Pope Francis: Old People Should Embrace Frailty As A New Way Of Following Christ

The Supreme Head of the Roman Catholic Church has urged old people to embrace frailty and helplessness as a way to follow and bear witness to Christ.

Pope Francis during his Wednesday General Audience, continued his catechesis on old age by focusing on the conversation Jesus had with Peter at the end of John’s Gospel (21:15-23), Pope Francis reflected on the gradual wasting away of physical strength with age, which he said offers a chance to embark upon a new way to follow Christ.

“Your following will have to learn to allow itself to be instructed and moulded by your frailty, your helplessness, your dependence on others, even in dressing, in walking,” said the Pope.

Pope Francis ensured the elderly that their “forcibly inactive act of following” the Lord will become “the best part of their lives.”

In old age, Francis said, people learn to bear consistent witness in the conditions of a life largely entrusted to others.

The Pope said the elderly should not be envious of the young who will outlive them.

“The honor of their faithfulness to their sworn love, their fidelity to following the faith they have believed, even in the conditions that bring them nearer to the moment of taking leave of life, is their title of admiration for the generations to come and of grateful recognition from the Lord,” said Francis.

Francis’ General Audience Wednesday highlighted passages from John’s Gospel on the relationship with Jesus, dealing with old age, and the passage of time. Jesus warned Peter, Francis said, “When you were young you were self-sufficient, when you are old you will no longer be so much the master of yourself and your life.”

Francis said you have to be a witness to Jesus even in weakness, illness, and death.

“Learning to take leave: This is the wisdom of the elderly,” Francis said. “But to say farewell well, carefully, with a smile, to take one’s leave in society, to take one’s leave with others. The life of the elderly is a farewell, slow, slow, but a joyful farewell: I have lived life, I have kept my faith.”

Pope Francis concluded his catechesis ensuring the elderly that their “forcibly inactive act of following” the Lord—listening to Him and contemplating Him—will become “the best part of their lives.”

In his greetings in Italian at the end of the Audience, the Pope urged everyone to remember Ukraine, as Russia’s invasion grinds on.
He said the children riding with him in the popemobile were refugees from Ukraine.
“Let us not forget Ukraine,” he appealed. “Let us not lose the memory of the suffering of that martyred people.”