Pope Francis reflects on how, becoming flesh, God joined humanity, loving us in all our fragility and inviting us to share everything with him.
By the Vatican News staff writer
On Sunday, Pope Francis invited the faithful to invite God to their home, to their families, to share with him their weaknesses and fears to allow him to change their lives.
Speaking during the Angelus on the second Sunday after Christmas, the Pope contemplated the tenderness of the Child Jesus in the cradle and reflected on the Gospel of John (Jn 1: 1) explaining that, especially in the prologue, “he tells us about him before he is born.”
He said that the apostle uses words similar to those used in the Bible with the account of creation, but says that today “he whom we beheld at his birth existed before: before things began, before the universe. It existed before space and time. “In him was life” (Jn 1: 4), before life appeared “.
God communicates with us
The Pope noted that “St. John calls him Logos, that is, the Word “. And the word, he added, serves to communicate, “you don’t talk alone, you talk to someone.”
The fact that Jesus was, from the beginning, the Word, continued Pope Francis, “means that from the beginning God wants to communicate with us, he wants to talk to us.”
The Son of the Father, Pope Francis explained, “wants to tell us about the beauty of being children of God,” he wants to remove from us the darkness of evil: “It is the” life “that knows our lives and wants to say we have always loved them ”.
“Jesus is the eternal Word of God, who has always thought of us and wanted to communicate with us,” he said.
He became flesh to dwell forever among us
The Pope explained that in this way, as today’s Gospel tells us, Jesus goes beyond words and, in fact, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
He reflected on the choice of the word by St. John meat, which indicates our human condition in all its weakness, in all its fragility.
“It tells us that God became fragile so we could touch our fragility up close,” he said.
“Revealing the wounds of his flesh to the Father,” the Pope said, “Jesus intercedes for us.”
From the moment the Lord took flesh, Pope Francis explained, nothing in our lives is alien to him: “There is nothing he despises, we can share everything with him.”
“Dear brother, dear sister, God became flesh to tell you that He loves you like this, in your fragility; right there, where it makes you more embarrassed, ”he said.
The Pope detailed how God did not turn back: “He did not put our humanity as a piece that can be put on and taken off,” it never came off our flesh. And it will never part.
He explained that, as the Gospel says, “he came to live among us. He did not come to visit us.”
Open your hearts to the Lord
“So what does he want from us?” the Pope asked, “Great intimacy!”
He wants us to share with Him our joys and sufferings, He said, of our desires and fears, hopes and pains, people and situations.
The Pope concluded by urging the faithful to do just that, to open their hearts to him and to explain everything to him.
“We pause in silence in front of the cradle to savor the tenderness of God that approached, that became flesh. And without fear, let us invite him among us, to our homes, to our families, to our weaknesses. It will come and life will change. ”
Special greetings from Pope Francis for the New Year
After the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis renewed his good wishes for the year that has just begun. He said that, as Christians, we know that things will only get better, with God’s help, if we work together for the common good, “putting the weakest and most disadvantaged at the center.”
“We don’t know what 2021 will bring, but what we can do each and every one of us together is commit to taking care of each other and of creation, our common home,” he said.
He revealed that he was saddened to read in the newspapers; there have been cases in recent days where some people chose to ignore the blocking rules to “have a good holiday,” without thinking about others suffering the consequences of the pandemic.
The Pope expressed his special greetings to those “who begin the New Year with more difficulty: the sick, the unemployed, those who live in situations of oppression or exploitation.”
He also said he is close to these families waiting for the arrival of a new baby and said, “A birth is always a promise of hope.”