ROME — Pope Francis urged Christians to reject a secularized version of Christmas Wednesday, and instead to place Jesus Christ at the core of the festivities.
Let us be careful “not to slip into the worldly caricature of Christmas,” the pontiff told crowds gathered in the Vatican for his weekly general audience.
This worldly caricature of Christmas “reduces Christmas to a sappy, consumerist celebration,” he warned. “We want to celebrate, we want to, but this is not Christmas, Christmas is something else.”
“God’s love is not sugar sweet,” Francis continued. “Jesus’ manger shows us that. It is not a hypocritical goodness that hides the pursuit of pleasures and comforts.”
“Our elders, who knew war and also hunger, knew this well: Christmas is joy and celebration, certainly, but in simplicity and austerity,” he declared.
The Christmas manger scene itself highlights Christ’s choice of poverty, “understood as the renunciation of all worldly vanity,” the pope proposed.
Pope Francis kisses a statue of Baby Jesus as he presides over Christmas Eve Mass, at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday Dec. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
All around us we see “so much money spent on worldly vanity; so much effort, so much seeking after vanity,” he said, “while Jesus makes us see with humility.”
“Let us look to the manger, which is the throne of Jesus; let us gaze upon Jesus in the streets of Judea, of Galilee, preaching the message of the Father; and let us look upon Jesus on the other throne, on the Cross,” Francis exhorted.
“This is what Jesus offers us: the street, but this is the path of happiness,” he concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.