IN 2013, POPE Francis told a story he recalled from his childhood: “There was a father, mother and their many children, and a grandfather lived with them. He was quite old, and when he was at table eating soup, he would get everything dirty: his mouth, the serviette … it was not a pretty sight! One day the father said that, given what was happening to the grandfather, from that day forward he would eat alone. And so he bought a little table, and placed it in the kitchen. And so the grandfather ate alone in the kitchen while the family ate in the dining room. After some days, the father returned home from work and found one of his children playing with wood. He asked him: ‘What are you doing?’ to which the child replied: ‘I am playing carpenter.’ ‘And what are you building?’ the father asked. ‘A table for you, papa, for when you get old like grandpa.’ This story has stayed with me for a lifetime and done me great good,” Pope Francis said. “Grandparents are a treasure”.
In our ageing society, how the elderly are treated is a valid moral and ethical problem. On January 31, the pope established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, to be observed each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of Ss. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. This special day reminds us that old age is a gift and that the elderly pass on to the young the experience of life and faith.
Thanks to advances in medicine, people live longer than ever before. However, although science and technology are moving forward, people may not always face up to ageing, open their hearts to the elderly and welcome them. In Hong Kong and many other places their number is on the rise. However, do social policies, infrastructure and facilities give the elderly due respect and a place in the world?
The imbalance in age distribution presents major challenges. When social culture places value solely on utility and economic gain, the elderly are viewed as a burden. Regrettably, when policy makers need to address this phenomenon, they think of throwing away this supposed burden to enable a young and strong society to move forward. However, this is obviously unjustifiable.
Giving the younger generation the impression that belittling old age and senility can resolve the issue and that being indifferent to senility can make society lively, is erroneous; even the young grow old. In the current social culture—based on economy and efficiency—when people grow old, particularly if they are also poor and sick, they will not be properly cared for. However, it is not they who are truly ill, but the social attitude that shuns mutual care and support.
Pope Francis once said, “A Christian community in which proximity and gratuity are no longer considered indispensable is a society which would lose her soul. Where there is no honour for the elderly, there is no future for the young.”
In an ageing society, love and care are what nurture interpersonal relationships and are essential reference points for the formulation of appropriate policies.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us celebrate World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly by enabling the elderly to experience the love within the Church as well as in the community. Let us renew the love and dignity which the human family should cherish. SE
