Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Babe in Swaddling Clothes


An excerpt from the Holy Father's Homily for Midnight Mass this year:



The Angel had said to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for
you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”
(Lk 2:12; cf. 2:16). God’s sign, the sign given to the shepherds and to us, is
not an astonishing miracle. God’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he
makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for
our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign
of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and
thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness
itself. He invites us to become like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we
allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and
hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth
and love.

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