Pope Francis dedicated his catechism of the General Audience this Wednesday, December 28 to “Christmas with Saint Francis de Sales”, on the day that marks the 400th anniversary of the death of this Doctor of the Church.
“God has found a way to attract us whoever we are: with love. Not a possessive and selfish love, as human love unfortunately tends to be. His love is pure gift, pure grace, it is everything and only for us, for our good. And so he attracts us, with this disarming and disarming love, ”said the Holy Father.
Below is the catechesis pronounced by Pope Francis:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and Merry Christmas again!
This liturgical time invites us to stop and reflect on the mystery of Christmas. And since today, today, marks the fourth centenary of the death of Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, we can be inspired by some of his thoughts. He wrote a lot about Christmas.
In this regard, I am pleased to announce that the Apostolic Letter commemorating this anniversary is being published today. The title is: “Everything belongs to love”, taking up a characteristic expression of the Holy Bishop of Geneva. In fact, he wrote so in his Treatise on the love of God : “In the Holy Church everything belongs to love, lives in love, is made for love and proceeds from love” (Ed. Paoline, Milan 1989, p. 80 ). And I wish all of us could go down this beautiful path of love, right?
Let us try, then, to delve a little deeper into the mystery of the birth of Jesus, “in the company” of Saint Francis de Sales. Thus, we unite the two commemorations.
Saint Francis de Sales, in one of his many letters addressed to Saint Joan Francisca de Chantal, writes: “It seems to me that I see Solomon on his great throne of ivory, gilded and carved, which had no equal in any kingdom, as Scripture says. (1 Kings 10,18-20), to see, finally, that king who had no equal in glory and magnificence (cf. 1 Kings 10,23). But I would rather see the Child in the manger a hundred times than all the others. kings on their thrones.” What he said is beautiful.
Jesus, the King of the universe, never sat on a throne: He was born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger; and he finally died on a cross and, wrapped in a sheet, was deposited in the tomb.
In fact, the evangelist Luke, when recounting the birth of Jesus, insists a lot on the detail of the manger. This means that it is very important not only as a logistical detail, but as a symbolic element to understand what kind of Messiah is the one who was born in Bethlehem, what kind of king. Who is Jesus. Looking at the manger, looking at the cross, looking at his life of simplicity, we can understand who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Son of God who saves us by becoming a man, stripping himself of his glory and humiliating himself (cf. Phil 2,7-8). We see this mystery concretely in the central point of the manger, that is, in the Child lying in a manger. This is the “sign” that God gives us at Christmas: he was so then for the shepherds of Bethlehem (cf. Lk 2,12), he is so today and he will always be so. When the angels announce Jesus, they go to meet him, and the sign is: they will find a child in a manger. That is the sign: the throne of Jesus is the manger or the path during his life preaching or the cross at the end of life. This is the throne of our king.
This sign shows us the “style” of God. And what is God’s style? Don’t forget it, huh? Never forget, God’s style is closeness, compassion and tenderness. Our God is close, compassionate and tender. In Jesus you see this style of God.
With this style of his, God draws us to himself. He does not take us by force, he does not impose his truth and his justice on us. He does not proselytize with us. No. He wants to attract us with love, with tenderness, with compassion.
In another letter, Saint Francis de Sales writes: “The magnet attracts iron, and amber attracts straw and hay. Well, whether we are made of iron because of our hardness, or made of straw because of our weakness, we must allow ourselves to be attracted.” for this ‘heavenly little Child'”.
Our strengths, our weaknesses, are only resolved before the manger, before Jesus, or before the cross, Jesus stripped, Jesus poor, but always with his style of closeness, compassion and tenderness.
God has found a way to attract us whoever we are: with love. Not a possessive and selfish love, as human love unfortunately tends to be. His love is pure gift, pure grace, it is everything and only for us, for our good. And so he attracts us, with this disarmed and “disarming” love.
Because when we see this simplicity of Jesus, we also throw away the weapons of pride, and go there humbly to ask for salvation, forgiveness, to ask for light for our lives, to be able to move forward. Do not forget the throne of Jesus: the manger and the cross, this is the throne of Jesus.
Another aspect that stands out in the nativity scene is poverty -there really is poverty there, eh?-, poverty understood as renouncing all worldly vanity. When we see the money that is spent for ‘vanity’, a lot of money for ‘worldly vanity’, so much effort, so many investigations for vanity and Jesus makes himself seen with humility.
Saint Francis de Sales writes again: “My God, how many holy affections does this birth arouse in our hearts! But, above all, it teaches us the perfect renunciation of all goods, of all the ‘pomp’ of this world. I don’t know, but I can’t find any other mystery in which tenderness and austerity, love and rigor, sweetness and hardness mix so sweetly. We see all this in the manger.
Yes, let’s be careful not to fall into the mundane caricature of Christmas. And this is a problem, because Christmas is this. But, today we see that there is another “Christmas” in quotes, which is the mundane caricature of Christmas, which reduces Christmas to a consumerist and cheesy party. It is necessary to party, huh? But that this is not Christmas, Christmas is something else.
God’s love is not sweet, as Jesus’ manger shows us. It is not a hypocritical goodness that hides the search for pleasures and comforts. Our elders, who had known war and also famine, knew it well: Christmas is joy and celebration, certainly, but in simplicity and austerity.
And we conclude with a thought from Saint Francis de Sales that I have also collected in the Apostolic Letter. He dictated it to the Sisters of the Visitation – imagine! – Two days before his death, on December 26, 1622. He said: “Do you see the Child Jesus in the manger? He accepts all the inclement weather, the cold and everything that his Father allows to happen to him. It is not written that he has ever extended his hands to the breasts of his Mother, he totally abandoned himself to her care and provision, without refusing the small relief that She gave him. In the same way we must not desire or refuse anything, but equally accept everything that God’s Providence allows to happen to us, the cold and the inclement weather”.
And here, dear brothers and sisters, there is a great teaching that comes to us from the Child Jesus through the wisdom of Saint Francis de Sales: not to desire anything and not to reject anything, to accept everything that God sends us. But beware! Always and only for love, because God loves us and wants always and only our good.
Let us look at the manger that is the throne of Jesus, let us look at Jesus in the streets of Judea, Galilee, preaching the message of the Father, and let us look at Jesus on the other throne of the Cross. This is what Jesus offers us, the way, the path of happiness.
To all of you and your families, Merry Christmas season and a good start to the new year!
(Adapted and translated from ACI Prensa)