The elderly, signs of hope

In his Message for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly–celebrated each year on the Sun-day nearest the feast of Jesus’ grandparents, Sts Anne and Joachim – Pope Leo reflects on hope and old age.
The history of salvation recounted in Scripture shows that, in God’s eyes, “old age is a time of blessing and grace, and that the elderly are… the first witnesses of hope.” Seeing the life of the Church and the world as the passing of generations, Pope Leo says the elderly, even if they need the su-pport of the young, can serve as a witness to the inexperience of youth, helping them “to build the future with wisdom.”
The “precious legacy” of the elderly as examples of faith, devotion, civic virtue, social commitment, and more, the Pope says, will always be “a source of gratitude and a summons to perseverance.” “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.”