Millions of people around the world join Pope Francis practically for the “Liturgy of the Night” at Christmas, celebrated on Thursday in St. Peter’s Basilica.
By Vatican News staff writer
With Italy under a new holiday blockade, Pope Francis celebrated the Christmas Mass “during the night” in an almost empty St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday night. Millions of people were able to watch the ceremony on radio, television and various social media.
In his homily, Pope Francis said: “The birth of Jesus is the ‘novelty’ that allows us to be reborn every year and to find in Him the strength to face every trial.”
Jesus is born “for us”
The birth of Jesus, the Pope said, is for us; and he noticed how often the word “for” appears in “this holy night.”
“However, what do these words really mean – ‘for us’?” he asked. “It means that the Son of God, who is holy by nature, came to make us, the children of God, holy by grace.” This is a “magnificent gift,” he said, a gift that is “pure grace,” which does not depend on anything we can do but on God’s love for us.
“We” are given a Son
God’s gift to us for Christmas is not just a thing or an object. Instead, Pope Francis said that God gave His only Son, “Who is all His joy.”
And yet, the Pope continued, “our own ingratitude to God and our injustice to so many brothers and sisters” may lead us to wonder if God was right in giving us this gift of His Son. In fact, nothing we can do can make us worthy of this gift.
Rather, it is only from God’s “endless love” for us, “His unchanging love that changes us,” that He leads God to give us His Son.
A love that reaches our poverty
Because of God’s infinite love for us, Jesus was born not in a palace, but in a manger. Jesus “came into the world as every child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love … God likes to work miracles through our poverty,” the pope said.
This is a sign, he continued, “to guide us through life.” In Bethlehem, “God lies in a manger to remind us that in order to live, we need Him, like the bread we eat. We must be filled with His free, infallible, concrete love. ”
Pope Francis insisted that “the manger, poor in all that is rich in love, teaches us that true food comes from letting us be loved by God and love others in turn.”
Teaching us how to love
God came to us at Christmas as a weak and vulnerable Child to teach us how to love, the Pope said. “God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in the service of the poor, we will show our love for Him.”
Pope Francis ended his homily with a prayer to the newborn Savior: “Jesus, you are the Child who makes me a child. You love me the way I am, not the way I imagine I am. Hugging you, Child of the manger, I embrace my life once again. In your welcome, the Bread of Life, and I want to give my life. You, my Savior, teach me to serve. You, who did not leave me alone, help me to comfort your brothers and sisters, because, from this night on, they are all my brothers and sisters. “