HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
AR - DE - EN - ES - FR - IT - PL - PT
Tonight,
the great prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: “For to us a child is born, to us a
son is given” (Is 9:6).
To
us a son is given. We often hear it said
that the greatest joy in life is the birth of a child. It is something
extraordinary and it changes everything. It brings an excitement that
makes us think nothing of weariness, discomfort and sleepless nights, for it
fills us with a great, incomparable happiness. That is what Christmas is:
the birth of Jesus is the “newness” that enables us to be reborn each year and
to find, in him, the strength needed to face every trial. Why?
Because his birth is for us – for me, for you, for all of us, for
everyone. “For” is a word that appears again and again
on this holy night: “For us a child is born”, Isaiah
prophesied. “For us is born this day a Saviour”, we repeated
in the Psalm. Jesus “gave himself for us” (Tit 2:14),
Saint Paul tells us, and in the Gospel the angel proclaims: “For to you is
born this day a Saviour” (Lk 2:11). For me, for you.
Yet
what do those words – for us – really mean? They
mean that the Son of God, the one who is holy by nature, came to make us, as
God’s children, holy by grace. Yes, God came into the world as a child to
make us children of God. What a magnificent gift! This day, God
amazes us and says to each of us: “You are amazing”. Dear sister, dear
brother, never be discouraged. Are you tempted to feel you were a
mistake? God tells you, “No, you are my child!” Do
you have a feeling of failure or inadequacy, the fear that you will never
emerge from the dark tunnel of trial? God says to you, “Have courage, I
am with you”. He does this not in words, but by making himself a child
with you and for you. In this way, he reminds you that the starting point
of all rebirth is the recognition that we are children of God. This is
the starting point for any rebirth. This is the undying heart of our
hope, the incandescent core that gives warmth and meaning to our life.
Underlying all our strengths and weaknesses, stronger than all our past hurts
and failures, or our fears and concerns about the future, there is this great
truth: we are beloved sons and daughters. God’s love for us does not, and
never will, depend upon us. It is completely free love.
Tonight cannot be explained in any other way: it is purely grace.
Everything is grace. The gift is completely free, unearned by
any of us, pure grace. Tonight, Saint Paul tells us, “the grace of God
has appeared” (Tit 2:11). Nothing is more precious than this.
To
us a son is given. The Father did not give
us a thing, an object; he gave his own only-begotten Son, who is all his
joy. Yet if we look at our ingratitude towards God and our injustice
towards so many of our brothers and sisters, a doubt can arise. Was the
Lord right in giving us so much? Is he right still to trust us?
Does he not overestimate us? Of course, he overestimates us, and he does
this because he is madly in love with us. He cannot help but love
us. That is the way he is, so different from ourselves. God always
loves us with a greater love than we have for ourselves. This is his
secret for entering our hearts. God knows that the only way to save us,
to heal us from within, is by loving us: there is no other way. He knows
that we become better only by accepting his unfailing love, an
unchanging love that changes us. Only the love of Jesus can transform our
life, heal our deepest hurts and set us free from the vicious circles of
disappointment, anger and constant complaint.
To
us a son is given.
In the lowly manger of a darkened stable, the Son of God is truly
present. But this raises yet another question. Why was he born at
night, without decent accommodation, in poverty and rejection, when he deserved
to be born as the greatest of kings in the finest of palaces? Why?
To make us understand the immensity of his love for our human condition: even
to touching the depths of our poverty with his concrete love.
The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a
child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world,
weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender
love. And to discover something important: as he did in Bethlehem, so too
with us, God loves to work wonders through our poverty. He placed the
whole of our salvation in the manger of a stable. He is unafraid of our
poverty, so let us allow his mercy to transform it completely!
This
is what it means to say that a son is born for us. Yet we
hear that word “for” in another place, too. The angel
proclaims to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for you: a baby
lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12). That sign, the Child in the
manger, is also a sign for us, to guide us through life. In Bethlehem, a
name that means “House of Bread”, God lies in a manger, as if to remind us
that, in order to live, we need him, like the bread we eat. We need to be
filled with his free, unfailing and concrete love.
How often instead, in our hunger for entertainment, success and worldly
pleasures, do we nourish life with food that does not satisfy and leaves us
empty within! The Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, complained that,
while the ox and the donkey know their master’s crib, we, his people, do not
know him, the source of our life (cf. Is 1:2-3). It is
true: in our endless desire for possessions, we run after any number of mangers filled
with ephemeral things, and forget the manger of Bethlehem. That manger,
poor in everything yet rich in love, teaches that true nourishment in life
comes from letting ourselves be loved by God and loving others in turn.
Jesus gives us the example. He, the Word of God, becomes an infant;
he does not say a word, but offers life. We, on the other hand, are full
of words, but often have so little to say about goodness.
To
us a son is given.
Parents of little children know how much love and patience they require.
We have to feed them, look after them, bathe them and care for their
vulnerability and their needs, which are often difficult to understand. A
child makes us feel loved but can also teach us how to love. God was born
a child in order to encourage us to care for others. His quiet tears make
us realize the uselessness of our many impatient outbursts; and we have so many
of them! His disarming love reminds us that our time is not to be spent
in feeling sorry for ourselves, but in comforting the tears of the
suffering. God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in
serving the poor, we will show our love for him. From this night onward,
as a poet wrote, “God’s residence is next to mine, his furniture is love” (EMILY
DICKINSON, Poems, XVII).
To
us a son is given. Jesus, you are the Child
who makes me a child. You love me as I am, not as I imagine myself to be;
this I know! In embracing you, the Child of the manger, I once more
embrace my life. In welcoming you, the Bread of life, I too desire to
give my life. You, my Saviour, teach me to serve. You who did not
leave me alone, help me to comfort your brothers and sisters, for you know
that, from this night forward, all are my brothers and sisters.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento