Pope Francis: Last General Audience of 2015 (full text)
With the faithful gathered in St Peter’s
Square for the last General Audience of 2015, Pope Francis spoke about
Christmas and addressed a special thought to the victims of the recent natural
disasters that struck the Americas and Great Britain.
God too “was a child”. With the
Christmas reflection the Holy Father offered on Wednesday, 30 December, he
invited the faithful to “look to the lives of children” in order to learn to
welcome and love Jesus. The following is a translation of the Pope’s address,
which he delivered in Italian.
Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning!
In these days of Christmas the Child Jesus
is placed before us. I am certain that in our homes still many families have
made a nativity scene, continuing this beautiful tradition brought about by St
Francis of Assisi and which keeps alive in our hearts the mystery of God who
became man.
Devotion
to the Child Jesus is widespread. Many saints cultivated this devotion in their
daily prayers, and wished to model their lives after that of the Child Jesus. I
think in particular of St Thérèse of Lisieux, who as a Carmelite nun took the
name of Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She is also a Doctor of
the Church who knew how to live and witness to the “spiritual childhood” which
is assimilated through meditation, as the Virgin Mary taught, on the humility
of God who became small for us. This is a great mystery. God is humble! We who
are proud, filled with vanity, believe we are something big: we are nothing!
He, the Great One, is humble and becomes a child. This is a true mystery. God
is humble. This is beautiful!
There
was a time in which, in the divine-human Person of Christ, God was a child, and
this must hold a particular significance for our faith. It is true that his
death on the cross and his Resurrection are the highest expression of his
redeeming love, however let us not forget that the whole of his earthly life is
revelation and teaching. In the Christmas season we remember his childhood. In
order to grow in faith we will need to contemplate the Child Jesus more often.
Certainly, we know nothing of this period of his. The rare indications that we
possess refer to the imposition of his name eight days after his birth and his
presentation at the Temple (cf. Lk 2:21-28); in addition to this, to the visit
of the Magi and the ensuing escape to Egypt (cf. Mt 2:1-23). Then, there is a
great leap to 12 years of age, when with Mary and Joseph he goes in pilgrimage
to Jerusalem for Passover, and instead of returning with his parents, he
remains in the Temple to speak with the doctors of the law.
As
we see, we know little of the Child Jesus, but we can learn much about him if
we look to the lives of children. It is
a beautiful habit that parents and grandparents have, that of watching what the
children do.
We
discover, first of all, that children want our attention. They have to be at
the centre — why? Because they are proud? No! Because they need to feel
protected. It is important that we too place Jesus at the centre of our life
and to know, even if it may seem paradoxical, that it is our responsibility to
protect him. He wants to be in our embrace, he wants to be tended to and to be
able to fix his gaze on ours. Additionally, make the Child Jesus smile in order
to show him our love and our joy that he is in our midst. His smile is a sign
of the love that gives us the assurance of being loved. Children, lastly, love
to play. Playing with children, however, means abandoning our logic in order to
enter theirs. If we want to have fun it is necessary to understand what they
like, and not to be selfish and make them do the things that we like. It is a
lesson for us. Before Jesus we are called to abandon our pretense of
autonomy — and this is the crux of the
matter: our pretense of autonomy — in order to instead accept the true form of
liberty, which consists in knowing and serving whom we have before us. He, the
Child, is the Son of God who comes to save us. He has come among us to show us
the face of the Father abounding in love and mercy. Therefore, let us hold the
Child Jesus tightly in our arms; let us place ourselves at his service. He is
the font of love and serenity. It will be beautiful today, when we get home, to
go to the nativity scene and kiss the Baby Jesus and say: “Jesus, I want to be
humble like you, humble like God”, and to ask him for this grace.
Appeal
I invite prayers for the victims of the
natural disasters that have recently struck the United States, Great Britain
and South America, particularly Paraguay, sadly claiming lives, displacing many
people and causing extensive damage. May the Lord give comfort to those
peoples, and may fraternal solidarity support them in their needs.