Pope: let us pray for the elderly who are afraid of dying alone

God "is faithful to his promise". "God's fidelity is a patient fidelity: He is patient with His people, listens to them, guides them, explains slowly and warms their hearts". "God's fidelity always precedes us and our fidelity is always the answer to that fidelity that precedes us".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The elderly who are afraid of dying alone. Pope Francis prayed for them this morning introducing the mass at Casa Santa Marta.

 "We pray today - he said - for the elderly, especially for those who are isolated or in nursing homes. They are afraid, afraid of dying alone. They feel this pandemic as an aggressive thing for them. They are our roots, our history. They gave us faith, tradition, a sense of belonging to a homeland. Let us pray for them that the Lord will be close to them at this moment.”

In his homily, Francis commented on a passage taken from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 3, 1-10), in which a man, crippled from birth, is healed, through Peter's prayer, 'in the name of Jesus Christ', and today's Gospel (Lk 24, 13-35) in which the risen Jesus walks with the disciples of Emmaus.

“Yesterday - he recalled - we reflected on Mary of Magdala as an icon of fidelity: fidelity to God. But how is this fidelity to God? To which God? Just to the faithful God. Our faithfulness is nothing but a response to God's faithfulness. God who is faithful to his word, who is faithful to his promise, who walks with his people carrying out the promise close to his people. Faithful to the promise: God, who continually makes himself felt as the Savior of the people because he is faithful to the promise ".

In the first Reading, a man crippled from birth was healed in the name of Jesus. Pope Francis said this is an example of God’s fidelity, “who is capable of redoing things, of re-creating… this is His faithfulness to us: a re-creation that is more wonderful than creation”.

Like a good shepherd, God never tires of seeking the sheep that is lost, the Pope said. He does so “out of love, out of fidelity”; and not for pay, but freely, gratuitously. God is like a father who never grows tired of waiting for his son to return home – and who throws a party when he does. “God’s faithfulness is a feast, a free feast, a feast for all of us”.

It is that divine faithfulness that led our “generous God” to seek after Peter, who had denied Jesus during His Passion. Pope Francis explained that although we do not know what the Lord said to Peter when He appeared to him for the first time after the Resurrection, “We know that it was God’s faithfulness that sought Peter out”.

As with Peter, God’s faithfulness always precedes our own, “and our faithfulness is always a response to that faithfulness that precedes us”.

For us, Pope Francis said in conclusion, “to be faithful is to praise this fidelity, to be faithful to [God’s] fidelity. It is a response to this fidelity”.