1965 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

POPE PAUL VI



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/1965christmasmespaul



December 23, 1965

Xo all our sons, to the whole of our beloved and holy Church,

spread throughout the world and gathered together in the same

communion of faith and charity!

To all our Christian brethren, whom we ever look forward to

being able to greet in a perfect sharing of the same admirable

communion!

To all men on earth!

To you we send our greetings for Christmas.

The most sincere and cordial good wishes to be found in our

heart are for you! We raise our voice in greeting in order to be

heard by each one of you; may our greeting have the earnestness

and value necessary to be pleasing and beneficial to you. There

is no room in the Christian celebration for half-hearted sentiments.

We allow our heart to be filled with the spirit of Christmas in

order to convey to you not only our humble expression of love but

also that immense and indescribable gift which is part of the very

mystery of Christmas itself, the mystery of divine light and grace.

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To be understood right off, we say that we consider Christmas

as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the

decisive encounter between God and mankind. He who has faith

knows this truth; let him rejoice. Everyone else should give thought

to it and reflect upon it.

We still hear within us the moving words of the sacred Advent

liturgy which present Christmas to us precisely as the terminal

points of two long and quite different journeys which come to-

gether and meet: the mysterious journey of God, who makes the

unfathomable descent from His transcendency; finally issues from

the ever more luminous cloud of the prophecies; approaches our

world, our history, in a new and supernatural way; and at last in

the unexpected lowliness of Bethlehem and in the shining purity

of Mary reaches our earthly shore; He becomes man; He is Christ.

But the other journey, our journey, is tortuous and exhausting. Of

itself it is without any precise goal, but then later it is directed

toward a vague and consuming hope, a hope superior to our

natural strength, the hope of arriving at God, the hope of discover-

ing Him in His humanity, the hope of meeting Him, like the

meeting of a wayfaring pilgrim on a pathway, of a known friend,

of a blood brother, of a teacher speaking one’s own language, of a

liberator who can accomplish everything, of a saviour

Listen to the words of the liturgy: “Looking from afar, be-

hold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering all the

earth. Set out to meet Him and say to Him: tell us if you are He

who is to be King . . (Responsory of the first lesson of Matins

of the first Sunday of Advent). How many are the things we could

say about these historical and spiritual journeys, which have been

traced for us in the Old Testament! And also how much concern-

ing the various ways in which this marvelous encounter is still

realized spiritually! We would first of all have to describe the

scenes of the Gospel, and comment without end on their meaning,

their value as examples, on the definitive language employed, on

their perennial and universal significance.

We all know that that encounter of God with mankind was

more than an outward passing contact, it was nothing less than a

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union, a living abiding union of the divine with the human nature,

a substantial union, hypostatic as the Fathers of our faith termed

it; a union whereby the Word of God in His infinite and eternal

Person made His own the human nature conceived in the pure

womb of the Virgin Mary, becoming in this way the man Jesus

Christ, true God and true man. As man He was born, lived,

taught, suffered, died and rose, without ceasing to be the God that

He was, but becoming the man we know, becoming one of us.

Christmas, then, is the memory of this encounter, and this

encounter must not cease. This thought of ours is strengthened by

the reflection that something of the encounter in Christ between

God and human nature seems to be achieved in the event, recently

concluded, that we have celebrated in these last years, the Second

Vatican Council. The Council too has been an encounter, a twofold

encounter of the Church with herself and with the world.

In the Council the Church’s encounter with herself was in fact

achieved and without doubt it was great and beneficial. We could

dwell on the external aspect of the event: It has been of no little

significance that all the pastors of the great Catholic family met,

came to know and love one another, and that not merely on a

spiritual level but also on the experiential level of seeing and greet-

ing one another, conversing and praying together, feeling a greater

love for one another. What could be more Christian than this

encounter?

But now our thought goes deeper, to the meaning and the

effectiveness of the Council. We said that the Church has had an
encounter with herself: her own faith, her teaching, her constancy,

her mission, her apostolic and missionary vigor, her richness in

wisdom and grace, her capacity to draw forth new treasures from

her unexhausted store, her anxiety to understand, serve and save

the world.

The Church, then, has encountered in this act of reflection,

not herself alone but Christ whom she carries with her; she has felt

herself once more imbued, inebriated, we might say, and exalted,

by her engagement of loyalty to His Word and His will; she has felt

the Spirit of God glowing fresh within her, the Gospel message

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springing anew to her lips and the need to make new its preaching

for her own sake and the world’s.

From this the Church has become young again. She has ex-

perienced her rebirth. Let us keep before our minds, brothers, this

wondrous new encounter that the Council has obtained for her with

Christ. And let us remember: The Church can today celebrate

again a new Christmas not by indulging the mistaken aggiorna-

mento already deplored by our venerated predecessor John XXIII

(Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1962, p. 675), not seeking to absorb the

spirit of the time or putting her trust in the weak ideologies of the

secular world or bearing with some view of historical fatalism, not

being satisfied with some practical treatment of a few secondary

norms of canon law, but seeking to find Christ afresh in herself,

and to encounter Him with greater awareness.

And now the encounter of the Church with the world:

This aspect of the Ecumenical Council was apparent to all.

The Church in a sense came out of herself and went to meet the

men of our time, living in a world of tremendous and bewildering

progress. The Church took into consideration the ever-increasing

demands of a great part of the world’s population. One of these

demands is for more food—physical and spiritual—for a hungry
world. Having chosen the approach of an all-embracing pastoral

charity, the Council could not have done otherwise.

The dominant mood of the Council was inspired by the GospeL

image of the shepherd setting out in pursuit of the lost sheep,

allowing himself no peace until he has found it. The awareness

that mankind, all of mankind, represented with touching simplicity

by the straying sheep, belongs to the Church, was the guiding prin-

ciple of the Council, for mankind—by a universally valid divine
decree—does belong to the Church.

The Church gained a new insight into the tremendous exigen-

cies involved in the term “catholic,” which is her real distinguishing

mark; that is to say, she realized once more that her mission, her

responsibility and her love can know no bounds.

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For this reason the Church calls mankind hers. She calls it

hers out of a sense of obligation which can permit of no weakening

and which quietly and heroically makes light of every difficulty;

mankind belongs to her by right of love, since the Church, no

matter how distant or uncooperative or hostile mankind may be,

can never be excused from loving the human race for which Christ

shed His blood. Mankind is hers also by a certain historical kin-

ship: For was it not the Church that was responsible in great

measure for the growth of that civilization which men today find

to be truly authentic and strive to make their own? Mankind be-

longs to the Church by reason of a mysterious hope which is

nourished by important events and movements apparent in the

world today, such as the quest for truth and liberty, progress along

the path of unity from which there can be no turning back, the

need for brotherliness and peace—all these are goods which only
in the light of the Gospel can achieve perfect fulfilment.

The Church of the Council therefore seeks opportunities for

contact with the world. She who always jealously guarded what in

ancient times was known as the discipline of the secret began to

welcome those responsible for the gathering and dissemination of

news, inviting them to see and speak for themselves, and even

furnishing them with information. And that was not all. The

Church of the Council brought about a meeting which had not

occurred for centuries and seemed unlikely ever to occur: Humbly

and cordially she invited Christian brethren separated from com-

munion with her for a long time to draw near to her in order to

repair, at least in its human and most basic lines, the torn garment

of unity, and to encourage mutual knowledge, respect and trust

and the beginnings of a dialogue. And then there are the peoples

of the whole world with whom the Church wishes to establish

contact.

At this point we cannot refrain from mentioning our journey

to New York in response to an invitation to address the United

Nations Assembly, and the extraordinary encounter between our

humble person and the representatives of the nations gathered

there. It was an encounter that seems to us to have been signifi-

cant both historically and symbolically. For it certainly gave ex-

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pression to one of the principal aims of the Council: the bringing to

the peoples of the world the message of friendship and of peace. It

was an occasion which we will always remember for its enormous

significance, and we would like to take advantage of this festive

season to repeat once more to those who invited us there and so

kindly received us, the tribute of our sincere appreciation. We

would like also to renew to that assembly and to each of its mem-

bers the desire we expressed for peace. We wish to greet once

again the people of the United States whom we then had the honor

and the joy of encountering.

Here lies the first task involved in the presence of the Church

which goes in search of men—her role as messenger of peace.
This, too, springs from the very nature of things. Is not peace the

first greeting that is given in the name of Christ—as He Himself
gave it after His resurrection: “Peace to you”? And is not the

first contribution which the Church can offer, from her position in

the midst of the world, to give, promote and teach peace? Peace

is, in fact, the first and chief good of any society. It is based on

justice, freedom and order; it opens the way to every other value

in human life.

And so now, at this very moment, we are making a new plea

for peace—and this, not simply because peace is a good thing in
itself, but also because it is a good which is in such danger today.

Fresh schemes, which the tragic experiences of the last war

had given rise to, are now joined by old and deep-rooted national-

istic tendencies, along with newer ideologies of subversion and

domination. Arms, ever more powerful and dreadful, become, as

it were, the only guarantee of a treacherous and precarious peace,

to the detriment of a sense of justice and human brotherhood

among peoples.

Brothers, do heed the message of peace which Christmas

brings to men who even now are the object of God’s love. Check

the way things are going. It is possible that you are on the wrong

track. Stop and think. True wisdom is to be found in peace; and

true peace is to be found in the alliance of love.

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No one ought to restrict love to peace within the limits of

self-interest or one’s own ambition. No one ought to set about

disturbing the peace of others by means of underhanded schemes

and contrived disorder. No one ought to force his neighbor—and
today we are all neighbors—to resort to armed defense. And no
one ought to shirk just and sincere negotiation to restore order and

friendship.

Peace needs to be built on a courageous revision of the in-

adequate ideology of egoism, strife and national superiority. We

need to know how to forgive and begin again, so that the relation-

ships between men will not be determined by power and force, nor

simply by economic gain or the state of civic development; but by

a higher concept of equality and solidarity, which, in the long run,

only the fatherliness of God, manifested in Christ, reveals as

logical, easy and worthwhile.

We propose these weighty thoughts single-mindedly and

humbly—because, brothers, this is another facet of the meeting
which the Church of the Council offers to the world. She knows

how to carry a treasure of infinite value—a treasure of truth and
salvation; and this inspires her to meet with you.

But keep one thing in mind: She does not come to you out of

pride, or to win any special privilege for herself. She is not push-

ing herself into the limelight. She willingly recognizes, encourages

and blesses the great values of your culture and your progress. She

has no ambition either for power or for wealth. The only thing she

asks is freedom for her inner faith, and freedom to give witness

outwardly. But she does not impose herself on anybody, preferring

that the ultimate responsibility and the decisive choice of the con-

science—even in the case of religious truth—should be respected
and safeguarded.

The meeting of the Church with the world of today has been

described in the wonderful pages of the final constitution that

came from the Council. Every intelligent person, every serious-

minded man, should be familiar with those pages. Indeed those

pages manifest the Church in the midst of contemporary life, but

not in order to reduce society to submission, nor to upset the inde-

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pendent and upright development of its activities, but rather to

lend it enlightenment, support, and consolation.

In our opinion these pages mark the point of encounter be-

tween Christ and modern man: For the contemporary world they

form the Christmas message for this year of grace. We recall them

here to document the substance of our greeting, which is not a

matter of words and sentiments, but rather the Christian offering

of positive, disinterested service for the peace and prosperity of

humanity and for its hope in the transcendent destiny of salvation

and of happiness, a destiny which has been opened to men by the

very Christ whose humble and glorious birth we celebrate.

Brothers, sons, and all men of good will, in the name of Christ

our Lord we offer you our best wishes for a merry Christmas, and

with them our apostolic blessing.

(Cover: The Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli. Courtesy of the

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

(Translation provided by NCWC News Service)

Catholic Conference

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