(ANSA) - VATICAN CITY, DEC 25 - Recognize that the message of Christmas "does not ride greatness, but descends into the smallness" of the God-child who comes into the world. And therefore "embrace Jesus in the little ones of today", the least, the poor, putting aside contempt and indifference. But at the same time strive to give "dignity to work", also avoiding the very serious plague of the so-called "mortabianche". The homily of Pope Francis in the Christmas Eve Mass, celebrated in the Basilica of St. Covid.
"God does not seek strength and power - warns Francis -, he asks for tenderness and interior littleness". Here then is "what to ask of Jesus for Christmas: the grace of littleness". Because, according to the Pope, "it is a message of great hope: Jesus invites us to value and rediscover the little things in life".
"So let us leave behind the regrets for the greatness that we do not have. Let us renounce complaints and long faces, greed that leaves us unsatisfied", the pontiff admonishes.
But "welcoming littleness" also means "loving Jesus in the least, serving him in the poor". "They are the most similar to Jesus, born poor - recalls Bergoglio -. And it is in them that He wants to be honored. On this night of love, a single fear ciassalga: to hurt the love of God, to hurt him by despising the poor with our indifference" .
The Pope goes even further, because always looking at the crib he sees the shepherds as "the forgotten of the peripheries", people whose "dignity is put to the test". In short, Jesus "comes to mobilize the excluded and reveals himself above all to them: not to cultured and important characters, but to poor people who worked".
"Tonight God comes to fill the hardness of work with dignity - explains Francis -. He reminds us how important it is to give dignity to man with work, but also to give dignity to man's work, because man is lord and not a slave to work ".
"On the day of life we repeat: no more deaths at work - is therefore his appeal -. And let us commit ourselves to this".
(HANDLE).
