Pope Francis’s general audience on Wednesday, December 30^th focused on the Child Jesus and what he teaches us about God’s humility. “This is a great mystery, God is humble! It is we who are proud, filled with vanity… we are nothing! He, the great, is humble and is made a child. This is a real mystery! God is humble. This is beautiful!”

The childhood of God must have a “special meaning for our faith,” said the pope. While we do not have much evidence from Scripture about Jesus’ childhood, the pope said that we can learn through watching children today, as parents and grandparents do. “We find out, first of all, that children want our attention…Because they need to feel protected,” the Holy Father said. And thus we must put Jesus at the center and protect Him. “He wishes to be in our arms, wishes to be cared for and to be able to fix his gaze on us.” The pope also said to “make Baby Jesus smile by demonstrating to him our love and joy because He is in our midst.”

Pope Francis spoke of the playfulness of children and the necessity for adults to allow them to direct the play. Similarly, he said, with Jesus we must abandon our own “pretense of autonomy” and serve him in those before us. The pope told the crowd, “It will be a good thing, today, when we go home, go near the crib and kiss the Baby Jesus and say, ‘Jesus, I want to be humble like you, humble like God,’ and ask Him for this grace.”

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