To the Elderly, Munich (19 November 1980)

On 19 November 1980,  the Holy Father addressed the elderly in the High Cathedral of Our Lady in Munich, to whom he spoke of old age as the “crown of the stages of life.” 

My dear elderly brothers and sisters!

It fills me with particular joy that, as part of my visit to Germany, I am able to meet you in a private hour of prayer. I come as to familiar friends; I know that in my service I am supported by your sympathy and prayers and sacrifices. So I greet you here in the High Cathedral of Our Lady in Munich with moved gratitude! A special thank you for the deep words of welcome and for your accompanying prayer during these days! With you I greet all your peers in your homeland, especially those who are now connected to us through radio and television. "Greetings" to all of you who on the pilgrimage of this life have been "bearing the burden and the heat of the day" longer than I have been striving to encounter the Lord and to serve faithfully, in all things great and small,

1. The Pope bows in awe of old age and he invites everyone to do it for him. Old age is the crown of the stages of life. It brings in the harvest, the harvest from what has been learned and experienced, the harvest from what has been accomplished and what has been achieved, the harvest also from what has been suffered and endured. As in the final movement of a great symphony, the great themes of life come together in powerful harmony. And this harmonizing bestows wisdom, the wisdom young King Solomon prays for, which is more important to him than power and wealth, more important than beauty and health; the wisdom of which we read in the Rules of Life of the Old Covenant: "How well befits wisdom for the aged, deliberation and counsel for worthy men. A wreath of honor for the elderly is rich experience, their glory is the fear of God.

Today's generation, i.e. you, my dear brothers and sisters, deserves this wreath of wisdom in particular: some of you have experienced and had to witness endless suffering in two world wars, many have lost relatives, health, jobs, homes and homes in the process ; you have learned the abysses of the human heart, but also its ability to be heroically helpful and faithful and its strength for new beginnings.
Wisdom bestows distance, but not a distance from what is remote from the world; it lets man stand above things without despising them; she lets us see the world with our eyes - and with our hearts! - see God. It lets us say yes with God, also to our limits, also to our past with its disappointments, omissions and sins. Because “we know that God works everything for the good of those who love him”. From the reconciling power of this wisdom then blossom goodness, patience, understanding and that precious adornment of old age: humour.

You yourselves, my dear sisters and brothers, know best that this productive harvest of life which the Creator has intended for you is not an unchallenged possession. It requires vigilance, diligence, self-control, sometimes determined struggle. Otherwise it is all too easily gnawed at or decomposed by sloth, by mood, by superficiality, by lust for power, or even by bitterness. Don't lose courage, start again and again with the grace of our Lord and use the sources of strength that He offers you: in the sacrament of bread and forgiveness, in the word of the sermon and reading and in spiritual conversation!

At this point, I am sure I can thank all the priests from the bottom of my heart, also on your behalf, who give pastoral care to the elderly a crucial place in their work and in their hearts. At the same time they are doing their community the best service; they win her, as it were, a host of faithful prayers.

After your pastors, I would like to address your priestly peers. My dear brothers! The Church thanks you for your life's work in the Lord's vineyard. In the Gospel of John Jesus says to the younger priests: "Others have worked, and you are reaping the fruit of their labour". Dear Presbyters, continue to carry the concerns of the Church in the priestly ministry of praying before God - ”ad Deum, qui laetificat iuventutem vestram”.

2. Older generation brothers and sisters, you are a treasure to the Church, you are a blessing to the world! How often do you have to relieve the young parents, how well can you introduce the little ones to the history of your family and your homeland, to the fairy tales of your people and to the world of faith! In their problems, young people often find it easier to find you than their parents' generation. You are the most valuable support for your sons and daughters in difficult times. You are involved with advice and action in many committees, associations and initiatives of church and civil life.

You are a necessary complement in a world that excites the verve of youth and the power of so-called "best years," in a world where what counts counts so much. You remind her that she continues to build on the diligence of those who were formerly young and vigorous, and that one day she too will place her work in younger hands. In you it becomes visible that the meaning of life cannot only consist in earning and spending money, that in all outer actions something inner should mature at the same time and in everything temporal something eternal - according to the words of St. Paul: "Even if our outer man is worn out becomes, the inner one is renewed day by day”.

Yes, old age deserves our reverence, a reverence that lights up in Scripture when it presents Abraham and Sarah before us, when it calls Simeon and Anna to the Holy Family in the temple, when it calls the priests "elders." , when it sums up the worship of all creation in the worship of the twenty-four elders, and when, finally, it designates God himself: "the Ancient of Days."

3. Can one sing a higher hymn to the dignity of old age? But you would certainly be disappointed, my dear older listeners, if the Pope did not go into another aspect of growing old; if only he had brought you the - perhaps unexpected - honor, but failed to offer consolation. As the autumnal season in which we are standing not only includes the harvest and the solemn splendor of the colors, but also the bare branches and the falling and crumbling of the leaves, not only the soft, full light, but also the damp, inhospitable mists, old age is not only the powerful final chord or the reconciling sum of life, but also a time of withering, a time when the world can become alien, life a burden and the body a torment.

For most, the burden of old age consists first of all in a certain frailty of the body; the senses are no longer so sharp, the limbs no longer so pliable, the organs become more sensitive. What happens to you when you are younger when you are ill often becomes a daily - and nightly - problem when you get older! - companion. Many activities that were dear to you have to be given up once and for all.

Memory can also fail its service: new information is no longer as easily absorbed and a lot of old ones fade away. As a result, the world loses its familiarity; the world of one's own family with the completely different living and working conditions of adults, with the changed interests and forms of expression of young people and with the new learning goals and methods of children. The home with its growing cities, with the increasing traffic density and the landscape that has been redesigned in many ways becomes alien. The world of business and politics is becoming alien, while the world of social and medical care is becoming anonymous and inscrutable. And even that area that should offer us the most home, the church in its life and teachings, has become alien to many of you in your endeavors to

You feel misunderstood by this difficult-to-understand world, yes, often enough rejected. Your opinion, your participation, your presence is not required - that's how you feel, and unfortunately that's how it really is sometimes.

4. What can the Pope say? How shall I comfort you? I don't want to make it too easy for myself. I don't want to downplay the hardships of old age, your infirmities and illnesses, your helplessness and loneliness. But I want to see them with you in a reconciling light - in the light of our Savior, "who sweated blood for us, who was scourged for us, who was crowned with thorns for us". He is your companion in the trials of old age, and you are the companions of his way of the cross. You don't weep alone, and you don't weep in vain. Through suffering he redeemed suffering, and through suffering you collaborate in his redemption. Accept your suffering as His embrace and make it a blessing, accepting it with Him from the hand of the Father who, in unfathomable, but of undoubted wisdom and love precisely therein your perfection works. Ore becomes gold in the fiery furnace; in the press the grape becomes wine.

In this spirit - which only God can give us - it becomes easier both to have understanding with those who cause our misery through negligence, carelessness, thoughtlessness and to forgive those who cause us pain consciously, even intentionally, but never fully appreciate how much they hurt us. Let us speak to the Crucified: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!". This only redeeming word has also been spoken about ourselves.

5. In this spirit - for which we pray together and for one another in this hour - we then also wake up and are grateful for all the loving thoughts, words and works that are given to us every day, to which we easily get used and which we therefore easily taken for granted and overlooked. Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Elizabeth, a saint that your nation gave to the whole world as a symbol of self-sacrificing charity. She is the high example and the noble patroness of all who - be it through their job, be it on a voluntary basis or in the circle of friends and relatives - serve the needy fellow human beings and in them - whether they know it or not - meet Christ. That, my dear elders, is the reward you give to those you are so reluctant to burden. You are a reason for them to meet the Lord, Opportunity to surpass yourself, and through your devotion you give them a share in the mentioned fruits of life, which God allows to mature in you! So do not bury your requests in a timid, disappointed or reproachful heart, but express them as a matter of course - convinced of your own dignity and of the good in the heart of the other. And rejoice at every opportunity to practice that royal word, "Thank you," which ascends from all altars and which will one day fulfill our eternal bliss. but expresses it as a matter of course - convinced of your own dignity and of the good in the heart of the other. And rejoice at every opportunity to practice that royal word, "Thank you," which ascends from all altars and which will one day fulfill our eternal bliss. but expresses it as a matter of course - convinced of your own dignity and of the good in the heart of the other. And rejoice at every opportunity to practice that royal word, "Thank you," which ascends from all altars and which will one day fulfill our eternal bliss.

And so I am sure I can join you in thanking all those who strive for the well-being of the older generation in the many church, civil and public organizations, associations and initiatives, at community or higher level, in legislation and administration or also purely privately, for their well-being in body and soul, for a fulfilled life and a permanent home in society. I particularly welcome the fact that work for the elderly is increasingly becoming work with the elderly.

6. And with that I am again with you, my elder brothers and sisters, and with the comfort you expect from me. A proverb says: "If you are lonely, visit someone who is even lonelier than you!". I would like to recommend this wisdom to you. Open your thoughts to those companions who are in some way worse off than you, whom you can help in some way - through a conversation, through a helping hand, an errand or at least through the expressed sympathy! I promise you in the name of Jesus: you will find strength and comfort in it.

At the same time you practice on a small scale what we all are on a large scale. We are one body in many members: those who bring help and those who receive help, the healthier and the sicker, the younger and the older; those who have already proven themselves in life, those who are in the process of being tested and those who are only just growing into it; those who are young and those who were once young; those who will be old. We each represent the fullness of Christ's life, and we all mature together into that fullness: "the fullness of manhood in Christ."

7. The last consolation that we seek together, my dear fellow pilgrims, "in this vale of tears", is consolation in the face of death. We have been going towards him since we were born, but as we get older we become more aware of his approach from year to year - if we don't force it out of our thoughts and feelings. The Creator arranged it in such a way that in old age the acceptance and persistence of death is prepared, facilitated and practiced in an almost natural way. After all, as we have seen, growing old is a gradual farewell to the unbroken fullness of life, to unimpeded contact with the world.

The great school of living and dying then leads us to many an open grave, it lets us stand at many a deathbed before we are there for whom - God grant - others will stand and pray. The old man has experienced such lessons of life in greater number than the young, and he experiences them with increasing frequency. This is its great advantage on the way to the great threshold, which we often picture to ourselves as an abyss and night.

The view over the threshold is clouded from our side; but to those who have gone before us, God may more often than one thinks grant his love to accompany and care for our lives. It was a thought of deep and lively faith that gave a church in this city the name "All Souls' Church" as a patron. And the two German churches in Rome are called: Santa Maria in Campo Santo (St. Mary to the Cemetery) and Santa Maria dell'Anima (St. Mary to the Poor Souls). The more the fellow human beings in our visible environment come to the limits of their help, the more we should see in those the messengers of God's love who have already survived death and are awaiting us from over there: the saints, especially our personal patrons, and ours deceased relatives and friends,

Many of you, my dear sisters and brothers, have lost the visible closeness of your significant other. My pastoral request is for you: Let God become your partner in your life in an ever more conscious way, then you will be connected to the one whom He once gave you as a companion and who has now found his center in God.

Ultimately, without an intimacy with God, there is no comfort in dying. For that is exactly what God wants with death: that we let ourselves fall completely into his love, at least in this one high hour of our life, without any security other than this love of his. How could we show him our faith, hope, love more unclouded!

One last thought on this. It is certainly spoken from the heart of some of you. Death itself is a consolation! Life on this earth, even if it were not a "Valley of Tears", could not offer us a forever home. It would become more and more like a prison, like "banishment". Because "everything that is ephemeral is just a parable"! And so the never fading words of Saint Augustine come to our lips: “Your made us, Lord; and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you!”.

So there are not those who are doomed to die and those who stand in so-called life. What awaits us all is a birth, a transformation, whose pangs we fear with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, but whose radiant outcome we have carried within us since we were immersed in Jesus' death and victory at baptism.

With all of you, with you here in the Liebfrauendom, with you on the radio and on the television, with everyone I was able to meet during these blessed days, with all the citizens and guests of this beautiful country, with all believers and for all seekers, with the children and young people, adults and the elderly, in this hour of farewell, I would like our reflection to become a prayer:
“From the womb you are my protector; do not leave me when my strength is fading!”.

"Help us with your mercy and keep us from confusion and sin, so that we can confidently await the coming of our Redeemer Jesus Christ!".

And in the Liebfrauendom I would like to connect our prayer, which is always spoken in the spirit of Jesus, always comes only through Jesus to the Father, with the prayer of that one who is our mother and sister as the first to be redeemed:

”Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners - now and at the hour of our death!

Amen".

Amen. Praise Jesus Christ!

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana