The «coherence of the faith» is also implies «the responsibility of leaving a noble legacy, a true heritage. We live in a time when the elderly don’t count. It’s terrible to say this, but they are discarded because they’re bothersome. The elderly are the ones who tell us about history, bear the doctrine, bring faith and give it to us as an inheritance». Moreover, in their «exemplary behavior, we can recognize the role of the elderly in the Church and in the world». These were Pope Francis’s words during the homily of the Mass celebrated at the Santa Marta guesthouse, on Tuesday, November 19th 2013.

The question with which the Pope began his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 23 was: «What do we leave as a legacy to our young people?». Then, the Pope recalled the wise Eleazar, in the Second Book of the Maccabees, who offered himself as a martyr rather than violating a divine precept and thus giving a bad example to young people. «This man, faced with the choice between apostasy and fidelity, does not hesitate. He doesn’t think of himself; he thinks only of God, and does not want to offend Him with the sin of hypocrisy and apostasy; and he even thinks of the legacy he has to leave to young people».
 

«It does us good to think of many elderly men and women, of the many who are in nursing homes and of those who have been abandoned».
 

«Grandparents are the treasure of our societies—continued the Pope—. A society that does not take care for the elderly and does not respect them doesn’t have a future because it doesn’t have memories, because it has lost its memory». And then he added: «Let us pray for our grandfathers and our grandmothers, who have often had a heroic role in the transmission of the faith in times of persecution».