Pope at Christmas: Jesus' birth brings hope for world of justice, peace

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Celebrating Christmas Mass after opening the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis said the birth of Jesus fills Christians with hope and the courage to work for peace and justice.

"This is our hope: God is Emmanuel, God-with-us," he said at the Mass Dec. 24 in St. Peter's Basilica with an overflow crowd. On a windy winter night, thousands of people were sitting in St. Peter's Square watching the liturgy on video screens.

"The infinitely great has made himself tiny; divine light has shone amid the darkness of our world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth -- how? -- as a little child," the pope said. "If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive, and it embraces our lives forever! Hope does not disappoint."

The "Christmas Mass at Night," often referred to as "midnight Mass," has not been celebrated at midnight at the Vatican since 2009. Pope Francis began the liturgy at about 7:30 p.m. after opening the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican press office said 6,000 people were inside and, as the pope opened the Holy Door, some 25,000 people were in the square. Dozens of priests went outside to distribute Communion to them during the Mass.

At the beginning of Mass, 10 children, who were among the first pilgrims to cross the threshold of the Holy Door, placed flowers around a figurine of Jesus that rested in front of the basilica's main altar.

Pope Francis chose "Pilgrims of Hope" as the theme for the Holy Year, which the Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years as a special time of pilgrimage, conversion and renewal of faith.

Adding to his prepared text, the pope told people, "There is much desolation in the world right now. Think of the wars, of the children gunned down, of the bombs falling on schools and hospitals," references that he has applied to both Russia's war on Ukraine and Israel's actions in Gaza.

Hope is not indifferent but requires courage, he said. It means not being afraid to "speak out against evil and the injustices perpetrated at the expense of the poor."

Christian hope, "while inviting us to wait patiently for the kingdom to grow and spread," he said, "also requires of us, even now, to be bold in our anticipation of the fulfilment of the Lord's promise, to be responsible and not only, but to be compassionate."

"Tonight, God speaks to each of us and says: there is hope also for you," the pope said in his homily. To receive that gift of hope, all that is needed is to set out, like the shepherds of Bethlehem did, to meet Jesus.

"For Christians hope is not a 'happy ending' which we passively await -- it's not the happy ending of a film -- but rather, a promise, the Lord's promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs," Pope Francis said.

The offer of hope requires a response, he said. God asks people not to "wallow in mediocrity or laziness," but to notice when things are wrong and try to change them.

"Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men open to being challenged by God's dream, which is the dream of a new world where peace and justice reign," Pope Francis said.

The Holy Year, he said, "calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world, so that this year may truly become a time of jubilation: A jubilee for our mother Earth, disfigured by profiteering; a time of jubilee for the poorer countries burdened beneath unfair debts; a time of jubilee for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery old and new."

As Christians, the pope said, "all of us have received the gift and task of bringing hope wherever hope has been lost, lives broken, promises unkept, dreams shattered and hearts overwhelmed by adversity."

"We are called to bring hope to the weary who have no strength to carry on, the lonely oppressed by the bitterness of failure, and all those who are broken-hearted," the pope said. In addition, Christians are called "to bring hope to the interminable, dreary days of prisoners, to the cold and dismal lodgings of the poor, and to all those places desecrated by war and violence."

At the end of Mass, escorted by children, Pope Francis carried the figurine of the baby Jesus in his lap while an aide pushed him in his wheelchair toward the Nativity scene at the back of the basilica so it could be placed in the manger.