Having come to the end of the school offered by Luke, in his Gospel, it was now time for revision. As it turned out, Pope Leo offered the perfect revision text with his Message for Grandparents and the Elderly Sunday.
On reading it, I was excited to see he used the word "revolution". No, don't start writing in letters of protest or shaking your heads in disbelief. This is not about revolution in the tradition of Lenin or Mao. This is not about death and destruction. Rather this is about rising up for the gospel and for life for all, in good and healthy ways that build up the Reign of God on earth.
In line with Francis' call to the revolution of tenderness, of love, Leo is carrying on with this gospel based challenge, calling forth the "revolution of gratitude and care". He wants to see us reaching out to and spending time with the lonely, the housebound, the excluded. Amazingly, he goes even further to offering an indulgence to those making a purposeful visit to the elderly, the lonely, by our "making it a pilgrimage to Christ present in them". This in itself is a revolutionary concept, as everyone simply associates indulgences with saying set prayers, but not so for Leo, who includes pastoral action. His creativity is spot on.
Again, he is spot on when he stresses, that "Christian hope always urges us to be more daring, to think big, to be dissatisfied with things the way they are". To be people of faith, we are called to be true to who we are in the eyes of God. To be so, as Erik Varden rightly says, we are all called to the "radical Christian life". Let us neither falter nor shudder in fear, for we are called to be revolutionary.
So revision proved to be an intense and powerful exercise, most worthwhile and life giving. Thank you, Leo.
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