During his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis urges Christians to make the celebration of the birth of Jesus rich in faith, not just a sentimental or consumerist event.
By the Vatican News staff writer
Christmas teaches us that God did not look down on us and pass us by, but fully assumed our nature and our human condition, except sin. This event gives meaning to human existence and to all of history and can eliminate the pessimism generated by the pandemic. Pope Francis raised the issue at the General Audience this week, two days before Christmas.
Overcoming the worldly mentality
He noted that the birth of Jesus has become a universal holiday and has a charm even among people of other religions. For Christians, it is a “decisive event, an eternal fire that God has kindled in the world and should not be confused with ephemeral things.” Therefore, “it is important that it is not reduced to a merely sentimental or consumerist festival, full of gifts and good wishes, but poor in the Christian faith.”
Last Sunday, the Pope said he drew attention to this issue and noted that consumerism has “kidnapped” us at Christmas. He said Christmas should not be reduced to a merely sentimental or consumerist celebration, rich in gifts and good wishes, but poor in the Christian faith and also poor in humanity. “It is necessary,” he said, “to curb a certain worldly mentality, incapable of grasping the incandescent core of our faith:” that is, God became man and lived among us.
God’s goodness outweighs man’s failures
This fact, the Pope explained, invites us to reflect on two things. On the one hand, there is the drama of history, in which men and women, wounded by sin, continually seek truth, mercy, and redemption. On the other, there is the goodness of God, who has come to us to communicate to us the Truth that saves and to make us partakers of his friendship and of his life, which is pure grace, without anything.
The simplicity and humanity of Christmas, the Pope said, can remove from our hearts and minds the pessimism that has spread today due to the pandemic. As we rediscover and become aware that the humble and poor Child, hidden and helpless, is God Himself, made man to us, said the Pope, we cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by defeats, failures and the feeling of ‘disturbing bewilderment.
The event of the birth of Jesus shows us that “God did not look at us badly, did not pass us by, was not rejected by our misery, did not dress superficially in a body, but fully assumed our nature and our human condition ”. “He left nothing but sin: all mankind is in Him. He took everything we are, as we are ”. This, the Pope said, is essential to understanding the Christian faith.
Tenderness: the “Illness” of Jesus
In this sense, he recalled the journey of the conversion of St. Augustine, who in his confessions relates: “Because I did not keep my Lord Jesus Christ, I, humbled, humble; I did not yet know where his illness would lead us. “
“The‘ infirmity ’of Jesus,” the Pope said, “is a“ teaching ”because it“ reveals to us the love of God. ”Christmas is the feast of incarnate Love where Jesus Christ is the light of humanity that it shines in the darkness, giving meaning to human existence and to all of history.
The Holy Father urged Christians to prepare for Christmas by meditating a little silently in front of the cradle in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, allowing us to ask ourselves about the “wonderful” way in which God wanted to come to the world to be reborn. We. That, he said, will revive tenderness in us.
The Pope recalled meeting recently with some scientists, who talked about many things a robot can do for a man. When asked about something a robot will never be able to do, they suggested several things, but in the end they agreed that a robot can never give tenderness.
The Holy Father said, “This is what God brings to us today: a wonderful way in which God wanted to come into the world, and this brings to life the human tenderness that comes close to God’s tenderness.” human beings in the face of so much misery: “If the pandemic has forced us to be further away,” said Pope Francis: “Jesus, in the cradle, shows us the way of tenderness to be close to each other, to be humans “.