Christmas Mass: the Pope invites us to to allow oneself to be enveloped by the tenderness of Jesus

Last updated: Thu 31 Mar 2022 PM

Pope Francis presided at the Christmas Eve Mass this Tuesday evening at St. Peter's Basilica.

In accordance with a custom established by his predecessor Benedict XVI, Pope Francis presided at a "Midnight Mass" at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 24, 2019, in St. Peter's Basilica. This celebration, which still enjoys very wide television coverage throughout the world, was concelebrated by most of the leaders of the Roman Curia.

In his homily, Pope Francis returned to the texts proposed by the liturgy on this Christmas night, highlighting the gratuitousness of God's love, offered to mankind through the birth of Jesus. "This night the love of God showed itself to us: it is Jesus. In Jesus, the Most High became small, to be loved by us. In Jesus, God became a Child, to be embraced by us", and this in all gratuity: "we have done nothing to deserve it and we will never be able to reward it".

God's love does not depend on our merits.

"God doesn't love you because you think right and behave right; he loves you and that's all. His love is unconditional, it does not depend on you. You may have erroneous ideas, you may have created very complicated situations, but the Lord does not renounce loving you," explained Pope Francis.

"God's grace has appeared" for all, without discrimination: "In good and in bad, in health and in sickness, happy or sad, in his eyes we appear beautiful: not for what we do, but for what we are. There is in us an indelible, intangible, irrepressible beauty that is the core of our being. Today God reminds us of this, lovingly taking our humanity and making it his own, "marrying it" forever," the Bishop of Rome hammered out.

A gift offered to all the people

"Truly the 'great joy' announced tonight to the shepherds is 'for all the people,'" the Pope explained. Among these shepherds, who were certainly not saints, we are there too, with our frailties and weaknesses. As he called them, God also calls us, because he loves us. Tonight love has conquered fear, a new hope has appeared, the sweet light of God has overcome the darkness of human arrogance."

So the only responsibility we have directly is to know how to "accept the gift". "Before we go in search of God, let us allow ourselves to be searched by him. Let us start not from our abilities, but from his grace, because he is Jesus, the Savior. Let us look at the Child and allow ourselves to be wrapped in His tenderness. We will no longer have excuses for not allowing ourselves to be loved by Him: what in life goes wrong, what in the Church doesn't work, what in the world doesn't work will no longer be a justification. It will take second place, because before the mad love of Jesus, a love that is all sweetness and closeness, there are no excuses," the Pope said.

Francis also invited everyone to invest themselves in the gift, in the dynamic opened by God who gave his Son to humanity. "We change, the Church changes, history changes when we begin not to want to change others, but ourselves, by making our life a gift".

Receiving the gift allows us to give ourselves...

"Jesus shows it to us tonight: he didn't change history by forcing someone or by words, but with the gift of his life," the Pope said. He didn't wait for us to become good in order to love us, but he gave himself freely to us. We too don't wait for our neighbour to become good to do him good, for the Church to be perfect to love him, for others to consider us to serve them. Let us begin first. This is welcoming the gift of grace. And sanctity is nothing less than keeping it free."

Francis then spoke of a traditional legend, not found in canonical accounts, but which shows the dynamic generated by the birth of Jesus. It concerns a very poor shepherd who came to see Jesus with no gift to offer. This story depicts Joseph and Mary who, almost embarrassed by the influx of gifts, put Jesus in the arms of this shepherd who came empty-handed. "This shepherd, in welcoming him, realized that he had received what he did not deserve, to have in his arms the greatest gift of the story," said Francis. He looked at his hands, those hands that always seemed empty to him: they had become the cradle of God. He felt loved and, overcoming his shame, he began to show Jesus to others, because he could not keep the gift of the gifts to himself."

At the end of his homily, the Pope challenged everyone: "Dear brother, dear sister, if your hands seem empty, if you see your heart poor in love, this night is for you. God's grace has appeared to shine in your life. Welcome it and the light of Christmas will shine in you."

As is the tradition, Francis then laid the Baby Jesus in the manger inside the basilica. He was surrounded in procession by children from Iraq, Kenya, Uganda and the Philippines, representing mainly nations visited by the Pope or to which he plans to visit.

Source: Vatican News

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