During his homily at the Mass do Gallo celebrated at St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis warned of the existence of mankind’s obsession with money, power and pleasure.
Pope Francis celebrated the traditional midnight mass this Saturday at 7:30pm (6:30pm in mainland Portugal), but due to a knee problem he sat to one side of the altar and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re celebrated the Eucharist.
A deacon held out an image of the baby Jesus for the Pope, while children from around the world laid flowers beside him and bells rang to announce Jesus’ birth in St. Peter’s Square.
In front of seven thousand people who filled the basilica, and another three thousand waiting outside in the square, in a ceremony broadcast by Mundovisión, he criticized, “After many Christmases celebrated with ornaments and gifts, after so much consumerism, the mystery of remembrance (…) has forgotten the meaning”.
The Pope sat down and read the homily, explaining that the three words he said would inspire the nativity scene: “Proximity, poverty and certainty🇧🇷
Regarding proximity, the Pope said that “the flower brings food closer to the mouth and helps it to be consumed quickly” and that “it may symbolize an aspect of humanity: the frenzy of consumption.”
“Because men of the world devour their neighbors and brothers in the same way as animals in stables eat food, for power and money”, Francis added: “How many wars! And in many places , even today, dignity and freedom are trampled underfoot. And human The main victims of turmoil are always the fragile and the weak”.
“This Christmas, as happened with Jesus, a humanity that is not satisfied with money, power and pleasure, will not give way to the little, the unborn, the poor, the forgotten. I think more than all the children swallowed up by wars. Poverty and injustice”, he lamented.
Regarding poverty, the Pope recalled the call to “be a Church that worships Jesus the poor and serves Jesus to the poor.”
Then he quoted the words of the martyred and proclaimed Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of San Salvador: “The Church supports and blesses the efforts to change these structures of injustice and puts only one condition: that social, economic and political changes result. For the real benefit of the poor”.
The Pope recalled that it would not really be Christmas without the poor. “Christmas is celebrated without them, but not with Jesus. Brothers and sisters, at Christmas, God is poor. Let charity be reborn!”, the Pope instructed.
On the other hand, the Pope asked for “a firm faith, composed of worship and charity, not of words and externals”.
“This Christmas should not pass without doing good, because it is his feast, his birthday, and we gave him gifts that will make him happy. The God of Christmas is steadfast, and in his name we are going to renew a little hope for them. Who lost it,” said the Argentine pontiff.
George Bergoglio will return to the window of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Sunday, as he did when he was elected pope in 2013, to read the Christmas message and offer the traditional “urbi et rbi” (to the city and the world. ) blessing.).
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