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Pope Francis’ Homily at Midnight Mass
SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD
Saint Peter’s Basilica – Tuesday, 24 December 2024
“Hope does not disappoint!”
Midnight Mass Gospel: Luke (2:1-16)
Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census – the first – took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn.
In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone round them.
They were terrified, but the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. Listen, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’
And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing:
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favor. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
Pope Francis’ Homily
An angel of the Lord, bathed in light, illuminates the night and brings good news to the shepherds:
“I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11).
Heaven breaks out on earth amid the amazement of the poor and the singing of the angels.
God has become one of us to make us like himself; he has come down to us to lift us up and to bring us back into the embrace of the Father.
Sisters and brothers, this is our hope. God is Emmanuel, God-with-us.
The infinitely great has made himself small;
divine light has shone amid the darkness of our world;
the glory of heaven has appeared on earth.
And how? As a little child.
If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever. Christian Hope does not disappoint!
Brothers and sisters, with the opening of the Holy Door we have inaugurated a new Jubilee, and each one of us can enter into the mystery of this extraordinary event.
Tonight, the door of hope has opened wide to the world.
Tonight, God speaks to each one of us and says: there is hope for you too!
There is hope for each one of us.
And do not forget, sisters and brothers, that God forgives everything, God always forgives.
Do not forget this, it is a way of understanding hope in the Lord.
To receive this gift, we are called to set out with the marvel of the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. The Gospel tells us that, when they heard the angel’s message, they “went with haste” (Lk 2:16).
In this same way, “with haste”, we too are called to recover lost hope, to renew that hope in our hearts, and to sow seeds of hope amid the bleakness of our time and our world.
And there is so much desolation at this time.
We think of wars, of children being shot at, bombs on schools and hospitals.
Do not delay, do not hesitate, but let yourselves to be carried along by the Good News.
So let us hurry to see the Lord who is born for us, with joyful and attentive hearts, ready to meet him and then to bring hope into our daily lives.
And this is our task: to bring hope to the different situations of life.
Christian hope isnot a cinematic “happy ending” which we wait for passively.
Christian Hope is a promise, the Lord’s promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs.
Hope is an invitation not to delay, to be held back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness.
Hope calls us – as Saint Augustine would say – to be upset by things that are wrong and to find the courage to change them.
Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men who are open to being challenged by God’s dream of a new world where peace and justice reign.
Let us learn a lesson from the shepherds.
The hope born this night does not tolerate the indifference of the complacent or the lethargy of those who are content with their own comfort – and so many of us are in danger of becoming too comfortable; hope does not accept the false prudence of those who refuse to get involved for fear of making mistakes, or of those who think only of themselves.
Hope is incompatible with the aloofness of those who refuse to speak out against evil and the injustice at the expense of the poor.
Christian hope, on the other hand, while inviting us to wait patiently for the growth and spread of the Kingdom, also requires us to be courageous, responsible, and not only that but also compassionate, in our anticipation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise.
And here perhaps it will do us good to ask ourselves about compassion: do I have compassion?
Am I able to suffer-with another person? Let us reflect on this.
Reflecting on how often we conform to the world and its way of thinking, a priest and fine writer prayed for a blessed Christmas in these words: “Lord, I ask you for a little annoyance, a touch of restlessness, a twinge of regret. At Christmas, I want to be dissatisfied. Happy, but not satisfied. Happy because of what you are doing, dissatisfied because of my lack of response. Please, take away our complacency and hide a few thorns under the hay of our all-too-full ‘manger’. Fill us with the desire for something greater”
(Alessandro Pronzato, La novena di Natale).
The desire for something greater. Do not stand still.
Let us not forget that still water is the first to become stagnant.
Christian hope is precisely this “something greater”, that should spur us to set out “with haste”.
As disciples of the Lord, we are called to find our greater hope in him, and then, to carry that hope with us, without delay, as pilgrims of light in the midst of the darkness of this world.
Sisters and brothers, this is the Jubilee. It is the season of hope in which we are invited to rediscover the joy of encountering the Lord. The Jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world, so that this year may truly become a time of rejoicing.
A jubilee for our mother Earth, disfigured by profiteering; a time of jubilee for the poorer countries burdened by unfair debts; a jubilee for all those who are in bondage to old and new forms of slavery.
All of us have been given the gift and task of bringing hope where hope has been lost, lives broken, promises unkept, dreams shattered and hearts overwhelmed by adversity.
We are called to bring hope to the weary who have no strength to go on, to the lonely who are oppressed by the bitterness of failure, and all those who are broken-hearted.
To bring hope to the endless, dreary days of prisoners, to the cold and gloomy lodgings of the poor, and to all those places desecrated by war and violence.
To bring hope there, to sow hope there.
The Jubilee has now been opened so that all people may receive hope, the hope of the Gospel, the hope of love and the hope of forgiveness.
As we contemplate the manger, as we look at it and see God’s tender love in the face of the Child Jesus, let us ask ourselves: “Are our hearts full of expectation? Does this hope find a place there? … As we contemplate the loving kindness of God who overcomes our doubts and fears, let us also contemplate the greatness of the hope that awaits us. … May this vision of hope illuminate our way everyday” (C. M. Martini, Christmas Homily, 1980).
Dear sister, dear brother, on this night the “holy door” of the heart of God is open to you.
Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman.
And remember that with him, joy flourishes; with him life is transformed; with him, hope does not disappoint.
