Sunday 3 July 2016

Are we treating our elderly well?

By  Sheena George
                                   
How do we treat our parents and grandparents, especially in their old ages? Are we treating them with love, care and affection when they grow old and frail? Well, if you visit some of the old-age homes, it’s crystal clear that many of us Christians mistreat our parents and grandparents, show a lack of respect and consideration for the elderly and fail to give them a dignified life.
This is abominable and a mortal sin. It's also a crime in many countries.
Even then, when it comes to mistreatment of parents and grandparents, developed and developing countries are all in the same boat. In developing countries like India, many sons and daughters dump their grandparents in some old age home. This mostly happens after the sons and daughters get a house and a decent bank balance or a good job in a foreign country. Then they consider old and sick parents as liabilities. In developed nations like the US and Europe, elders are abandoned by their kids, forcing them to fend for themselves. Children don’t show love, care and affection to their grandparents. Beware, hell is waiting for such sons and daughters who mistreat their parents and grandparents.
When we think about our father and mother, Mother Mary’s image flashes through one’s mind. On September 8, Christians (especially Syrian, Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches) celebrate the Nativity of Mary, or Birth of the Virgin Mary. Just hours before His death on the cross in Calvary, Jesus called John and entrusted Mother Mary to his care, saying “this is your mother.” 
Our Lord didn't abandon His mother. Jesus then told Mother Mary: "this is your son." There's a message here.
  The biblical commandment that requires us to honour our parents, understood broadly, reminds us of the honour we must show to all elderly people. God associates a double promise with this commandment: “that you may have a long life” (Ex 20:12, Ephesians 6:2-3) and, the other, “that you might prosper” (Dt 5:16). In short, if you respect your parents and take care of them, you will live for a longer time. That’s a promise from God.
Pope Francis says the Bible reserves a severe warning for those who neglect or mistreat their parents (Ex 21:17; Leviticus 20:9). The same judgement applies today when parents, having become older and less useful, are marginalized to the point of abandonment. “It is a mortal sin to discard our elderly… the elderly are not aliens. We are them – in a short or in a long while we are inevitably them, even though we choose not to think about it. A society where the elderly are discarded carries within it the virus of death. If we do not learn to care for and respect our elderly, we will be treated in the same way,” Pope said recently.

And there are so many examples. “Even educated people from wealthy families abandon their elderly parents. This happens even in Christian families,” our parish priest said in one of his homilies.

A person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong, but still deliberately commits the sin anyway. This means that mortal sins are "premeditated" by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of God’s law and love. He’s then willfully cutting off God’s grace.
This is like playing into the hands of devil. One day you will also grow old. Then the same fate may start haunting you. Your own children will then abandon you. History will repeat. So act wisely. Take care of your parents and elderly people. And assure a place in heaven..

We need old people who pray

Coptic tradition relates that Mary's father Joachim died when she was six years old and Anna when Mary was eight. Accordingly Jesus would not have met his grandparents. Still, in some parishes, the memorial of Anna and Joachim is celebrated as grandparents' day. Two years ago, Pope Francis, while in Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, recalled the importance of parents and grandparents for the healthy upbringing of children and youth. "Mary grew up in the home of Joachim and Anne; she was surrounded by their love and faith: in their home she learned to listen to the Lord and to follow his will. Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their faith and love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave Him to the world, to us. How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith," he said.
The commemoration of the feast of Saints Joachim and Anna can be an opportunity for us to thank for our grandparents, living or deceased, by recalling specific memories, gestures, or testimonies which have impacted our lives.
  "I still carry with me, always, in my breviary, the words my grandmother consigned to me in writing on the day of my priestly ordination. I read them often and they do me good," Pope Francis said and added that "in our hectic world, the tranquility radiating from grandparents and the elderly is a great gift for the Church, it is a treasure."
Grandparents also have a duty at their old age. In one of his sermons, Pope reminded grandparents of their urgent apostolate to pray: "We need old people who pray because this is the very purpose of old age. The prayer of the elderly is a beautiful thing." Grandparents are important for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society. They are also important for inter-generational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family.