By: José Antonio Hernandez Ugalde

We want to share a treasure “The Pope’s Doctrine about Elderly”, because H.H. John Paul II showed a especial preoccupation for the progressive ageing of population and He attracted the attention in several international forums to praise the dignity of the human being, the dignity of elderlies and urged us to be conscious that every and each of us must cooperate to work for a more humanized and supportive society, within a renewed civilization that will know to preserve a grater confraternity of love and communion, of hope and peace.

• To be conscious of the possibilities

It is essential that you are conscious of the possibilities that you count or rely on, and that you consider reaching elderly as a privilege; not only because not everybody has had the opportunity to reach that goal, but because this new age is a period of new and concrete responsibilities to reconsider the past, to know and live deeper the paschal mystery and to become an example in the Church for the People of God.

• A life that is growing

According to the divine plan every human being is a life that is growing, since the very first moment of its existence to the last breath. No one has the right to say: Enough! No one has the right to stop or considering himself a decadent human being. To the Elderly Union de Inter diocesan Movements, Italy (23-3-1984).

• Positive Aspects of the Old Age

There are also positive aspects regarding the old age. It is the time when men and women can gather experience from all their lives, make a difference between the essential and the incidental, they can reach a great level of wisdom and deep serenity. It is a stage when they have much time, we could even say all the time, to love the usual or occasional environment with discrete unselfishness, patience and joy that many old people are example of. It also constitutes for believers the happy possibility to think about the splendors of faith and pray more.

The proliferation of this values and its survival are linked to two inseparable conditions. The first condition requires that old people themselves accept their age and appreciate their resources. The second condition has to do with today’s society.

Our society needs to be able to respect moral, affective and religious values that live in elderly people spirits and hearts, and needs to work to include such values in our civilization that suffers a worrying gap between the technological and the ethical level. To the World Meeting on Population Ageing summoned by United Nations. (26-7-1982).

• Benefits of elderly: experience and wisdom

The Pope bows down with deep respect to elderly and invites everybody to do the same. The steps of life are crowned by elderly. This is the stage of life when we harvest the fruits, fruits of what we have learned and experienced, fruits of what we have carried out and achieved, fruits of what we have suffered and endured. As in the final part of a symphony, we gather the great themes of life in a powerful chord. And this harmony confers wisdom; the wisdom asked by the young King Salomon (see 1K. 3, 9: 11), more decisive, for him than power and richness, more important than beauty and health (see Ws 7: 7-8,10); the wisdom we read about in rules of life of the Old Testament: «How fine a thing: wisdom in the aged, and considered advice coming from men of distinction! The crown of old men is ripe experience, their true glory, the fear of the Lord.» (Si 25: 7-8).

This crown of wisdom matches in a special way with the present generation of old men, where you belong, beloved brothers and sisters: you have had to face two World Wars, lots of sufferings; many of you have lost properties, health, work, home and country, you have known the depths of human hearts, but also its capacity to perform heroic acts, to live its faithfulness and its strength to start all over again. Speech to Elderly in Munich (9-11-1980).

• Any age is good to grow in humanity

As I wrote in Laborem exercens, work is good for man, good for humanity, because also through work, man (n.9). To tell the truth any age is good to grow in humanity, to be something higher. To the Italian Federation of Commerce and Tourism Retired People (29-4-1982).

• Christian Vision of the Old Age

People over 75 are expected to double in number during the next 30 years in Australia. Society emphasizes the economic and political implications that this growth in elderly people will bring. But it is our task, as Christians, to remind the world the precious experience and wisdom, the way of looking at things and the spiritual energy of elderly people. To 1,500 elderlies in Australia (30.11.1986).

• The Old Age: an age rich in values

To emphasize the old age resources means to make old people themselves aware of them and underline wealthiness inherent to society, wealth that the same society do not appreciate. Elderly is capable of enriching the world through prayers and advices; its presence enriches homes; its immense capacity of evangelization through word and example, and for the activities that are adapted to elderly skills, they constitute for God’s Church a strength and power that has not been yet fully understood and utilized. It would be too long to try to describe all the positive aspects of elderly.

• International Forum on Elderly (5-9-1980)

From an evangelic point of view, elderly is also a rich age in values due to the wide horizons the spirit is led to: we are talking about wisdom horizons in the evaluation of events, tolerance in the relationship with others, a stronger attention to the eternal dimension of human events. Speech in San Estefano di Cadore Residence (1993).

*”Vida Ascendente” Coordinator in Mexico.

Printer friendly page