By Carol Glatz
ROME (CNS) – A Nativity scene is a simple reminder of something astonishing: God became human to reveal the greatness of his love “by smiling and opening his arms to all,” Pope Francis said in a letter on the meaning and importance of setting up Christmas cribs.
“Wherever it is, and whatever form it takes, the Christmas creche speaks to us of the love of God, the God who became a child in order to make us know how close he is to every man, woman and child, regardless of their condition,” the pope wrote in his apostolic letter, “Admirabile Signum” (“Enchanting Image”).
Pope Francis signed the short letter Dec. 1, the first Sunday of Advent, during an afternoon visit to Greccio, Italy, where St. Francis of Assisi set up the first Nativity scene in 1223.
When St. Francis had a cave prepared with a hay-filled manger, an ox and a donkey, he “carried out a great work of evangelization,” Pope Francis said, and Catholics must continue that work today.
“With this letter,” he wrote, “I wish to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the Nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons and town squares.”
At the heart of even the simplest Nativity scene, he said, there is a reminder of “God’s tender love.”
Then, he said, there is the fact that this baby is “the source and sustenance of all life. In Jesus, the Father has given us a brother who comes to seek us out whenever we are confused or lost, a loyal friend ever at our side. He gave us his son who forgives us and frees us from our sins.”

“To our astonishment, we see God acting exactly as we do: He sleeps, takes milk from his mother, cries and plays like every other child! As always, God baffles us. He is unpredictable, constantly doing what we least expect,” Pope Francis wrote. “The Nativity scene shows God as he came into our world, but it also makes us reflect on how our life is part of God’s own life.”
The simple shepherds, who were the first to go to the stable to see the newborn Jesus, are reminders that “the humble and the poor” are the first to welcome the good news, the pope said. “In a particular way, from the time of its Franciscan origins, the Nativity scene has invited us to ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ the poverty that God’s son took upon himself in the incarnation.”
That, in turn, calls Jesus’ disciples “to follow him along the path of humility, poverty and self-denial that leads from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross,” the pope wrote. “It asks us to meet him and serve him by showing mercy to those of our brothers and sisters in greatest need.”
Mary is a model of discipleship, faithfully accepting God’s will for her life and sharing him with others, inviting them to obey him. Joseph, too, accepts the role God assigned him, protecting the baby Jesus, teaching him and raising him.
And, of course, the pope wrote, “when, at Christmas, we place the statue of the Infant Jesus in the manger, the Nativity scene suddenly comes alive. God appears as a child, for us to take into our arms.”
The whole scene, he said, reminds adult Catholics of their childhood and of learning the faith from their parents and grandparents. Each year, it should be a reminder that the faith needs to be passed on to one’s children and grandchildren.

Holy Spirit guides church efforts to evangelize

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Holy Spirit guides the Catholic Church’s mission, pointing the way to evangelize new lands and opening people’s hearts to be transformed by Christ, Pope Francis said.
Pray to the Holy Spirit “for a heart that is open, sensitive to God and welcoming” toward others, the pope encouraged Catholics Oct. 30 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
The pope continued his series of talks on the Acts of the Apostles by looking at the Apostle Paul’s journey to Macedonia, which was inspired by a vision, guided by the Holy Spirit.
“The apostle does not hesitate, he leaves for Macedonia, sure that it is God who is inviting him,” the pope said.
There, Paul preaches to a group of women, he said, and Lydia, whose heart has been opened by God, listens, receives baptism with her family and offers Paul hospitality.
It marks the start of evangelizing Europe, “a process of inculturation that continues still today,” the pope said.
However, Paul and Silas are eventually thrown into prison on charges of public disorder.
But something surprising happens, the pope said. Instead of complaining about their circumstances, they praise God, which “unleashes a power that frees them”: An earthquake shakes the foundations of the prison, throwing open the doors and loosening the prisoners’ chains.
Their jailer, who asks how he may be saved, also listens to the word of God, receives baptism with his family and offers his evangelizers hospitality.
“In the dead of night for this unnamed jailer, the light of Christ radiates and conquers the darkness, the chains of the heart fall and a joy never felt before opens up in him and his family,” he said.

This shows how the Holy Spirit is guiding the church’s mission, Pope Francis said. “He leads us onward, he wants us to be faithful to our vocation” and helps the people of God bring the Gospel to others.
At the end of the general audience, Pope Francis met with Bishop Paul Mason of the United Kingdom armed forces and Bishop Santiago Olivera of Argentina’s military.
According to Vatican News, the two bishops exchanged a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Lujan, which was taken to the United Kingdom by British troops during the Falkland War in 1982.
The statue of the Mary, patroness of Argentina, was to be returned to its native country and a replica, blessed by the pope, was to be presented to the Catholic Military Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George in Aldershot, England.

The Pope’s Corner

By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Jesus enjoys unmasking hypocrisy, which is the work of the devil, Pope Francis said.
Christians, in fact, must learn to avoid hypocrisy by scrutinizing and acknowledging their own personal faults, failings and sins, he said Oct. 15 during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
“A Christian who does not know how to accuse himself is not a good Christian,” he said.
The pope focused his homily on the day’s Gospel reading (Lk 11:37-41) in which Jesus criticizes his host for being concerned only with outward appearances and superficial rituals, saying, “although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.”
Pope Francis said the reading shows how much Jesus does not tolerate hypocrisy, which, the pope said, “is appearing one way but being something else” or hiding what one really thinks.
When Jesus calls the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” and hypocrites, these words are not insults but the truth, the pope said.
“On the outside you are perfect, strait-laced actually, with decorum, but inside you are something else,” he said.
“Hypocritical behavior comes from the great liar, the devil,” who is a huge hypocrite himself, the pope said, and he makes those like him on earth his “heirs.”

“Hypocrisy is the language of the devil; it is the language of evil that enters our heart and is sown by the devil. You can’t live with hypocritical people, but they exist,” the pope said.
“Jesus likes to unmask hypocrisy,” he said. “He knows it will be precisely this behavior that leads to his death because the hypocrite does not think about using legitimate means or not, he plows ahead: slander? ‘Let’s use slander.’ False witness? ‘Let’s look for an untruthful witness.’”  
Hypocrisy, the pope said, is common “in the battle for power, for example, (with) envy, jealousies that make you appear to be one way and inside there is poison for killing because hypocrisy always kills, sooner or later, it kills.”
The only “medicine” to cure hypocritical behavior is to tell the truth before God and take responsibility for oneself, the pope said.
“We have to learn to accuse ourselves, ‘I did this, I think this way, badly. I am envious. I want to destroy that one,’” he said.
People need to reflect on “what is inside of us” to see the sin, hypocrisy and “the wickedness that is in our heart” and “to say it before God” with humility, he said.
Pope Francis asked people to learn from St. Peter, who implored, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
“May we learn to accuse ourselves, us, our own self,” he said.

By Paige Hanley
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will highlight the important role of memory and storytelling across generations as a way to bring people together in a world marked by discord and division, the Vatican said.
The pope believes that memory – far from being a static, inflexible recollection of the past – has dynamic and transformative power that can influence and foster unity, a Vatican press release said Sept. 29 when it announced the theme of World Communication Day 2020.
The Vatican and many dioceses mark World Communication Day on the Sunday before Pentecost; in 2020 that will be May 24. The Vatican publishes the full message Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists.

For next year’s message, the pope chose the theme, “So that you can tell your children and grandchildren. Life creates history.”
The passage, based on the Book of Exodus, highlights the importance of sharing meaningful memories, stories and experiences, so that they may live on and transform the present, the Vatican statement said.
The theme “reminds us that every story is born out of life, from interacting with others,” it said.
Stories are valuable resources which offer “great riches” to their listeners, it said. The insight, knowledge and human connection fostered through effective storytelling is an invaluable asset to the audience.
“Communications is, therefore, called to connect memory with life through stories,” it said, explaining how Jesus used parables to convey “the vital power of the Kingdom of God, leaving his audience free to welcome these narratives and apply them to themselves.”
“These stories are not only alive in the past but continue to guide the lives and beliefs of Catholics today,” it said, adding, “The ability to generate change expresses how powerful a story is.”
The Vatican announcement said the message will call for ongoing dialogue with each other and with the past and will ask everyone to make communications be “an instrument to build bridges, to unite and to share the beauty of being brothers and sisters in a moment of history marked by discord and division.”

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church will endure, despite the frailty and sins of its members, because it is God’s project, Pope Francis said.
Continuing his series of audience talks about the Acts of the Apostles and the early Christian community Sept. 18, Pope Francis looked at the story of Gamaliel, a Pharisee who tried to teach members of the Sanhedrin a key aspect of “discernment,” which is not to rush to judgment, but rather to allow time for something to show itself as worthy or not.
As recounted in Acts 5, Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin not to execute the apostles for preaching Christ, “for if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”
“Every human project can initially drum up consensus, but then go down in flames,” the pope said. But “everything that comes from on high and bears God’s signature is destined to endure.”
“Human projects always fail, they have a (limited) time, like we do,” he said. “Think of the great empires. Think of the dictatorships of the past century; they thought they were so powerful and dominated the world, and then they all crumbled.”

The most powerful governments and forces today also “will crumble if God is not with them because the strength human beings have on their own is not lasting,” the pope said. “Only the strength of God endures.”
The history of Christianity and of the Catholic Church, even “with so many sins and so many scandals, with so many ugly things,” illustrates the same point, the pope said. “Why hasn’t it crumbled? Because God is there. We are sinners and often, often, we give scandal,” but “the Lord always saves. The strength is God with us.”
The story also shows just how much courage the presence of the Holy Spirit brings, the pope said. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples “all ran away, they fled,” but after the Resurrection, when he sent the Spirit upon them, they became courageous.
Pointing to the 21 Coptic Orthodox beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015, Pope Francis said the same courage is still seen today in martyrs, who continued to repeat the name of Jesus even as their fate becomes clear. “They did not sell out their faith because the Holy Spirit was with them.”
In the Acts of the Apostles, Gamaliel tells the Sanhedrin that if Jesus was an imposter, his followers eventually would “disappear,” the pope said, but “if, on the other hand, they were following one who was sent by God, then it would be better not to fight them.”
The “wait and see” attitude of Gamaliel is a key part of discernment, Pope Francis said.
“His are calm and farsighted words,” part of a process that urges people to “judge a tree by its fruits” rather than acting hastily, the pope said.
Pope Francis asked people at the audience to join him in praying that the Holy Spirit would “act in us so that, both personally and as a community, we can acquire the habit of discernment” and learn to notice God acting in history and in our brothers and sisters.

By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – People who race to get top positions often feel superior to others, an attitude that destroys the possibility for fellowship and communion, Pope Francis said.
“We all know these people: climbers, always trying to climb up, up. They hurt brotherhood, they damage brotherhood,” the pope said Sept. 1 during his Sunday Angelus address.
Thousands of pilgrims waited outside St. Peter’s Square to listen to and pray with the pope. However, the pope was late, which is unusual for his Angelus appointment.
Excusing himself for the delay, the pope explained that he was stuck in an elevator for almost a half-hour.
“Thank God the firefighters came – I thank them very much – and after 25 minutes of work they were able to get (the elevator) working. An applause to the firefighters,” he said.
In his address, the pope focused on the Sunday Gospel reading in which Jesus recounts two parables while dining at the house of a leading Pharisee.
Noticing how many guests rushed to take the place of honor at the table, Jesus exhorted them to be humble and take the last place because “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The pope said that the desire to rise to the top in both “civil and ecclesial” circles happens even today “and not just when someone is invited to lunch.”
Instead of seeking to be first, the pope added, Christians are called to follow Christ who “always shows us the way of humility” because it is “the most authentic one that also allows us to have authentic relationships.”
In the Gospel reading, Jesus also encourages his host to invite the poor, the lame and the blind to his banquet so that he may receive “a divine reward that is much greater” than giving and receiving favors from others, which “usually distorts relationships and commercializes them,” the pope said.
“Humble generosity is Christian,” Pope Francis said. “Jesus invites us to selfless generosity, to open the way for a much greater joy, the joy of being part of the very love of God that awaits us, all of us, in the heavenly banquet.”
After praying the Angelus prayer, the pope announced that he will create 13 new cardinals from around the world Oct. 5, including Canadian Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary of the Section for Migrants and Refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Pope Francis also commemorated the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, an observance begun by the Orthodox Church and now celebrated by many Christians.
The ecumenical day of prayer, he said, “is a favorable time to praise God for all his creatures and the assumption of responsibility in front of the cry of the earth.”

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju)