Pope Francis blesses a woman in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he presided over a special papal Mass on July 23, 2023, marking the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jul 23, 2023 / 07:25 am (CNA).
Calling for “a new bond between the young and old,” Pope Francis marked the third annual World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly with an intergenerational Mass Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Old age is a “blessed time,” the pope affirmed in his homily, “for it is the season to be reconciled, a time for looking tenderly at the light that has shone despite the shadows, confident in the hope that the good wheat sown by God will prevail over the weeds with which the devil has wanted to plague our hearts.”
“How much we need a new bond between young and old,” Pope Francis said, “so that the sap of those who have a long experience of life behind them will nourish the shoots of hope of those who are growing. In this fruitful exchange we can learn the beauty of life, build a fraternal society, and in the Church, be enabled to encounter one another and dialogue between tradition and the newness of the Spirit.”
Sunday marked the first time Pope Francis presided over the special papal Mass since initiating the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021. The celebration is now held on the fourth Sunday of July — the Sunday closest to the July 26 feast of Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.
Joining some 6,000 grandparents and older people at the liturgy were young people bound for World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, which begins Aug. 1. Before the final blessing of the Mass, five youths and five elderly people, representing the five continents, processed to the front of the basilica. The elderly people then placed pilgrim’s crosses around the necks of the young people.
Growing together
In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on three parables of Jesus in Sunday’s Gospel from Matthew, focusing on the theme of “growing together.”
“Jesus uses parables to teach us about the kingdom of God. He recounts simple stories that touch the hearts of his listeners,” the pope observed.
“Such language, full of imagery, resembles the language that grandparents often use with their grandchildren, perhaps while holding them on their laps. In this way they pass on a wisdom important for life,” he said.
In the first parable, the farmer commands that the wheat and the weeds be allowed to grow together until harvest time.
“This image,” the Holy Father said, “helps us to see things realistically: In human history, as in each of our lives, there is a mixture of light and shadows, love and selfishness. Good and evil are even intertwined to the point of seeming inseparable.”
Pope Francis said this is a “realistic approach” that helps us to look at history avoiding both “sterile optimism” and “poisonous pessimism.”
“Christians, motivated by the hope of God, are not pessimists; nor do they naïvely live in a fairy tale, pretending not to see evil and saying that ‘all is well.’ No, Christians are realists: they know that there are wheat and weeds in the world,” he said.
Christians recognize this interplay not just in the world at large, but also in their own lives, he continued, realizing that “evil comes also from within us.”
The parable poses the question of what should be done with this situation, and the pope noted how the servants want to pull up the weeds.
“This attitude comes from good intentions, but is impulsive and aggressive,” Pope Francis warned.
“They delude themselves into thinking that they can uproot evil by their own efforts in order to save what is pure,” he continued. “Indeed, we frequently see the temptation of seeking to bring about a ‘pure society,’ a ‘pure Church,’ whereas in working to reach this purity, we risk being impatient, intransigent, even violent toward those who have fallen into error. In this way, together with the weeds we pull up the good wheat and block people from moving forward, from growing and changing.”
Instead, Jesus says the wheat and weeds have to grow together, the Holy Father emphasized.
“How beautiful is this vision of God, his way of teaching us about mercy,” the pope said. “This invites us to be patient with others, to be patient with others and — in our families, in the Church, and in society — to welcome weakness, delay, and limitations, not in order to let ourselves grow accustomed to them or excuse them, but to learn to act with respect, caring for the good wheat gently and patiently.”
In any case, it is God’s work, not ours, to purify the heart and claim the definitive victory over evil, the pope said.
He then noted how this attitude helps us to look back over our lives, especially when we’ve lived longer.
The elderly, he noted, look back over their lives and see “so many beautiful things” but also the “defeats and mistakes.”
“Yet today the Lord offers us a gentle word that invites us to accept the mystery of life with serenity and patience, to leave judgment to him, and not to live regretful and remorseful lives,” he said. “It is as if Jesus wanted to say to us: ‘Look at the good wheat that has sprouted along the path of your life and let it keep growing, entrusting everything to me, for I always forgive: in the end, the good will be stronger than the evil.’”
Pope Francis considered the second and third parables, about the mustard tree and the yeast, as images to encourage the elderly and the young to dwell together.
Scripture calls us to be vigilant so we don’t marginalize the elderly, the pope said, “so that our crowded cities do not become ‘centers of loneliness’; that politics, called to provide for the needs of the most fragile, never forgets the elderly nor allows the market to banish them as ‘unprofitable waste.’
“May we not chase after the utopias of efficiency and performance at full speed, lest we become incapable of slowing down to accompany those who struggle to keep up,” the pope urged. “Please, let us mingle and grow together.”
Three fields
Following the Mass, Pope Francis underscored this theme when he prayed the traditional midday Angelus from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, flanked by a grandmother and grandson.
Reiterating the themes from his homily, the pope warned against judging our neighbors or trying to create a perfect world by uprooting the weeds. However, he noted, there is a place where we are free to work, and that is in our hearts.
There, we must have “constant care of the delicate shoots of goodness” as well as dedicate ourselves to “identify and uproot the weeds.”
“There is a good method for this,” he said: “It is the examination of conscience, which serves precisely to verify, in the light of God, what is happening in the field of the heart.”
In summary, he posed three questions for the faithful to ponder.
“Thinking of the field of the world: Do I know how to resist the temptation to ‘bundle all the grass together,’ to sweep others aside with my judgments?” he asked. “Then, thinking of the field of the heart: Am I honest in seeking out the bad weeds in myself, and decisive in throwing them into the fire of God’s mercy?
“And, thinking of the neighbor’s field: Do I have the wisdom to see what is good without being discouraged by the limitations and limits of others?”
In his remarks after the Angelus reflection, Pope Francis mentioned the exceptionally severe monsoon season in South Korea that brought flash flooding last week, killing at least 40 people in the North Gyeongsang province.
He also lamented the ongoing suffering of people trying to migrate, especially through deserts. Referring again to the Mediterranean as a “cemetery,” he prayed that our hearts might be illuminated so that we show more solidarity. This month, migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were chased out of Tunisia to deserts along the border with Libya and Algeria. While several hundred have since been rescued, pockets of people are still stranded.
As he does in every public address, the pope reiterated his appeal for prayer for Ukraine. He noted that last night’s strike in Odessa badly damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, an Orthodox cathedral in the city.
He closed with his traditional request that the faithful pray for him, but added an appeal to pray for all grandparents.
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Quote: Unity is reconciled diversity.
But can all sorts of diversity be really reconciled? I believe in the
Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. You don’t.
I believe there is truly only the male priesthood. You believe priestesses are equally valid.
I believe in the Sacrament of Penance. You don’t, thinking that all that is necessary is to
confess your sins to God directly.
I believe marriage is between man and woman. You believe gay marriage is equally good in the
eyes of God.
How can we reconcile this divergent views to achieve unity?
How can we leave doctrine to theologians when it is precisely doctrine that divides us?
Ugh, more syrupy sweet non sense. What a disgrace.
Charismatic movement is a direct threat to the church, but it embodies that wonderful global religion of feeling where truth doesn’t matter.
MarcAlcan is correct thaat unity understood as diversified reconciliation is limited. The Holy Eucharist is the sign of unity in one baptism, one faith. As a lay lecturer at a seminary in Malawi I experienced a wonderful unity based on friendship, mutual support between Anglicans, Dutch Reformed, and Seventh day Adventists. The latter treating me with great kindness when suffering acute malaria at their field hospital. Once I was called on the intercom by a surgeon at a Catholic hospital to give communion to a Lutheran woman prepared for a dangerous surgery. I couldn’t in conscience refuse her. She responded correctly to my questions on the Real Presence and claimed no animosity toward the Roman Pontiff. That of course was an extremely rare once in a lifetime exception. Attempting to pursue a false unity which it appears the Pontiff suggests will result not in true unity but rather mere tolerance and continued devaluation of the Holy Eucharist. Other Christians will respond only insofar as our faith holds to the exclusivity of reception of the Real Presence.
As a 25 yr old I became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Summer of 1968, and in consequence had many very helpful subsequent interactions with Protestant Pentecostals. Some of it was completely astounding, for example a series of talks by a Lutheran pastor on the Canticle of Canticles that was very reminiscent of St. Bernard’s treatment of the same topic, but hardly identical. It was “fresh off the griddle,” as they would say. Then there were the amusing moments when my new associates discovered that I was Catholic. They could hardly take it in. “You mean of Catholic background, right?” “No, I am a practicing Catholic.” It definitely rocked their theology and I began to think that the Renewal was the key to the reunion of Christendom. We would discover each other’s Christianity, become friends, and they would eventually be open to full communion. Perhaps indeed, that will happen, but new problems are appearing
About 20years ago I became involved with a group of young Catholic adults in the western suburbs of Chicago who formed a group called the Roman Forum. It is now long disbanded because the demands of parenting made it impossible for them to continue, but while it lasted it was a study group that met on Thursday evenings for pizza and conversation about Catholic theology and its relation to the issues of the day. There was also a yahoogroup site for online exchanges. It was nice while it lasted.
In one post I made the mistake of suggesting that we might be able to learn something from our separated brethren and was immediately challenged by someone saying, “Like what for example?” So I produced and posted a long list This was greeted both with anger and hilarity. There were several converts in the group who were emphatically hostile to the notion that anything good could come out of Protestantism. It was a heresy that had kept them deceived for years, had kept them from the Eucharist, from Our Lady and the saints and so much else besides. It was a snare and a delusion that had contributed greatly to the secularization of Western Civilization, etc. This took me aback, you may well believe. Someone else, one of the leaders of the group responded to my post by saying, “We’ve unmasked the beast at last!” and concluded his response with “ROFLMAO.” With that I felt pretty much persona non grata and withdrew in confusion.
From these experiences comes some doubt about our adopting personally and corporately the exhortations of the Decree on Ecumenism. For one thing, I wonder if we are capable of it as a people. Not everyone has the formation in the faith needed to sift the good from the bad. For another, before we pursue reunion with our separated brethren, we need to be careful about losing unity with our fellow Catholics. This is a real concern. We very badly need what I would call intramural ecumenism. That there is a problem here, a very large and seemingly intractable problem, should be obvious to anyone who pays attention to what is happening in the Catholic blogsphere: Rorate Coeli, Fr. Z’s Blog, Michael Voris’s Church Militant.. There are a very great many fervent Catholics, the crème de la crème of Catholicism really, who would be very sympathetic to my young friends in the Roman forum. In fact, to bring a too long post to a close, young, fervent Catholics seem to be attracted by the pre-Vatican II liturgy and ethos. There are very many indications of this. For example, the Valparaiso Carmelites and its three foundations have the Mass and all the office in Latin, wear the full habit, live a life that hardly differs from that of St. Theresa in the 16th century and are overflowing with vocations. They can hardly build monasteries fast enough. One wonders what this trend toward traditionalism means for the implementation of Vatican II and the unity of the Church. In any case, I doubt very much that very many young, fervent Catholics will have much patience with “reconciled diversity.”
More nonsensical Jesuit-speak. One world church.
No promotion of the Catholic Church. No defense of the Catholic Church.
He is very much reluctant to even say the word “Catholic”.
If you listen closely enough, you will rarely hear the word “Jesus”.
Vicar of Christ, indeed.
If Pope Francis did say “How to achieve unity among such disproportionate realities? Set aside the doctrinal discussion, said the Pontiff, and leave it to the theologians. As they work things out, we can be friends. ” or words to that effect, or exactly those words, then hopefully unbeknown to him, he is pushing for the disunification of Catholicism and not for the unification of Christianity.
There is only One Who can bring about unity within Christianity, and that One is Jesus Christ Who said My Body is real food and My Blood is real drink; Who said This is My Body and This is My Blood. There is nothing here for the theologians to discuss. Jesus has already declared this Truth and He has lived this Truth. This cannot be set aside.
Standing for this Truth may eventually be a cause for martyrdom. St. Paul said that the greatest is Love. So let us not only love our fellow Christians, whatever their denomination, but let us never dilute the Truth. Let us Catholics always witness to the Truth. One day, the separated from the full Truth just might accept all that Jesus taught.
God bless, C-Marie