St. Thomas Aquinas used to say that "mercy is in itself the greatest of virtues, since it belongs to it to turn to others and, even more, to help them in their deficiencies". This phrase fits with this double number The July and August 2024 issue of Omnes, in which the figure of Aquinas and the elderly in today's world will be the focus of the magazine's contents.
Triple anniversary
St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the names without which philosophy and theology cannot be understood today, is very much up to date.
2023 marked the 700th anniversary of his canonization, while 2024 marks the 750th anniversary of his death, and in 2025, the 800th anniversary of his birth.
In the letter that Pope Francis addressed to the bishops of the dioceses directly related to the Angelic Doctor, he pointed out that the main legacy of the distinguished Dominican is based "above all on holiness, characterized by a particular speculation which, nevertheless, has not renounced the challenge of allowing itself to be provoked and measured by experience, even by the unprecedented problems and paradoxes of History, a dramatic and at the same time magnificent place, in order to discern in it the traces and the direction towards the Kingdom to come". Indeed, the inspiration, method, teachings and reflections of one of the greatest Doctors of the Church are still fully relevant eight centuries after his death.
Our seniors
Along with the figure of St. Thomas, the special issue of Omnes focuses its gaze on the reality of the West, in which the aging of the population is an unavoidable challenge that the Church must face with the deepest charity and justice, as well as with the creativity necessary to avoid reductionism and take advantage of the great potential of the elderly in the life of society and of the Church.
There are many initiatives around the world that not only take care of the elderly, but also make them the main protagonists.
The challenge of the culture of integral care, of valuing and rediscovering an older but not an aging society, is undoubtedly one of the main tasks of politicians, pastors and the faithful in today's world.
This "turning to others" to which St. Thomas refers in the phrase we have recalled and which, for Christians, translates into the exercise of charity, the principal virtue among all the virtues and the central trunk of faith.
As I said Benedict XVIIt is beautiful to be old! In every age it is necessary to know how to discover the presence and blessing of the Lord and the riches it contains. We must never allow ourselves to be trapped by sadness! We have received the gift of a long life. To live is beautiful also at our age, in spite of some 'ailments' and limitations. May the joy of feeling loved by God, and not sadness, always be on our faces.
