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Catholic World News News Feature

Avoid materialism, hypocrisy at Christmas, Pope says December 10, 2007

At his public audience on Sunday, December 9, Pope Benedict XVI challenged Christians to use the season of Advent "to prepare the way for the coming Lord in the deserts of today-- internal and external deserts, thirsting for the water of life which is Christ."

Citing the day's Gospel reading, the Holy Father said that St. John the Baptist "continues to speak down the centuries, to each new generation." With his "hard clear words," he said, the prophet calls all believers to honest repentance.

The call to conversion is particularly timely today, the Pope continued, when "even the experience and perception of Christmas often, unfortunately, reflects materialist attitudes." The faithful must avoid the traps of a consumer culture, he said.

Similarly, the Pope continued, Christians should guard against the same hypocrisy that St. John the Baptist exposed: "the hypocrisy of those who felt secure for the simple fact that they belonged to the Chosen People." No one can take salvation for granted, he said, and "no one has the right to boast, but must bear fruit worthy of repentance."

Pope Benedict asked his audience to consider that at the time of death, "we will be evaluated on the basis of our likeness or otherwise to the Baby Who is about to be born in the poor grotto of Bethlehem, because He is the measure God has given humanity."