HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI Christmas Midnight Mass - 25 December
2005
“The Lord said to me: You are my son; this day I have begotten you”. With these words
of the second Psalm, the Church begins the Vigil Mass of Christmas, at which we celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ our Redeemer in a stable in Bethlehem. This Psalm was once
a part of the coronation rite of the kings of Judah. The people of Israel, in virtue
of its election, considered itself in a special way a son of God, adopted by God.
Just as the king was the personification of the people, his enthronement was experienced
as a solemn act of adoption by God, whereby the King was in some way taken up into
the very mystery of God. At Bethlehem night, these words, which were really more
an expression of hope than a present reality, took on new and unexpected meaning.
The Child lying in the manger is truly God’s Son. God is not eternal solitude but
rather a circle of love and mutual self-giving. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But
there is more: in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God himself became man. To him the
Father says: “You are my son”. God’s everlasting “today” has come down into the fleeting
today of the world and lifted our momentary today into God’s eternal today. God is
so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable
and come to us as a defenceless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that
he can give up his divine splendour and come down to a stable, so that we might find
him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through
us. This is Christmas: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you”. God has become
one of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the
Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him.
And on every child shines something of the splendour of that “today”, of that closeness
of God which we ought to love and to which we must yield – it shines on every child,
even on those still unborn.
Let us listen to a second phrase from the liturgy
of this holy Night, one taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: “Upon the people
who walked in darkness a great light has shone” (Is 9:1). The word “light” pervades
the entire liturgy of tonight’s Mass. It is found again in the passage drawn from
Saint Paul’s letter to Titus: “The grace of God has appeared” (2:11). The expression
“has appeared”, in the original Greek says the same thing that was expressed in Hebrew
by the words “a light has shone”: this “apparition” – this “epiphany” – is the breaking
of God’s light upon a world full of darkness and unsolved problems. The Gospel then
relates that the glory of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and “shone around them”
(Lk 2:9). Wherever God’s glory appears, light spreads throughout the world. Saint
John tells us that “God is light and in him is no darkness” (1 Jn 1:5). The light
is a source of life.
But first, light means knowledge; it means truth,
as contrasted with the darkness of falsehood and ignorance. Light gives us life,
it shows us the way. But light, as a source of heat, also means love. Where there
is love, light shines forth in the world; where there is hatred, the world remains
in darkness. In the stable of Bethlehem there appeared the great light which the
world awaits. In that Child lying in the stable, God has shown his glory – the glory
of love, which gives itself away, stripping itself of all grandeur in order to guide
us along the way of love. The light of Bethlehem has never been extinguished. In
every age it has touched men and women, “it has shone around them”. Wherever people
put their faith in that Child, charity also sprang up – charity towards others, loving
concern for the weak and the suffering, the grace of forgiveness. From Bethlehem
a stream of light, love and truth spreads through the centuries. If we look to the
Saints – from Paul and Augustine to Francis and Dominic, from Francis Xavier and Teresa
of Avila to Mother Teresa of Calcutta – we see this flood of goodness, this path of
light kindled ever anew by the mystery of Bethlehem, by that God who became a Child.
In that Child, God countered the violence of this world with his own goodness. He
calls us to follow that Child.
Along with the Christmas tree, our Austrian
friends have also brought us a small flame lit in Bethlehem, as if to say that the
true mystery of Christmas is the inner brightness radiating from this Child. May
that inner brightness spread to us, and kindle in our hearts the flame of God’s goodness;
may all of us, by our love, bring light to the world! Let us keep this light-giving
flame from being extinguished by the cold winds of our time! Let us guard it faithfully
and give it to others! On this night, when we look towards Bethlehem, let us pray
in a special way for the birthplace of our Redeemer and for the men and women who
live and suffer there. We wish to pray for peace in the Holy Land: Look, O Lord,
upon this corner of the earth, your homeland, which is so very dear to you! Let your
light shine upon it! Let it know peace!
The word “peace” brings us to
a third key to the liturgy of this holy Night. The Child foretold by Isaiah is called
“Prince of Peace”. His kingdom is said to be one “of endless peace”. The shepherds
in the Gospel hear the glad tidings: “Glory to God in the highest” and “on earth,
peace...”. At one time we used to say: “to men of good will”. Nowadays we say “to
those whom God loves”. What does this change mean? Is good will no longer important?
We would do better to ask: who are those whom God loves, and why does he love them?
Does God have favourites? Does he love only certain people, while abandoning the
others to themselves? The Gospel answers these questions by pointing to some particular
people whom God loves. There are individuals, like Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah,
Simeon and Anna. But there are also two groups of people: the shepherds and the wise
men from the East, the “Magi”. Tonight let us look at the shepherds. What kind of
people were they? In the world of their time, shepherds were looked down upon; they
were considered untrustworthy and not admitted as witnesses in court. But really,
who were they? To be sure, they were not great saints, if by that word we mean people
of heroic virtue. They were simple souls. The Gospel sheds light on one feature
which later on, in the words of Jesus, would take on particular importance: they were
people who were watchful. This was chiefly true in a superficial way: they kept watch
over their flocks by night. But it was also true in a deeper way: they were ready
to receive God’s word. Their life was not closed in on itself; their hearts were
open. In some way, deep down, they were waiting for him. Their watchfulness was
a kind of readiness – a readiness to listen and to set out. They were waiting for
a light which would show them the way. That is what is important for God. He loves
everyone, because everyone is his creature. But some persons have closed their hearts;
there is no door by which his love can enter. They think that they do not need God,
nor do they want him. Other persons, who, from a moral standpoint, are perhaps no
less wretched and sinful, at least experience a certain remorse. They are waiting
for God. They realize that they need his goodness, even if they have no clear idea
of what this means. Into their expectant hearts God’s light can enter, and with it,
his peace. God seeks persons who can be vessels and heralds of his peace. Let us
pray that he will not find our hearts closed. Let us strive to be active heralds
of his peace – in the world of today.
Among Christians, the word “peace” has
taken on a very particular meaning: it has become a name for the Eucharist. There
Christ’s peace is present. In all the places where the Eucharist is celebrated, a
great network of peace spreads through the world. The communities gathered around
the Eucharist make up a kingdom of peace as wide as the world itself. When we celebrate
the Eucharist we find ourselves in Bethlehem, in the “house of bread”. Christ gives
himself to us and, in doing so, gives us his peace. He gives it to us so that we
can carry the light of peace within and give it to others. He gives it to us so that
we can become peacemakers and builders of peace in the world. And so we pray: Lord,
fulfil your promise! Where there is conflict, give birth to peace! Where there is
hatred, make love spring up! Where darkness prevails, let light shine! Make us heralds
of your peace! Amen.