Christmas is joy, light, and peace. The birth of a poor Child, lying in a manger, illuminates the world even amidst wars, famines, calamities, and dramatic events that mark the history of nations, peoples, and families. The Popes urge us to welcome and embrace this little man born in Bethlehem who consoles suffering humanity.

Pius XII and the destinies of death for reasons of nationality

A dark and tragic time was experienced, particularly by Jews in Europe, during the Second World War. On January 20, 1942, some of the highest-ranking officials of the Nazi party and the German government met at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss a topic referred to in the minutes of this conference as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

Almost a year later, on December 24, 1942, a solitary voice rose from the microphones of Vatican Radio—as an editorial in the  New York Times  of the time described it— ”  crying out from the silence of a continent.” It was the voice of Pope Pius XII  delivering his Christmas Eve radio message.  The Pontiff expressed his hope that for “tormented humanity” the “consoling and inspiring star that shines over the cave of Bethlehem” might shine in a world marked by the horrors of war. Among the atrocities of the Second World War, Pope Pacelli also included the tragedy that, in the Nazi vocabulary, corresponded to the expression “Final Solution.”

John XXIII and the sick children

Tormented humanity is marked by war, but also by suffering and disease. On Christmas Day 1958, the Bambino Gesù Hospital welcomed Pope John XXIII. He was the first Pontiff to ascend the Janiculum Hill to visit “his hospital.” During this visit, Pope Roncalli greeted and blessed the young patients. In one of the last rooms, a child told the Pope his name was Emanuele. “That’s right,” affirmed John XXIII, “a name that sums up the solemnity of this day. It means: God with us.”

Paul VI and the struggles of the working world

In Italy, 1968 was a year marked by intense social tensions in the world of work. That year, Pope Paul VI  celebrated Christmas Mass among the workers.  The Pontiff visited the Taranto steelworks to heal a rift: the one that existed between the working class and the Church. The steelworks, which the Vatican newspaper, “L’Osservatore Romano,” described as “the new hut of the technological age,” served as the backdrop, almost like Christmas. In his homily, Pope Paul VI addressed the workers, urging them to look to “the Christ of the Gospel”: “Workers, who are listening to us: Jesus Christ is with you.”

We speak to you from the heart. We will tell you something very simple, yet full of meaning. And it is this: We have difficulty speaking to you. We feel the difficulty in making ourselves understood by you. Or perhaps we don’t understand you enough? It is a fact that discourse is quite difficult for us. It seems to us that there is no common language between you and us. You are immersed in a world foreign to the one we, men of the Church, live in. You think and work in a way very different from the Church! We told you, when greeting you, that we are brothers and friends: but is that really true? Because we all perceive this evidence: work and religion, in our modern world, are two separate, distant, often even opposing things. There was a time when it was not so.

John Paul II and the first steps of man in the third millennium

The historic passage of humanity between two millennia is condensed into an image etched in the collective memory:  the opening of the Holy Door on December 24, 1999.  It is the day on which Pope John Paul II symbolically crossed the threshold of the third millennium. At that moment, time resonates with a singular resonance: “It is not only the commemoration of the birth of the Redeemer, it is the solemn beginning of the Great Jubilee.” Humanity, marked by deep wounds such as wars and injustices, clings to a hope, to a Person. No one—affirms Pope  Wojtyła  —is excluded from the Father’s embrace.

You are Christ, the Son of the living God! On the threshold of the third millennium, the Church greets you, Son of God, who came into the world to conquer death. You came to illuminate human life through the Gospel. The Church greets you and, together with you, wishes to enter the third millennium. You are our hope. You alone have the words of eternal life. …Be for us the Door that leads us into the mystery of the Father. May no one be excluded from his embrace of mercy and peace!

Benedict XVI, the migrant issue and the space for God

There is a segment of humanity seeking a better future, fleeing misery and persecution. These are the migrants. After a long and arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary witnessed the birth of the Messiah in a manger, because there was no room for them anywhere else. If Mary and Joseph were to knock on our door, would there be room for them? This question, posed by Pope Benedict XVI during Holy Mass on  December 24, 2012 , becomes an exhortation to prayer “so that a space may be created within us” for the Lord. “And so that, in this way, we may also recognize him in those through whom he speaks to us: in children, in those who suffer, in the abandoned, the marginalized, and the poor of this world.”

So the great moral question of what happens among us regarding refugees, migrants, and those who are displaced takes on an even more fundamental meaning: Do we have a place for God when he tries to enter us? Do we have time and space for him? Isn’t it precisely God himself whom we reject? And so it begins because we don’t have time for God. The faster we move, the more efficient the means that allow us to save time, the less time we have left. And God? When it comes to him, it never seems urgent. Our time is already completely taken.

Francis and bring hope where it has been lost

Jesus is born for us, for every man and woman. He is born, also and above all, amidst misery and existential marginalization.  Christmas 2024  is marked by the opening of the Holy Door and the beginning of the Holy Year of Hope. At Mass, on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Pope Francis exhorts Christians to commit themselves to transforming the world.

We all have the gift and the task of bringing hope where it has been lost; where life is wounded, in betrayed expectations, in shattered dreams, in heartbreaking failures; in the weariness of those who can go no further, in the bitter loneliness of those who feel defeated, in the suffering that devastates the soul; in the long, empty days of prisoners, in the cramped, cold rooms of the poor, in places desecrated by war and violence. To bring hope there, to sow hope there.

Leo XIV and Christmas, a festival of light

The time is approaching when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. On December 24, Leo XIV will preside over Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. On the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, humanity is still grappling with many painful wounds. In 2020, during a period marked by the pandemic, the then Bishop of Chiclayo and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao in Peru, Monsignor Robert Francis Prevost, sent a Christmas message. His greeting was published on the YouTube channel of the Diocese of Callao. When there is still no end in sight to this time marked by illness and so many deaths, the then Bishop of Chiclayo emphasized that the feast of hope arrives. Christmas is always “a feast of light on earth,” even in times that seem dominated by darkness.

Source:  Amedeo Lomonaco