VATICAN— Hope lives, Pope Francis said in his homily for Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican, as he reflected on the incredible fact that the infinite God became a small Child.
“God is Emmanuel, he is God-with-us,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24. “The infinitely great has become small; the divine light has shone through the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. And how? In the littleness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our hearts resemble a poor manger, then we can say: hope is not dead, hope is alive, and it envelops our lives forever.”
The 88-year-old Pope Francis presided over Mass during the Night for the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord after opening the Holy Door of the basilica to officially start the 2025 Jubilee Year.
With the opening of the Holy Door, the pontiff said, “each of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of grace.”
“This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world; this is the night when God says to each one: there is hope for you too!” he said in his Christmas homily.
Francis said the Jubilee, which has the theme “pilgrims of hope,” is an opportunity for all people to have hope in the Gospel, hope in love, and hope in forgiveness.
“It invites us to rediscover the joy of the encounter with the Lord, calls us to spiritual renewal, and commits us to the transformation of the world, so that this may truly become a Jubilee time,” he underlined.
The world really needs hope right now, Pope Francis continued, especially amid wars, the bombing of hospitals and schools, and the machine-gunning of children.
While symptoms of a cold kept the pope indoors on the weekend before Christmas, he was well enough on Tuesday to open the Holy Door and preside over Christmas Eve Mass. It was also one of his first public appearances sporting hearing aids.
During the rite of opening of the Holy Door, Francis, seated in his wheelchair, leaned forward to knock on the gold door, which had been sealed since the last jubilee. As assistants opened the two sides of the door, the choir sang in Latin: “This is the Lord’s own gate. Where the upright enter. I enter your house, O Lord.”
The pope then passed through the door and into the basilica, followed by cardinals, bishops, priests, and ministers for Christmas Mass, as well as representatives of other Christian churches and Catholics from five continents wearing traditional clothing from their countries.
“On this night it is for you that the ‘holy door’ of God’s heart opens,” the pontiff said in his homily. “Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And, you know, with him joy flourishes, with him life changes, with him hope does not disappoint.”
He said the task of Christians during the Jubilee Year is to bring hope into different situations of life, because Christian hope “is not the happy ending of a movie” to be passively awaited. “It is the Lord’s promise to be welcomed here, now, in this suffering and groaning earth.”
“Let us learn from the example of the shepherds: the hope born on this night does not tolerate the indolence of the sedentary and the laziness of those who have settled into their comforts — and so many of us, we are in danger of settling into our comforts,” Pope Francis warned.
“Hope,” he continued, “does not admit the false prudence of those who do not get off the hook for fear of compromising themselves and the calculation of those who think only of themselves; hope is incompatible with the quiet life of those who do not raise their voices against evil and against the injustices consummated on the skin of the poorest.”