He Pope francesco This Sunday he celebrated the traditional midnight mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and said he will with the “heart in Bethlehem”where, he argued, “the Prince of Peace continues to be rejected by… losing the logic of warwith the roar of weapons.” This is how the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church addressed his message pre-Christmas message to the war conflict in the Gaza Strip, after the attack by the terrorist group Hamas
“Our heart tonight is in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace continues to be rejected by the losing logic of war, with the roar of weapons that even today prevent him from finding rest in the world,” the pope said at the beginning. of his homily thus recalling the war in Israel.
The Pope dedicated the rest of the homily to the moment of the birth of Jesus, when “a census of the whole earth” was being carried out, which for Francis “manifests, on the one hand, the all too human plot that runs through history: that of a world that seeks power and strength, fame and glory, where everything is measured by successes and resultswith figures and numbers“.
“And the obsession with profit” said Francisco in front of the 6,500 people who filled the basilica, while thousands more were in the square following the mass on screens.
The traditional rooster mass was celebrated as in previous years at 3.30pm Argentine time (6.30pm GMT) and Francisco, Due to knee problems he remained seated at the side of the altar, from where he read his homily.
He stated that for God, “who changed history during the census, you are not a number, but a face; your name is written in his heart.”
“But you, looking at your heart, at your performances that are not enough, at the world that judges and does not forgive, perhaps you are living poorly this Christmas, thinking that you are not up to par, harboring a feeling of failure and dissatisfaction with your fragility”, for your falls and your problems. But today, please, leave the initiative to Jesus, who tells you: For you I became flesh, for you I became like you, he said.
And he added: “Tonight love changes history. Make us believe, O Lord, in the power of your love, so different from the power of the world.”
This Monday the Pope will appear again on the balcony of the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, just as when he was elected pope in 2013, to read his Christmas message and give the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing.
Pope Francis and his No to a Christmas with pagan ideas
Francisco assured that “there is the risk of living Christmas with a pagan idea of God, as if he were a powerful master in heaven; a god who allies himself with power, worldly success and the idolatry of consumerism. “.
Francis criticized, as he did during the morning Angelus prayer, the idea of a Christmas celebration that has fallen solely into consumerism.
For this reason it was a deacon who discovered 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 the bells rang in St. Peter’s Square to announce the birth of Jesus.
Even during the homily, the pontiff rejected “the false image of a distant and irritable god, who behaves well with the good and gets angry with the bad; of a god made in our image, useful only to solve our problems and take away our evils”.
“He on the other hand does not use a magic wand, he is not at all the commercial god and at this moment. He does not save us by pressing a button, but rather comes closer to change reality from the inside,” he said. .
And he regretted that among Catholics “the worldly idea of a distant and controlling God, rigid and powerful, who helps his people to impose themselves on others” is rooted.
Source: Clarin
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