Pope Francis' 2018 Christmas message.
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!
To
you, the faithful of Rome, to you, the pilgrims, and to all who are
linked to us from every part of the world, I renew the joyous
proclamation of Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth
peace among those whom he favors" (Luke 2:14). Like the shepherds who
first went with haste to the stable, let us halt in wonder before the
sign that God has given us: "A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and
lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12). In silence, let us fall to our knees and
worship.
What
does that Child, born for us of the Virgin Mary, have to tell us? What
is the universal message of Christmas? It is that God is a good Father
and we are all brothers and sisters.
This
truth is the basis of the Christian vision of humanity. Without the
fraternity that Jesus Christ has bestowed on us, our efforts for a more
just world fall short, and even our best plans and projects risk being
soulless and empty.
For
this reason, my wish for a happy Christmas is a wish for fraternity.
Fraternity among individuals of every nation and culture. Fraternity
among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and
listening to one another. Fraternity among persons of different
religions. Jesus came to reveal the face of God to all those who seek
him.
The face of God has been
revealed in a human face. It did not appear in an angel, but in one
man, born in a specific time and place. By his incarnation, the Son of
God tells us that salvation comes through love, acceptance, respect for
this poor humanity of ours, which we all share in a great variety of
races, languages, and cultures. Yet all of us are brothers and sisters
in humanity!
Our differences,
then, are not a detriment or a danger; they are a source of richness. As
when an artist is about to make a mosaic, it is better to have tiles of
many colors available, rather than just a few! The experience of
families teaches us this: As brothers and sisters, we are all different
from each other. We do not always agree, but there is an unbreakable
bond uniting us, and the love of our parents helps us to love one
another.
The same is true for the
larger human family, but here, God is our "parent," the foundation and
strength of our fraternity. May this Christmas help us to rediscover the
bonds of fraternity linking us together as individuals and joining all
peoples. May it enable Israelis and Palestinians to resume dialogue and
undertake a journey of peace that can put an end to a conflict that for
over 70 years has rent the land chosen by the Lord to show his face of
love.
May the child Jesus allow
the beloved and beleaguered country of Syria once again to find
fraternity after these long years of war. May the international
community work decisively for a political solution that can put aside
divisions and partisan interests, so that the Syrian people, especially
all those who were forced to leave their own lands and seek refuge
elsewhere, can return to live in peace in their own country.
My
thoughts turn to Yemen, in the hope that the truce brokered by the
international community may finally bring relief to all those children
and people exhausted by war and famine. I think too of Africa, where
millions of persons are refugees or displaced and in need of
humanitarian assistance and food security.
May
the Holy Child, the King of Peace, silence the clash of arms and allow a
new dawn of fraternity to rise over the entire continent, blessing the
efforts of all those who work to promote paths of reconciliation in
political and social life. May Christmas consolidate the bonds of
fraternity uniting the Korean Peninsula and help the path of
rapprochement recently undertaken to continue and to reach agreed
solutions capable of ensuring the development and well-being of all.
May
this blessed season allow Venezuela once more to recover social harmony
and enable all the members of society to work fraternally for the
country's development and to aid the most vulnerable sectors of the
population. May the newborn Lord bring relief to the beloved land of
Ukraine, yearning to regain a lasting peace that is slow to come. Only
with a peace respectful of the rights of every nation can the country
recover from the sufferings it has endured and restore dignified living
conditions for its citizens.
I am
close to the Christian communities of the region, and I pray that they
may develop relationships of fraternity and friendship. Before the
child Jesus, may the inhabitants of beloved Nicaragua see themselves
once more as brothers and sisters, so that divisions and discord will
not prevail, but all may work to promote reconciliation and to build
together the future of the country.
I
want to mention, too, all those peoples that experience ideological,
cultural and economic forms of colonization and see their freedom and
identity compromised, as well as those suffering from hunger and the
lack of educational and health care services.
A
particular thought goes to our brothers and sisters who celebrate the
birth of the Lord in difficult, if not hostile situations, especially
where the Christian community is a minority, often vulnerable or not
taken into account. May the Lord grant that they, and all minorities,
may live in peace and see their rights recognized, especially the right
to religious freedom.
May the
little child whom we contemplate today in the manger, in the cold of the
night, watch over all the children of the world, and every frail,
vulnerable and discarded person. May all of us receive peace and
consolation from the birth of the Savior and, in the knowledge that we
are loved by the one heavenly Father, realize anew that we are brothers
and sisters and come to live as such!
No comments:
Post a Comment