Saturday is the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly — the fifth year of its celebration. July 26 is also the feast day each year of St. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

While popes are not themselves grandfathers, the recent words of our Holy Fathers have been inspiring and challenging concerning the topic of grandparents. Perhaps it is the fact that they are close in age to grandparents, or simply because they are close to the heart of Jesus, who yearns for all to be known and loved. Reading their words can aid us in giving respect to our grandparents, living or deceased.

Pope Leo XIV has already published his words for the celebration of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly. He notes:

The life of the Church and the world can only be understood in light of the passage of generations. Embracing the elderly helps us to understand that life is more than just the present moment, and should not be wasted in superficial encounters and fleeting relationships. Instead, life is constantly pointing us toward the future. … If it is true that the weakness of the elderly needs the strength of the young, it is equally true that the inexperience of the young needs the witness of the elderly in order to build the future with wisdom.

These words continue the theme of Pope Leo, showing that no person can be discarded or undervalued. In our conversations with them, the elderly and grandparents reveal that we too often live our lives in a superficial way. Their proximity to death reminds us that life is precious and should not be wasted.

Pope Francis, on the World Day for Grandparents in 2024, said:

Let us show our tender love for the grandparents and the elderly members of our families. Let us spend time with those who are disheartened and no longer hope in the possibility of a different future. In place of the self-centered attitude that leads to loneliness and abandonment, let us instead show the open heart and the joyful face of men and women who have the courage to say, ‘I will not abandon you,’ and to set out on a different path.

Pope Francis’ words are challenging to us as well. The elderly are too often the casualties of young people’s desire to be closed in on themselves. Seeking out time with them and conversations with them can uplift our grandparents and bring us out of our own loneliness as well.

In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI spoke the following words to those present at The Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family:

Who does not remember their grandparents? Who can forget their presence and their witness by the domestic hearth? How many of us bear their names as a sign of continuity and gratitude! It is a custom in families, after their departure, to remember their birthdays with the celebration of Mass for the repose of their souls and, if possible, a visit to the cemetery. These and other gestures of love and faith are a manifestation of our gratitude to them. They gave themselves, they sacrificed themselves for us, and in certain cases also gave their lives.

Grandparents leave an indelible mark on us. There is something about their love that transcends space and time. That is why the Holy Eucharist unites us to them. We can pray for them, and our prayers impact them even though we can no longer be physically present with them. For those of our grandparents in heaven, they are there with us at the Mass because that is where heaven and earth meet. In the Eucharist, we join the Communion of Saints in adoring the Lamb. Praying for the dead shows those on earth that this ought to be our one aim in life.

Finally, Pope St. John Paul II wrote the following in his Letter to the Elderly in 1999:

Man is immersed in time; he is born, lives and dies within time. Birth establishes one date, the first of his life, and death another, the last: the ‘alpha’ and the ‘omega,’ the beginning and end of his history on earth. The Christian tradition has emphasized this by inscribing these two letters of the Greek alphabet on tombstones.

But if the life of each of us is limited and fragile, we are consoled by the thought that, by virtue of our spiritual souls, we will survive beyond death itself. Moreover, faith opens us to a ‘hope that does not disappoint’ (Romans 5:5), placing us before the perspective of the final resurrection.

Pope John Paul II centered our hearts on the fact that life is fleeting. We all experience that time is beyond our control. The fragility of our grandparents is not something to be afraid of or to be feared on their part, because hope is our charge from Christ himself. Nothing can separate us from his love — not even death.

As we celebrate our grandparents and the elderly this month, let us remember that they are a gift to us. Let us ask for the intercession of Sts. Joachim and Anne to empower them in their old age to know Jesus Christ as living presence in their lives, the One who has been present with them their entire lives and the One that longs to lead them to the gates of heaven — where he has prepared a place for you and for me (John 14:3).