Pope Francis continued his series of talks on old age at his weekly public audience on June 22, reflecting on the words of Jesus to St. Peter recorded in the last chapter of St. John’s Gospel (“but when you are old…”).

Jesus warns Peter that in old age his work will be “accompanied by weakness,” the Pope remarked. But as physical strength and energy diminish, the elderly can learn the “forcibly inactive act of following” the Lord, and thereby being more powerful witnesses.