Pope Francis lamented a “famine of peace” and prayed for an end to conflicts across the globe in his annual Urbi et Orbi (“To the Church and to the World”) message on Christmas Day.
The Pope enjoined the world to overcome “our spiritual drowsiness and the shallow holiday glitter” to “turn our eyes to Bethlehem, and listen to the first faint cries of the Prince of Peace”.
“Let us leave behind the hue and din that deadens our heart, and makes us spend more time in preparing decorations and gifts than in contemplating the great event: the Son of God born for us.”
He remembered in particular the people of Ukraine, “experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes due to the devastation caused by ten months of war”.
Among others, he prayed also for the peoples of Syria and of the Holy Land, and appealed for “a lasting truce in Yemen and reconciliation in Myanmar and Iran”.
The Pope also remembered the victims of famine, and demanded that political leaders make food “solely an instrument of peace”.
In his homily at Midnight Mass in St Peter’s, Francis had said that the manger repeatedly mentioned in Luke’s gospel characterised the “closeness, poverty and concreteness” of the Nativity.
“In the manger of rejection and discomfort,” he said, “God makes himself present.”
He said that “a child lying in a manger presents us with a scene that is striking, even crude”.
“It reminds us that God truly became flesh. As a result, all our theories, our fine thoughts and our pious sentiments are no longer enough.”
In the UK, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, described the Nativity as a “Summit of the Soul”.
“Place and event go together,” he said, in his homily at Midnight Mass in Westminster Cathedral, recalling his visit to the Holy Land earlier this month to venerate the site of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem.
“Christmas was very close for me then,” he said.
The King also reflected on a journey to Bethlehem in his first Christmas broadcast, describing his own visit to the Church of the Nativity in 2020 as the fulfilment of “a lifelong wish”.
In his homily, Cardinal Nichols said that neglect of [Christ’s] presence in our lives shows itself first in neglect of our neighbour”.
“Instead, let us enter the stable and make new contact with this anointed one, the Christ.”
The cardinal was among the signatories of an ecumenical statement of Christian solidarity with Ukraine this Christmas.
The statement from the presidents of Churches Together in England remembered “the suffering of the people of Ukraine this terrible winter as the unjust Russian invasion continues”.
“We urge Christians everywhere to continue to stand in prayerful solidarity with the people and churches of Ukraine and to support them in their hour of need.”
Other signatories included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Free Churches Moderator, Revd Canon Helen Cameron.
Preaching in Canterbury Cathedral on Christmas Day, Archbishop Welby described his recent visit to Bucha in Ukraine earlier this month, the site of Russian war crimes in March. He acknowledged that “it seems to many of that the darkness this year has often seemed to overcome”.
Yet despite injustice throughout the world – including recent violence in South Sudan, which the archbishop is due to visit with Pope Francis next year – he said: “In the child Jesus, God Himself, God shows that he does not give up on us.”
He continued: “All over this country, all over the world, there is a rebellion [against the darkness]. There are echoes of the defiant joy-filled refrain of the angels, who sang and danced before the shepherds.”
The Bishop of Leeds, Marcus Stock, delivered the homily at Midnight Mass in Leeds Cathedral, which was broadcast on Radio 4.
He said that “Jesus’s birth means that everything, every event, every situation, every life – yours and mine – is touched by the warmth and light of God’s love”.
The Bishop of Wrexham, Peter Brignall, was one of several other bishops to issue a Christmas reflection. He based his on the application of semiconductor diode technology (the basis of LEDs – and thence modern Christmas tree lights) and Hilaire Belloc’s poem “Courtesy”.
“As we look upon each of those tiny lights this Christmas,” he said, “may they remind us of the tiny child and the immeasurable intent of courtesy, the gracious gift of God for all people, that dispels the darkness of this world’s deeds and gives us the hope to live our lives in the radiant love of God, our Lord.”
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