Advent of the Elderly and Ancients

We, the elderly, still live in the time of Advent, we have the blessing of a long life that allows us to wait for the glorious return of the Lord “Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand… and afterward receive me to glory.," reads Psalm 73.

This whole stage of our life is also a gift from God that we want to give thanks for by being faithful to his Word: we are well awake, we await his call with our lamp lit, ready to open ourselves to him.  " I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness"s.17.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Christian communities are living this Advent in the Ecclesial Assembly, in view of the World Synod in 2023.  On our continent, the 2007 Aparecida meeting needed to be revitalized, which was only partially put into practice.  We have all been called together as the People of God, because the Church of which Pope Francis dreams in his magisterium is a Church with the witness of all the baptized, and not an Episcopal and Clerical Church.

This meeting had recommended pastoral, personal and ecclesial conversion.  Now the Church of Latin America as a whole, as the People of God, is called to renew itself.  Changing pastoral methods and ways of exercising the profession of pastor requires the courage to assume new attitudes and eventually abandon outdated practices.

The evangelizing mission of the Church is permanent, but it must be taken up by each new generation so that we all participate in the construction of a world in conformity with God's dream. The synodal experience that the Church has begun proposes to us to "walk together".  The first step is to listen to all of us, especially those who have never spoken and those who have never been consulted.  In a very clerical Church, this is an opportunity to listen to the laity.

And here we find the elderly and the ancients in a privileged place.  We have witnessed the whole life of our parish communities and their missionary work, we have had the joy of the new evangelization and we have experienced the pain caused by abuse.  We have experienced all this within the framework of our Church and so we have a lot to say, a lot to offer. 

The time of Advent is for the elderly practically all our time, in which we await the glorious coming of the Lord, we symbolize it in the celebrations of Christmas, and we try to see it in the signs of the times of the present.  The contribution of the elders to the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean is a foretaste of what we will experience at the World Synod, each of us as baptized and also as a member of Vida Ascendente.

+ Father Oswaldo Montferrand

Spiritual Advisor of Argentina