GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Wednesday,
30 December 2015
Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
In these days of Christmas the Child Jesus is placed
before us. I am certain that in our homes many families still have a nativity
scene arranged, continuing this beautiful tradition brought about by St Francis
of Assisi which keeps alive in our hearts the mystery of God who became man.
Devotion to the Child Jesus is widespread. Many saints
cultivated this devotion in their daily prayers, and wished to model their
lives after that of the Child Jesus. I think in particular of St Thérèse of
Lisieux, who as a Carmelite nun took the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and
the Holy Face. She is also a Doctor of the Church who knew how to live and
witness to the “spiritual childhood” which is assimilated through meditation,
as the Virgin Mary taught, on the humility of God who became small for us. This
is a great mystery. God is humble! We, who are proud and full of vanity,
believe we are something big: we are nothing! He, the Great One, is humble and
becomes a child. This is a true mystery. God is humble. This is beautiful!
There was a time in which, in the divine-human Person
of Christ, God was a child, and this must hold a particular significance for
our faith. It is true that his death on the cross and his Resurrection are the
highest expressions of his redeeming love, however let us not forget that the
whole of his earthly life is revelation and teaching. In the Christmas season
we remember his childhood. In order to grow in faith we will need to
contemplate the Child Jesus more often. Certainly, we know nothing of this
period of his life. The rare indications that we possess refer to the
imposition of his name eight days after his birth and his presentation at the
Temple (cf. Lk 2:21-28); in addition to this, the visit of the Magi and the
ensuing escape to Egypt (cf. Mt 2:1-23). Then, there is a great leap to 12
years of age, when with Mary and Joseph he goes in pilgrimage to Jerusalem for
Passover, and instead of returning with his parents, he remains in the Temple
to speak with the doctors of the law.
As we see, we know little of the Child Jesus, but we
can learn much about him if we look to the lives of children. It is a beautiful
habit that parents and grandparents have, that of watching what the children
do.
We discover, first of all, that children want our
attention. They have to be at the centre — why? Because they are proud? No!
Because they need to feel protected. It is important that we too place Jesus at
the centre of our life and know, even if it may seem paradoxical, that it is
our responsibility to protect him. He wants to be in our embrace, he wants to
be tended to and to be able to fix his gaze on ours. Additionally, we must make
the Child Jesus smile in order to show him our love and our joy that he is in
our midst. His smile is a sign of the love that gives us the assurance of being
loved. Children, lastly, love to play. Playing with children, however, means
abandoning our logic in order to enter theirs. If we want to have fun it is
necessary to understand what they like, and not to be selfish and make them do
the things that we like. It is a lesson for us. Before Jesus we are called to
abandon our pretense of autonomy — and this is the crux of the matter: our
pretense of autonomy — in order to instead accept the true form of liberty,
which consists in knowing and serving whom we have before us. He, the Child, is
the Son of God who comes to save us. He has come among us to show us the face
of the Father abounding in love and mercy. Therefore, let us hold the Child
Jesus tightly in our arms; let us place ourselves at his service. He is the
font of love and serenity. It will be beautiful today, when we get home, to go
to the nativity scene and kiss the Baby Jesus and say: “Jesus, I want to be
humble like you, humble like God”, and to ask him for this grace.
Special greetings:
I invite prayers for the victims of the natural
disasters that have recently struck the United States, Great Britain and South
America, particularly Paraguay, sadly claiming lives, displacing many people
and causing extensive damage. May the Lord give comfort to those peoples, and
may fraternal solidarity support them in their needs.
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors
taking part in today’s Audience, including the pilgrimage groups from Norway,
the Philippines and the United States of America. I thank the choirs for their
praise of God in song. With prayerful good wishes that the the Church’s
celebration of the Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual
renewal for all, I invoke upon you and your families an abundance of joy and
peace in the Lord. Happy New Year!
I wish for all that the light of Christ, which shined
upon mankind on Christmas Eve, may spread in your daily life.
I address a special thought to young people,
to the sick and to newlyweds. May the icon of the
nativity scene which we contemplate in these days help you, dear young
people, to imitate the Holy Family, model of true love. May it sustain you,
dear sick people, to offer your suffering in union with that of
Jesus for the salvation of the world. May it encourage you, dear newlyweds,
to edify your household on the rock of the Word of God, rendering it, on the
example of that of Nazareth, a welcoming place, filled with love, understanding
and forgiveness.
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