GOD ASKS FOR OUR LOVE, SO HE MAKES HIMSELF A CHILD

VATICAN CITY, DEC 24, 2006 (VIS) - The Pope tonight celebrated Midnight Mass in the Vatican Basilica for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. Thirty-six cardinals concelebrated with the Holy Father.

  On this holy night, said the Holy Father in his homily, God "makes Himself small for us. This is how He reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby - defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with His strength. He takes away our fear of His greatness. He asks for our love: so He makes Himself a child."

  "God made Himself small so that we could understand Him, welcome Him, and love Him," Benedict XVI went on. "He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way He teaches us to love the weak. In this way He teaches us respect for children. The Child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. Towards children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; towards children who have to beg; towards children who suffer deprivation and hunger; towards children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem Who is crying out to us; it is the God Who has become small Who appeals to us."

  "He Who is the Eternal One, above time, He has assumed our time and raised it to Himself on high. Christmas has become the feast of gifts in imitation of God Who has given Himself to us. Let us allow our heart, our soul and our mind to be touched by this fact! Among the many gifts that we buy and receive, let us not forget the true gift: to give each other something of ourselves, to give each other something of our time, to open our time to God."

  "Man, in order to live, needs bread, the fruit of the earth and of his labor. But he does not live by bread alone. He needs nourishment for his soul: he needs meaning that can fill his life. Thus, for the Fathers of the Church, the manger of the animals became the symbol of the altar, on which lies the Bread which is Christ himself: the true food for our hearts. Once again we see how He became small: in the humble appearance of the host, in a small piece of bread, He gives us Himself."
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