The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said Christmas is not an escape from history but a call to responsibility, urging believers to confront war, political power, and human suffering.
In his homily during the 2025 Midnight Mass in Bethlehem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa grounded the Nativity in concrete political realities, beginning with the Gospel account of the census ordered by Caesar Augustus.
“The Gospel we have just heard opens with sober and precise words, ‘In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole world,’” he said.
Luke’s framing, the patriarch noted, shows that Jesus’ birth unfolds within a history shaped by political decisions and power.
“As then, history today is marked by decrees, political decisions, balances of power that often seem to determine the destiny of peoples,” he said, adding that in the Holy Land “the choices of the powerful have concrete consequences on the lives of millions of people.”
Pizzaballa said the Gospel reveals a God who does not avoid such realities. “God does not create a parallel history,” he said. “He does not enter the world when everything is finally ordered and pacified. He enters real, concrete, sometimes harsh history and makes it His own from within.”
Contrasting imperial authority with divine action, he said, “The empire issues decrees, but God gives a Son,” underscoring that God works through ordinary events rather than displays of force.
“This contrast is not only to move us, but to convert us,” he said, describing Christmas as “not a spiritual shelter that removes us from the strain of the present time” but “a school of responsibility.”
Reflecting on the angels’ proclamation of peace, the patriarch warned against reducing it to political stability or negotiated balance. “It is not a mere equilibrium or the result of fragile agreements,” he said. “It is the fruit of God’s presence in history.”
Peace, he added, is both gift and task. “God plays His part to the end,” he said, but “peace becomes real only if it finds hearts willing to welcome it and hands ready to keep it safe.”
Speaking from the context of the Holy Land, Pizzaballa acknowledged the deep wounds left by years of conflict. “We come from years of great hardship, in which war, violence, hunger and destruction have deeply marked the lives of so many, especially the little ones,” he said.
He stressed that such suffering is not inevitable. “The difficult situations of this time are not the result of destiny, but of political choices, of human responsibilities, and of decisions that often put the interests of a few before the good of all,” he said.
Despite ongoing hardship, including in Gaza, the patriarch pointed to resilience among affected communities. Recalling his encounters with families living amid devastation, he said he was struck by “their strength and desire to start over, their ability to rejoice again, their determination to rebuild devastated lives from scratch.”
“They remind us how we too are called to stand within our own history,” he said, calling for “itineraries of justice and reconciliation, which heed the cry of the poor, so that peace may not only be a dream, but a concrete commitment and responsibility for all.”
Pizzaballa urged believers not to withdraw from the world’s complexity. “Tonight’s Gospel also challenges us… not to remain neutral,” he said, adding that “the world’s night may be deep, but it is not definitive.”
“In this holy night, the Church proclaims that hope has not been disappointed,” he said. “God has entered our history and has not left.”
