On Veneration and Respect towards the Old on the Basis of John Paul II’s Letter to the Elderly

Abstract

The family is a community that receives the mission of guarding, showing and transmitting love that is a living reflection and real spreading of God’s love. In his Letter to the elderly John Paul II points to a particular role and to the need of experiencing love in the family by the old. This love is a requirement both of the commandment to love and of the fourth commandment “honor thy mother and thy father”, and it expresses the triple duty that the younger generation has to the older one, that is: acceptance of elderly people, help they expect and need, and appreciating their advantages. Such an attitude is one of the ways to build “the civilization of love” the world needs so much today.