Pope appeals for closeness to the elderly forced into shelters to escape bombs

At the Wednesday general audience, thanks to the Poles who are taking in Ukrainian refugees. "Our prayer and fasting remind us that peace always begins with our personal conversion". In the catechesis a reflection on longevity as a symbol and an opportunity: "The arrogance of the time of the clock must be converted into the beauty of the rhythms of life."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "So many elderly people in Ukraine are in bunkers underground in order to defend themselves. We carry the memory of this people in our hearts," said Pope Francis again openly referring to the drama of the war in Ukraine today, at the end of the Wednesday general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican.

In continuity with the theme of the new cycle of catechesis dedicated to the theme of old age, the Pontiff recalled the many elderly people in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities who are currently in the basements to escape the bombings.

The occasion was the personal story of the friar who read the greetings in Polish at the audience: "This friar", Francis explained, "is Ukrainian and his parents are at this moment in shelters to defend themselves from the bombs in a place near Kiev. We accompany him and all the people who are suffering from the bombings". Shortly before, he had expressly thanked Poland for opening its borders and the doors of its homes to the Ukrainian refugees: "You are generously offering them everything they need to live in dignity, despite the drama of the moment. I am deeply grateful to you and I bless you from my heart". Then, recalling the day of fasting and prayer for peace convened for today, he recalled that "peace in the world always begins with our personal conversion, the following of Christ".

In his catechesis - taking his cue from the passage in Genesis that speaks of the patriarchs who lived centuries after fathering their children (Gen 5:1-5) - he proposed a reflection on longevity as a symbol and an opportunity. "It is as if the transmission of human life, so new in the created universe, demands a slow and prolonged initiation," he commented. An experience in which "mutual support between generations is indispensable, in order to decipher experiences and confront the enigmas of life".

"Eevery passing epoch in human history offers this feeling again: it is as if we had to start over calmly from the beginning with our questions on the meaning of life, when the scenario of the human condition appears crowded with new experiences and hitherto unasked questions". Assimilation requires patience, but today this clashes with "thThe excess of speed, which by now obsesses every stage of our life, makes every experience more superficial and less “nourishing”. Young people are unconscious victims of this split between the time on the clock, that needs to be rushed, and the times of life, that require a proper “leavening”. A long life enables these long times, and the damages of haste, to be experienced.

Hence the importance of the alliance between the two extreme generations of life - children and the elderly - to which Pope Francis himself wanted to dedicate Grandparents' Day, which the Church celebrates on 25 July. But it is a theme that has to do with all dimensions of life, including the habitat in which we live. "The modern city tends to be hostile to the elderly (and not coincidentally also to children). Everyone clings to their own little piece, floating on the flows of the market-city, for which slow rhythms are losses and speed is money. Excessive speed pulverises life, not makes it more intense. 

The pandemic, the Pontiff recalled, has painfully imposed a halt "on the obtuse cult of speed. And in this period, grandparents have acted as a barrier to the affective 'dehydration' of the youngest children". The "meaning of life is all of it, from birth to death, and you should be able to interact with everyone, and also to have emotional relationships with everyone, so that your maturity will be richer and stronger. And it also offers us this meaning of life, which is everything. May the Spirit grant us the intelligence and strength for this reform: a reform is needed. The arrogance of the time of the clock must be converted into the beauty of the rhythms of life. The alliance of the generations is indispensable. A society in which the elderly do not speak with the young, the young do not speak with the elderly, is a sterile society, without a future, a society that does not look to the horizon but rather looks at itself. And it becomes lonely. May God help us to find the right music for this harmonization of the various ages: the little ones, the elderly, adults, everyone together: a beautiful symphony of dialogue".