17th Week in Ordinary Time : Tuesday 26th July 2022

Pope Francis announced the Church-wide celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which is to be celebrated each year on the fourth Sunday of July, thus, remembering also the grandparents of Jesus.

In this time and age, grandparents and the elderly are often forgotten; but we need to preserve roots and the accumulated wisdom to be passed on from one generation to the next. Grandparents are often the link between the different generations, to hand on the experience of life to the young.

Looking backwards, the Book of Ecclesiasticus acknowledges our ancestors’ wisdom, good works, and rich inheritance. “Their bodies may have been buried in peace, but their name lives on for all generations.”

Looking forward, “the people will proclaim their wisdom, the assembly will celebrate their praises.” The young enjoy the legacy left behind by their ancestors. It is time to appreciate them when they are still alive. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel passage, we are happy to encounter something that the previous generations have not experienced – the ongoing adding on of wisdom and experience over the ages. In Jesus’ time, it would have been the opportune physical encounter with Jesus Himself. Many prophets and holy people of time past longed to experience the incarnate Son of God, but they could not.

Lord, help me appreciate my living grandparents and other older people; they have wisdom for me that has come from You.