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While Christmas has become a universal holiday, even for many non-believers, its celebration should always focus on the reality that God sent his son into the world to save humanity, Pope Francis said.
Christmas should not be confused with “ephemeral things” that reduce the celebration of the birth of Christ “to a merely sentimental or consumerist party,” the Pope said December 23 during his weekly general audience.
“Last Sunday I drew attention to this problem, underlining that consumerism has taken over Christmas,” he said, based on his prepared remarks. “No! Christmas should not be reduced to a sentimental or consumerist party (that is) full of gifts and good wishes, but also poor in Christian faith and poor in humanity.”
Interrupting his series of talks on prayer, the Pope reflected on the celebration of Christmas and the need to curb its observance from a “certain worldly mentality, incapable of grasping the incandescent core of our faith.”
The affirmation of Saint John that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” he said, “is the core of Christmas. Actually, it is the truth of Christmas, there is no other.”
“Christmas invites us to reflect, on the one hand, on the drama of history in which men and women, wounded by sin, ceaselessly seek truth, mercy, redemption; and, on the other, the goodness of God has come to us to communicate the truth that saves us and to make us share in his friendship and in his life, “said the Pope.” This gift of grace is pure grace, without merit on our part.
The grace that comes with the holiday season, he said, can also remove “from our hearts and minds the pessimism that has spread today as a result of the pandemic.”
“We can overcome that feeling of disturbing bewilderment, not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by defeats and failures, in the rediscovered awareness that this humble and poor child, hidden and helpless, is the same God made man for us.
Pope Francis invited Christians to prepare to celebrate Christmas by contemplating the nativity scene and “allowing the wonder of the ‘wonderful’ way in which God wanted to come into the world to be reborn in us.”
“Let us ask for the grace of amazement,” said the Pope. “Before this mystery, before this reality, so tender, so beautiful, so close to our hearts, may the Lord grant us the grace of wonder to find him, to be close to him, to be close to each other”.
“Although the pandemic has forced us to be more distant” from each other, he said, “Jesus, in the manger, shows us the path of tenderness to be close to each other, to be human. Let us follow this path.”
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