Grandparents hand over cross to young people on their way to Lisbon WYD

Mass presided over by Pope Francis on today's World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. The pontiff: "Old age is the season for reconciliation, for looking with tenderness at the light that has advanced despite the shadows." Appeal to politics: "Do not relegate the elderly to unproductive waste." Sympathy for flood victims in South Korea.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Old age is a blessed time: it is the season to be reconciled, to look with tenderness at the light that has advanced despite the shadows." Pope Francis said this today in his homily at the Mass he presided at the Vatican Basilica on the occasion of the Third World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, an anniversary he established on the Sunday closest to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents Jesus.

It was a celebration marked by the idea of "growing together" between the elderly and the young. On the eve of World Youth Day in early August in Lisbon, the end of the celebration saw five elders hand over the pilgrim's cross to as many young people leaving for Portugal.

Among the elders was Sr. Martin de Porres, 82, an Indian Missionary of Charity (Mother Teresa's sisters) who lives in the regional house of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome and who prays daily for the young people leaving for WYD.

Also receiving the cross from her and the other elders at St. Peter's were Aleesha, a 22-year-old young woman of Indian origin who is studying at the University of Bologna and will go to Lisbon with a group of 25 young Indian Catholics living in Italy, and Koe, a 22-year-old Australian woman of Filipino origin.

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Francis - commenting on the Gospel passage proposed by today's liturgy - noted how the language of parables used by Jesus "resembles that which grandparents so often use with their grandchildren, perhaps holding them on their knees: in this way they communicate wisdom that is important for life."

Dwelling on the parable of the wheat and the weeds, he emphasized its deeply realistic message. The Christian," he explained, "knows that in the world there are wheat and darnel, and he looks within, recognizing that evil does not come only 'from outside,' that it is not always the fault of others, that one does not have to 'invent' enemies to fight in order to avoid shedding light within oneself.

In this sense it is a guiding word even in old age. "I think of the elderly and grandparents, who have already come a long way in life," he continued, "if they look back, they see so many beautiful things they managed to accomplish, but also defeats, mistakes, something that 'if I went back I would not do again."

Today, however, the Lord reaches out to us with a sweet word, inviting us to accept the mystery of life with serenity and patience, to leave judgment to Him, not to live with regrets and remorse."

Then comparing grandparents to the verdant tree under whose branches the little ones build their nest, he reiterated that today the Church needs "a new alliance between young and old, so that the sap of those who have a long life experience behind them will sprinkle the shoots of hope of those who are growing up."

Hence also a new appeal to institutions: "Let our crowded cities not become 'concentrations of loneliness'; let it not happen that politics, called to provide for the needs of the most fragile, forgets precisely the elderly, letting the market relegate them to 'unproductive waste.' Let it not happen that, by dint of chasing the myths of efficiency and performance at full speed, we become incapable of slowing down to accompany those who struggle to keep up. Please," he concluded, "let us mix, let us grow together.

Pope Francis was also joined for the Angelus prayer by an elderly woman and a young man beside him at his window. Recalling the extreme weather phenomena of recent days including the floods in South Korea, he appealed, "I am close to those who are suffering and to those who are assisting the victims and the displaced. I renew my appeal to the leaders of the nations to do something more concrete to limit polluting emissions: this is an urgent challenge and cannot be postponed, it affects everyone. Let us protect our common home."

Finally Francis called for solutions for migrants stranded in the African desert. And remembering the victims of tonight's bombing in Odessa, he called for continued prayers for peace.

• Vatican
• Angelus