The scandal of Christmas

24 December 1998 12:02

VATICAN CITY, DEC 23 (ZENIT).-From the public audience of the Holy Father:

What is truly dramatic at the end of this century is that Christmas is no longer a scandal — not just among unbelievers, but among Christians as well. And yet, it is the most audacious divine event in history. On one hand, Christmas reveals « the greatness of God, manifested from the very beginning of creation, which reaches its summit in Jesus Christ.

God has made himself man and was born, defenseless, from the Virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, for there was no place for him in a human home. » And, the Pope added: « We never understand fully the mystery of this total humiliation. In this event, which we also know through the Gospel, God entered into the history of man, and will remain with him until the end. For two thousands years this great Message of love and reconciliation has been diffused from Bethlehem. »

But the scandal of Christmas enfolds another unexplored dimension: « the birth of the Son of God reveals to us as well the profound truth about man. In Christ, precisely in Him, man discovers his own great vocation. If God loved the world to the point of giving His only begotten Son to it, He did it so that we would have eternal life, so that we would stop walking in darkness and we would turn to the light. »

To clarify his point, the Pope quoted the words of a Polish Christmas carol: « From the height of heaven, God has descended to earth to take mankind to heaven. » « By coming to the world in poverty, he wanted to give us his wealth, making us children of God. He took on human nature to make himself like us, to unite himself, in a certain sense, to each human being and become truly one of us. »

In this Christmas, which is the vigil of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, the Pope invited all present « to look at the Child-God-Savior of the world, let us learn from him about love, goodness, and sensibility. Let us learn to care about the destiny of every man and every human life. »