In the Christmas Eve Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father Leo XIV delivered a homily centered on the mystery of the Incarnation as God’s response to the world’s darkness. Before the faithful gathered in the Vatican, the Pope presented the birth of Christ as the true light that illuminates all darkness, not from power or human greatness, but from the humility of a Child laid in a manger.
In his preaching, Leo XIV emphasized that Christmas reveals the inviolable dignity of every human person and unmasks the logics of domination, exclusion, and commodification of man. He recalled that there can be no place for God if there is no place for man—especially for the smallest, the poor, and the discarded—and exhorted the Church to welcome the gift received by becoming a witness of hope, charity, and peace in a world marked by the night of error and violence.
We leave below the complete homily of Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters, for millennia, in all parts of the Earth, peoples have scrutinized the sky, giving names and forms to silent stars. In their imagination, they read in them the events of the future, seeking in the heights, among the stars, the truth that was missing below, among the houses. Like watchmen in that darkness, however, they remained confused by their own oracles.
On this night, instead, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone. Here is the star that surprises the world, a spark barely lit and already overflowing with life.
Today, in the city of David, a Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. In time and space, where we are, comes He without whom we would never have existed. He lives with us who gives his life for us, illuminating our night with salvation.
There is no darkness that this star does not illuminate, because in its light all humanity sees the dawn of a new and eternal existence. It is the Christmas of Jesus, the Emmanuel. In the Son made man, God does not give us something, but himself, to rescue us from all iniquity and form for himself a pure people.
He is born in the night who rescues us from the night. The footprint of the day that dawns no longer needs to be sought far away, in the sidereal spaces, but by bowing the head, in the nearby stable. The clear sign given to the dark world is, indeed, a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
To find the Savior, one must not look upward, but contemplate downward. The omnipotence of God shines in the impotence of a newborn. The eloquence of the Eternal Word resounds in the first cry of an infant.
The holiness of the Spirit shines in that small body freshly washed and wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is divine the desire for care and warmth that the Son of the Father shares in history with all his brothers. The divine light that radiates from this child helps us to see man in every life that is born.
To illuminate our blindness, the Lord wanted to reveal himself from man to man, his true image according to a plan of love begun with the creation of the world. While the night of error darkens this providential truth, then there is no place for others either, for children, for the poor, for foreigners. So current are the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who remind us that on earth there is no space for God if there is no space for man.
Not to welcome one means not to welcome the other. Instead, where there is room for man, there is room for God; then a stable can become more sacred than a temple and the womb of the Virgin Mary is the ark of the new covenant. We admire, dearest ones, the wisdom of Christmas.
In the child Jesus, God gives the world a new life, his own, for all. Not a resolving idea for every problem, but a story of love that involves us. Before the expectations of peoples, He sends an infant so that he may be a word of hope.
Before the pain of the miserable, He sends a helpless one so that he may be strength to rise. Before violence and oppression, He kindles a gentle light that illuminates with salvation all the children of this world. As St. Augustine pointed out, human pride has crushed you so much that only divine humility could lift you up.
Yes, while a distorted economy induces treating men as merchandise, God makes himself like us, revealing the infinite dignity of every person. While man wants to make himself God to dominate his neighbor, God wants to make himself man to free us from all slavery. Will this love be enough for us to change our history? The answer comes as soon as we awaken, like the shepherds, from a deadly night to the light of the life that is born, contemplating the child Jesus.
Over the stable of Bethlehem, where Mary and Joseph, full of wonder, watch over the newborn, the starry sky becomes a multitude of the Heavenly Army. They are unarmed and disarming hosts, because they sing the glory of God, in which peace is manifested on earth. In the heart of Christ, indeed, beats the bond that unites in love heaven and earth, the Creator and creatures.
For this reason, exactly one year ago, Pope Francis stated that the Christmas of Jesus rekindles in us the gift and the commitment to bring hope where it has been lost, because with Him joy flourishes, with Him life changes, with Him hope does not disappoint. With these words the Holy Year began; now that the Jubilee is heading toward its fulfillment, Christmas is for us a time of gratitude and mission: gratitude for the gift received, mission to witness it to the world. As the psalmist sings: announce day after day his salvation, tell among the nations his glory, to all peoples proclaim his wonders.
Sisters, brothers, the contemplation of the Word made flesh arouses in the whole Church a new and true word. Let us proclaim, therefore, the joy of Christmas, which is a feast of faith, of charity, and of hope. It is a feast of faith because God becomes man by being born of the Virgin.
It is a feast of charity because the gift of the Redeemer Son becomes reality in fraternal giving. It is a feast of hope because the child Jesus kindles it in us, making us messengers of peace. With these virtues in our hearts, without fearing the night, we can go out to meet the dawn of the New Day.