Addressing the delegations from Sutrio, Rosello and Guatemala, who have gifted this year’s tree and nativity scenes in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis draws attention to the true meaning of Christmas.
By Lisa Zengarini
VATICAN CITY (3 December) — “To meet God we must reach Him where he is; we need to lower ourselves, to make ourselves small”, like Jesus did by coming to birth in a stable, Pope Francis said on Saturday, as he welcomed three delegations from the Italian villages of Sutrio, in Northern Italy, and Rosello, in the region of Abruzzo, and from Guatemala, who gifted the Vatican with this year’s Christmas tree and two nativity scenes.
The two crèches, installed in St. Peter’s Square and in the Paul VI Audience Hall, will be unveiled this afternoon during the traditional Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in St. Peter’s Square .
Like trees we need roots
After thanking the delegations, and in particular those involved in their making, Pope Francis drew attention to the significance and the symbolism behind the Christmas Tree and crib.
“The tree, with its lights”, he said, reminds us of Jesus who comes to illuminate our darkness, our existence often locked up in the shadow of sin, fear and pain”. But it also suggests the idea that, like trees we need roots, “solid foundations” to remain firm, grow and resist the winds of life. It is therefore important “to cherish the roots, in life as in faith”, Pope Francis stressed.
Jesus’ littleness
He then reflected on the the significance of the crib, which “speaks to us of the birth of the Son of God who became Man to be close to each one of us”.
In its genuine poverty, the Pope said, the nativity scene helps us to rediscover “the true richness of Christmas”, a different Christmas “from the consumerist and commercial one”. It helps us “to become intimate with God, with the fragile simplicity of a small newborn, with the meekness of his being laid down, with the tender affection of the swaddling clothes that surround him”.
The Pope therefore encourged to “rediscover the surprise and amazement of littleness through the nativity scene, the littleness of God, who makes himself small, who is not born in the splendor of appearances, but in the poverty of a stable”.
