All of us have known the blessing of grandparents and/or elderly people in our lives. One day we will be old or perhaps we are there already. In this Jubilee Year of hope, our prayer is that all of us play our part to cultivate a culture of respect and appreciation for our elderly – for their wisdom, resilience and their wisdom that has been accrued over many years of life and change. May we never allow a culture to develop whereby they are allowed to question their worth and dignity or feel a burden to their families and the State. In this way, we will be signs of hope, whatever our age.