Pope Francis presides at the Christmas Mass During the Night in St Peter’s Basilica, and said that “the wonder of Christmas” is that an infinite God “becomes finite for our sake.”

“A census of the whole earth.”

That’s how Pope Francis began his homily for Christmas Mass during the Night in St Peter’s Basilica, quoting directly from the Gospel according to St Luke.

The evangelist, the Pope noted, makes a point of emphasising this census, which he could have just mentioned in passing.

A stark contrast thus emerges: “While the emperor numbers the world’s inhabitants, God enters it almost surreptitiously. While those who exercise power seek to take their place with the great ones of history, the King of history chooses the way of littleness.”

“None of the powerful take notice of him,” the Pope stressed: “Only a few shepherds, relegated to the margins of social life.”

Incarnation, not achievement

The emperor’s “census of the whole earth”, Pope Francis said, thus “manifests the all-too-human thread that runs through history: the quest for worldly power and might, fame and glory, which measures everything in terms of success, results, numbers and figures, a world obsessed with achievement.”

There is, however, an alternative to this approach. Jesus, the Pope suggested, is “not the god of accomplishment, but the God of Incarnation.”

“He does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of power,” Pope Francis stressed, “but from below, by a show of love.  He does not burst on the scene with limitless power, but descends to the narrow confines of our lives.”

In his greatness, he became small

Let us, then, Pope Francis urged, keep our eyes fixed on this “living and true God.”

He is, the Pope said, the God who “revolutionizes history by becoming a part of history”, and the God who “so respects us as to allow us to reject him; who takes away sin by taking it upon himself.”

“God so greatly desires to embrace our lives”, the Pope added, that “infinite though he is, he becomes finite for our sake. In his greatness, he chooses to become small; in his righteousness, he submits to our injustice.”

“This,” Pope Francis stressed, “is the wonder of Christmas”.

War in the Holy Land

The Pope’s thoughts also turned to the Holy Land, currently suffering from the Israel-Palestine conflict, and in particular to Bethlehem, the city of Jesus’ birth.

“Tonight,” he said, “our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world.

Pope Francis brought his homily to a close with a prayer.