On the day the Church keeps the memorial of Sts Joachim and Anne, Jesus's "grandfather and grandmother", Pope Francis called on young people to make a gesture of tenderness towards the elderly, especially those who are alone, in their own homes or in care homes, those who have not seen their loved ones for months. "Dear young people, every one of these old people is your grandfather or grandmother! Don't leave them alone! Use the imagination of love - telephone them, contact them by video call, send them messages, listen to them and, if possible and in keeping with health guidelines, go and visit them. Offer them an embrace. They are your roots. A tree cut off from its roots does not grow, and gives neither flower nor fruit. That is why it is important to be united and connected to our own roots. "What has blossomed on the tree comes from what lies beneath the ground" - as the Argentine poet Luis Bernárdez says. That is why I invite you to give a great round of applause to all our grandmothers and grandfathers!", concludes Pope Francis.

On several occasions the Pope has recalled examples from his own life: "The words of grandparents have something special for young people. Faith, too, is passed on in this way, through the witness of old people for whom it has become the leaven of their life. I know this from personal experience. To this day I still keep in my breviary the words my grandmother Rosa wrote for me on the day of my priestly ordination." Francis often speaks too of Benedict XVI, the Pope Emeritus, as a wise grandfather he can lean on: "It's like having a wise grandfather in the house."

Below we bring a text by Alessandro Gisotti, which we reproduce from L'Osservatore Romano, summarising what Pope Francis has said on various occasions about the importance of the bond between old and young, between grandparents and grandchildren.

"How important is the encounter and dialogue between generations, especially within the family", said Pope Francis on 26 July 2013, looking out from the balcony of the archbishop's palace in Rio de Janeiro. He was heard at the Angelus by thousands of young people from all over the world who had come to Brazil for World Youth Day, on the first international apostolic journey of the newly elected Pope that March. That day the Church keeps the feast of Sts Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, Jesus's grandmother and grandfather. Francis thus took the opportunity to stress, drawing on the Aparecida document (the document of the South American bishops on which he had worked as a cardinal), how "children and the elderly build the future of peoples - children because they will carry history forward, the elderly because they hand on the experience and wisdom of their own lives".

The young and the old, grandparents and grandchildren. This pairing becomes one of the constants of Francis's pontificate through his gestures, speeches, audiences and unscripted remarks, especially on his journeys. They, the young and the old, Francis concludes with sorrow, are often victims of a "throwaway culture". But they are always the ones who, together, and only together, can set out on new paths and find room for a better future. "If the young are called to open new doors," the Pope notes at the Mass for the World Day of Consecrated Life, 2 February 2018, "the old hold the keys." There is no future without this encounter between the old and the young. There is no growth without roots, and no blossoming without new shoots. Never prophecy without memory, never memory without prophecy. And always to meet.

For Francis, the meeting place of young and old is dreams. In a way, such a pairing seemed almost surprising, almost impossible. Yet, as the experience we have lived through the pandemic has shown us, it is precisely dreams and the vision of tomorrow that have kept grandparents and grandchildren united, even as they were suddenly separated by the added burden of the pandemic on top of the existing burden of isolation. Indeed, this focus on the dimension of dreams has long been meditated on by the Pope, and it has deep biblical roots. In fact, Francis is fond of recalling this more than once when he says: "I believe this is a prophecy for our time," as the prophet Joel teaches us, who says: "Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." (Joel 3:1)

Who, if not the young, the Pope asks, can take up the dreams of the old and carry them forward? Significantly, during the Synod dedicated to young people in October 2018, he wanted a special meeting to be held on dialogue between generations, a meeting called "The Wisdom of Time", held at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute. On that occasion, responding to questions from young and old on current issues facing the Church and the world, Francis called for "dreams to be defended as children are defended", noting how "closures know no horizons, but dreams do". The Pope, himself now old, entrusted young people with a great responsibility. "You," he said, addressing every young person as it were, "cannot carry every older person on your back, but you can carry their dreams. Carry them forward, carry them - it will do you good."

At that same meeting he also stressed empathy, something that, seen today in the light of the dramatic experience of the pandemic, seems all the more necessary. He observed: "One cannot speak with any young person without empathy." But where today can we find that resource, which we need so much in order to move forward? In closeness to another person, was the Pope's answer. It is a precious good, as we experienced in recent months, when this fundamental dimension of existence was suddenly "suspended" because of the virus. "Closeness works wonders," the Pope is convinced, "closeness to those who suffer, closeness in difficulties, and closeness between young and old. A closeness that, by nurturing a culture of hope, makes us immune to the virus of division and mistrust."

The Pope returned to this theme, referring to the bond between old and young, on one of his most recent apostolic journeys, the one to Romania last June. Here Francis was moved by an image while he was in the city of Iași, at a meeting with young people and families from all over Romania. The Pope himself expressed his joy at an unexpected encounter with an elderly woman. "In her arms," says the Pope, "she was holding her grandchild, about two months old, no more. As I passed by, she showed him to me. She smiled, smiled with a smile that wants to share something, as if she were telling me: 'Look, now I can dream!'" A meeting of glances lasting only a few seconds moved the Pope, always ready to catch the spark in another person which, transcending the limits of the moment, becomes a gift and a message for everyone. "Grandmothers and grandfathers dream," he comments, "when their grandchildren grow and thrive, and grandchildren become brave when they take root from their grandparents."

Roots and dreams. One cannot exist without the other, for each serves the other. And this is certainly truer today than in the past, because there is an urgent need for a "comprehensive vision" that excludes no one. Francis stresses this in an interview with the English magazines The Tablet and Commonweal at the darkest moment of the pandemic in Europe. For the Pope, reflecting on the meaning of what we are experiencing in this dramatic year of 2020, the tension between old and young "must always be resolved in encounter". "A young person is a bud, a leaf, but needs a root. Otherwise it cannot bear fruit. An old person is like a root." Once again he recalls "the prophecy of Joel". Of today's elderly, frightened by a virus that destroys life and stifles hope, Francis asks for greater courage. Perhaps the hardest of all: the courage to have dreams. "Look the other way," notes the Pope, who believes in "the wisdom of time", "remember your grandchildren and do not stop dreaming. This is what God asks of you - to have dreams." What we are living through amid fears and sufferings, the Pope tells us forcefully, "is exactly the time to find the courage for new visions of what is possible, with the realism that only the Gospel can offer us." This is a time when "the prophecy of Joel" can become reality.

Prepared and translated by Mladen Klanac