“Look closely at the relationship you have with your mothers-in-law: at times they are a bit special, but they have been the mother to your spouse, they have given you everything.”

“Honor thy father and mother” is a solemn commitment. It is not just about one’s own father and mother. It is about their generation and the generations before, honoring the elderly.

Pope Francis has asked several families to write the prayers and meditations for his Stations of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday.

Even though old age can weaken the body, Pope Francis said, it can also sharpen a person’s connection to God.

“Does the transmission of faith—and of the meaning of life—follow this path today, of listening to the elderly?” Pope Francis asked in his general audience.

The elderly “will be the ones to sound the alarm, the alert: ‘Be aware, this is corruption, it will bring you nothing,’” Pope Francis said during his general audience on March 16.