From CAN:
“Pope
Francis on Christmas 2024: God is our hope”
Hope lives,
Pope Francis said in his homily for Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican, as he
reflected on the incredible fact that the infinite God became a small Child. “God
is Emmanuel, he is God-with-us,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec.
24. “The infinitely great has become small; the divine light has shone through
the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. And how?
In the littleness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our hearts resemble a
poor manger, then we can say: hope is not dead, hope is alive, and it envelops
our lives forever.”
The
88-year-old Pope Francis presided over Mass during the Night for the Feast of
the Nativity of the Lord after opening the Holy Door of the basilica to
officially start the 2025 Jubilee Year. With the opening of the Holy Door, the
pontiff said, “each of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of
grace.” “This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world;
this is the night when God says to each one: there is hope for you too!” he
said in his Christmas homily.
Francis said
the Jubilee, which has the theme “pilgrims of hope,” is an opportunity for all
people to have hope in the Gospel, hope in love, and hope in forgiveness. “It
invites us to rediscover the joy of the encounter with the Lord, calls us to
spiritual renewal, and commits us to the transformation of the world, so that
this may truly become a Jubilee time,” he underlined.
The world
really needs hope right now, Pope Francis continued, especially amid wars, the
bombing of hospitals and schools, and the machine-gunning of children. While
symptoms of a cold kept the pope indoors on the weekend before Christmas, he
was well enough on Tuesday to open the Holy Door and preside over Christmas Eve
Mass. It was also one of his first public appearances sporting hearing aids. During
the rite of opening of the Holy Door, Francis, seated in his wheelchair, leaned
forward to knock on the gold door, which had been sealed since the last
jubilee. As assistants opened the two sides of the door, the choir sang in
Latin: “This is the Lord’s own gate. Where the upright enter. I enter your
house, O Lord.”
The pope then
passed through the door and into the basilica, followed by cardinals, bishops,
priests, and ministers for Christmas Mass, as well as representatives of other
Christian churches and Catholics from five continents wearing traditional
clothing from their countries. “On this night it is for you that the ‘holy
door’ of God’s heart opens,” the pontiff said in his homily. “Jesus,
God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And, you
know, with him joy flourishes, with him life changes, with him hope does not
disappoint.”
He said the
task of Christians during the Jubilee Year is to bring hope into different
situations of life, because Christian hope “is not the happy ending of a movie”
to be passively awaited. “It is the Lord’s promise to be welcomed here, now, in
this suffering and groaning earth.” “Let us learn from the example of the
shepherds: the hope born on this night does not tolerate the indolence of the
sedentary and the laziness of those who have settled into their comforts — and
so many of us, we are in danger of settling into our comforts,” Pope Francis
warned. “Hope,” he continued, “does not admit the false prudence of those who
do not get off the hook for fear of compromising themselves and the calculation
of those who think only of themselves; hope is incompatible with the quiet life
of those who do not raise their voices against evil and against the injustices
consummated on the skin of the poorest.”
^ Something to
think about. ^
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