Pope Francis Christmas Homily

"In the darkness, a light shines. An angel appears, the glory of the Lord shines around the shepherds and finally the message awaited for centuries is heard: 'To you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord' (Lk 2:11). The angel goes on to say something surprising. He tells the shepherds how to find the God who has come down to earth: 'This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger' (v. 12). That is the sign: a child, a baby lying in the dire poverty of a manger. No more bright lights or choirs of angels. Only a child. Nothing else, even as Isaiah had foretold: 'unto us a child is born' (Is 9:6).

"The Gospel emphasizes this contrast. It relates the birth of Jesus beginning with Caesar Augustus, who orders the census of the whole world: it presents the first Emperor in all his grandeur. Yet immediately thereafter it brings us to Bethlehem, where there is no grandeur at all: just a poor child wrapped in swaddling clothes, with shepherds standing by. That is where God is, in littleness. This is the message: God does not rise up in grandeur, but lowers himself into littleness. Littleness is the path that he chose to draw near to us, to touch our hearts, to save us and to bring us back to what really matters."

A Catholic News Agency report offered the full text of Pope Francis' homily for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. To access this report, please visit:

Catholic News Agency: Pope Francis' Christmas homily for Midnight Mass at the Vatican 2021