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LORD MAKE YOUR PROMISE TRUE: OF PEACE THERE WILL BE NO END

VATICAN CITY, 24 DEC 2010 (VIS) - The Pope tonight celebrated Midnight Mass in
the Vatican Basilica for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord.

In the course of the Eucharistic celebration, following the reading of the
Gospel, the Holy Father delivered his homily.

"'You are my son, this day I have begotten you'. With this passage from Psalm 2
the Church begins the liturgy of this holy night. She knows that this passage
originally formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of Israel. The king,
who in himself is a man like others, becomes the 'Son of God' through being
called and installed in his office. It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive
act by which He grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into His own
being".

"Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. As one newly born
through God's personal choice, as a child born of God, the king embodies hope.
On his shoulders the future rests. He is the bearer of the promise of peace. On
that night in Bethlehem this prophetic saying came true. ... Yes indeed, now it
really is a child on whose shoulders government is laid. In Him the new
kingship appears that God establishes in the world. ... In the weakness of
infancy, He is the mighty God and He shows us God's own might in contrast to
the self-asserting powers of this world.

"Truly, the words of Israel's coronation rite were only ever rites of hope
which looked ahead to a distant future that God would bestow. None of the kings
who were greeted in this way lived up to the sublime content of these words.
... Thus the fulfilment of the prophecy, which began that night in Bethlehem,
is both infinitely greater and in worldly terms smaller than the prophecy
itself might lead one to imagine. ... The infinite distance between God and man
is overcome. ... He has truly 'come down', He has come into the world, He has
become one of us, in order to draw all of us to Himself. ... He has truly built
islands of peace in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist.
Wherever it is celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God's own peace. This
Child has ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to
overcome the tyranny of might. This child builds His kingdom in every
generation from within, from the heart.

"But at the same time it is true that the 'rod of his oppressor' is not yet
broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the 'garment rolled in
blood' still remains. So part of this night is simply joy at God's closeness.
We are grateful that God gives Himself into our hands as a Child, begging as it
were for our love, implanting His peace in our hearts. But this joy is also a
prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the rods of the
oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in
blood come to an end. Fulfil the prophecy that 'of peace there will be no end'.
We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to show forth your power.
Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in the world, the 'kingdom
of righteousness, love and peace'.

"'Mary gave birth to her first-born son'. ... In the language which developed
within the sacred Scripture of the Old Covenant, 'first-born' does not mean the
first of a series of children. The word 'first-born' is a title of honour,
quite independently of whether other brothers and sisters follow. ... The
first-born belongs to God in a special way, and is as it were destined for
sacrifice. In Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross this destiny of the first-born is
fulfilled in a unique way. In His person He brings humanity before God and
unites man with God in such a way that God becomes all in all. ... Man can be
the image of God because Jesus is both God and man, the true image of God and
of man". Furthermore, "He is the first-born from the dead. In the
resurrection
He has broken down the wall of death for all of us. He has opened up to man the
dimension of eternal life in fellowship with God. ... Now He really is the
first of a series of brothers and sisters: the first, that is, who opens up for
us the possibility of communing with God. He creates true brotherhood - not the
kind defiled by sin as in the case of Cain and Abel, or Romulus and Remus - but
the new brotherhood in which we are God's own family".

"At the end of the Christmas Gospel, we are told that a great heavenly host of
angels praised God and said: 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
among men with whom he is pleased!'. The Church has extended this song of
praise, which the angels sang in response to the event of the holy night, into
a hymn of joy at God's glory. ... The appearing of beauty, of the beautiful,
makes us happy without our having to ask what use it can serve. ... But the
angels' message on that holy night also spoke of men: 'Peace among men with
whom he is pleased'. The Latin translation of the angels' song that we use in
the liturgy, taken from St. Jerome, is slightly different: 'peace to men of
good will'. ... It would be a false interpretation to see this exclusively as
the action of God, as if He had not called man to a free response of love. But
it would be equally mistaken to adopt a moralising interpretation as if man
were so to speak able to redeem himself by his good will. Both elements belong
together: grace and freedom, God's prior love for us, without which we could
not love Him, and the response that He awaits from us. We cannot divide up into
independent entities the interplay of grace and freedom, or the interplay of
call and response. The two are inseparably woven together".

"St. Luke does not say that the angels sang. He states quite soberly: the
heavenly host praised God and said: 'Glory to God in the highest'. But men have
always known that the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that
above all on this night of joyful proclamation it was in song that they
extolled God's heavenly glory. ... At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join
in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth,
angels and men".
HML/VIS 20101228 (1150)

SUMMARY

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