Pope on Christmasand ‘God’s faithfulness is stronger than darkness’

MANILA — Pope Francis on Christmas
Eve reminded the Catholic faithful of the true meaning of the birth of Jesus
Christ, noting it as the light which pierces and dispels the deepest darkness”
in the lives of the faithful.

Through the course of history,
the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that
his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption,” the Pontiff
said in his Mass during the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord held at the
Vatican Basilica.

‘In love
with smallness’

This is the message of Christmas
night. God does not know outbursts of anger or impatience he is always there,
like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting to catch from afar
a glimpse of the lost son as he returns,” he added.

He urged the faithful to meet life
with goodness and meekness,” noting that the Christian response cannot be
different from God’s response to our smallness.” When we realize that God is in
love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better
encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him,” Pope
Francis said.

The first crime

The Holy Father said that despite
the evil acts committed by humanity, the Lord has already assumed our frailty,
our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations” and still looks
upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty.”

According to the Holy Father,
modern man’s history of violence, oppression and strife can be traced all the
way back to the first crime of humanity, when Cain, blinded by envy, killed his
brother Abel.

But God, who placed a sense of
expectation within man made in his image and likeness, was waiting. He waited
for so long that perhaps at a certain point it seemed he should have given up,”
he said.

But he could not give up because
he could not deny himself. Therefore he continued to wait patiently in the face
of the corruption of man and peoples,” he added, emphasizing the faithfulness
of God in the face of man’s sins. (Jennifer M. Orillaza/CBCPNews)