Pope Francis denounced the existence of a humanity insatiable of money, power and pleasure that devours the weakest and causes wars, during the homily of the midnight mass celebrated in the Basilica of San Pedro.
Francisco presided over the traditional Midnight Mass which, as last year, was held at 7:30 p.m. but due to his knee problems he remained seated on one side of the altar and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was in charge of celebrating the Eucharist.
For this reason, it was a deacon who uncovered the image of the Child at the foot of Bernini’s canopy and incensed it, while children from various parts of the world placed flowers next to it and in Saint Peter’s Square the bells rang to announce the birth. of Jesus.
Before the 7,000 people who packed the basilica, while another 3,000 waited outside in the square, in a ceremony broadcast on Mundovisión, he criticized that “after many Christmases celebrated among decorations and gifts, after so much consumerism that has wrapped up the mystery we celebrate ( …) its meaning has been forgotten«.
The pope read his homily seated and explained the three words that he said can inspire the nativity scene: “closeness, poverty and the concrete.”
Regarding closeness, the Pope affirmed “that the manger serves to bring food close to the mouth and consume it more quickly” and that “it can thus symbolize an aspect of humanity: the voracity in consuming.”
“Because, while the animals in the stable consume the food, the men in the world, hungry for power and money, devour their neighbors, their brothers in the same way” said Francisco who added: “How many wars! And in so many places, still today, dignity and freedom are trampled on. And the main victims of human voracity are always the fragile, the weak.
«This Christmas, as happened to Jesus, a humanity insatiable of money, power and pleasure does not make room for the little ones, for so many unborn children, for the poor, for the forgotten. I think above all of the children devoured by wars, poverty and injustice”, he lamented.
On poverty, the Pope took the opportunity to recall his invitation “to be a Church that adores the poor Jesus and serves Jesus in the poor.” And then he quoted the words of the assassinated and proclaimed holy Archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Arnulfo Romero: ” The Church supports and blesses the efforts to transform these structures of injustice and puts only one condition: that the social, economic and political transformations redound to the true benefit of the poor”.
«True, it is not easy to leave the warm warmth of worldliness to embrace the wild beauty of the Bethlehem grotto, but let us remember that it is not truly Christmas without the poor. Without them, Christmas is celebrated, but not that of Jesus. Brothers, sisters, at Christmas, God is poor. May charity be reborn!” urged the pope.
