Snippets of the Homily delivered by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV during the Christmas Eve Mass 2025 in St. Peter’s Basilica
“Into time and space, in our midst, comes the one without whom we would not exist. He gives us his life for us, lives among us, illuminating the night with his light of salvation. There is no darkness that this star does not illumine, for by its light, all humanity beholds the dawn of a new and eternal life.
It is the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel.
God gives us nothing less than his very self in order to redeem us from all inequity and purify for himself a people of his own.
Born in the night is the one who redeems us from the night. The hint of the dawning day is no longer to be sought in the distant reaches of the cosmos, but in the stable nearby.
The clear sign given to a darkened world is indeed a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
To find the savior, one must not gaze upward, but look below. The omnipotence of God shines forth in the powerlessness of a newborn. The eloquence of the Eternal Word resounds in an infant’s first cry. The holiness of the Spirit gleams, and that small body, fresh, washed and wrapped in swaddling clothes. The need for care and warmth becomes divine since the Son of the Father shares in history with all his brothers and sisters.
The divine light radiating from this child helps us to recognize humanity in every new life. And to heal our blindness, the Lord chooses to reveal himself in each human being who reflect his true image according to a plan of love begun at the creation of the world.
Let us marvel, dear brothers and sisters, at the wisdom of Christmas. In the child Jesus, God gives the world a new life, his own, offered for all. He does not give us a clever solution to every problem but a love story that draws us in.
And in response to the expectations of people, he sends a child to be a word of hope. In the face of the suffering of the poor, he sends one who is defenseless to be the strength to rise again before violence and oppression. He kindles a gentle light that illuminates with salvation, all the children of this world.
And as Augustine observed, human pride weighed you down so heavily that only divine humility could raise you up again.
While a distorted economy leads us to treat human beings as mere merchandise, God becomes like us, revealing the infinite dignity of every person.
While humanity seeks to become God in order to dominate others, God chooses to become man in order to free us from every form of slavery. Will this love be enough to change our history?
The answer will come as soon as we wake up, from a deadly night, into the light of new life, and, like the shepherds, contemplate the child Jesus.
Above the stable of Bethlehem, where Mary and Joseph watch over the newborn child with hearts full of wonder, the starry sky is transformed into a multitude of the heavenly host. These are unarmed and disarming hosts, for they sing of the glory of God, of which peace on earth is the true manifestation.
Indeed, in the heart of Christ beats the bond of love that unites heaven and earth, Creator and creatures.
Let us, therefore, announce the joy of Christmas, which is a feast of faith, charity, and hope.
It’s a feast of faith, because God becomes man, born of the Virgin. It’s a feast of charity because the gift of the redeeming Son is realized in fraternal self-giving. And it’s a feast of hope because the child Jesus kindles within us, making us messengers of peace.
With these virtues in our hearts, unafraid of the night, we can go forth to meet the dawn of a new day.”