‘Born in the night is the One who redeems us from the night,’ Pope preaches on Christmas night

December 25, 2025

Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass of Christmas night in St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 PM last evening and preached that Christ’s nativity is the light that illumines human darkness (booklet, video).

Before Mass began, Pope Leo greeted those who were outside and unable to enter the full basilica. “Thank you so much for being here tonight, even in this weather,” he said. “We want to celebrate Christmas together. Jesus Christ, who was born for us, brings us peace and God’s love.”

In his homily, Pope Leo preached that “for millennia, across the earth, peoples have gazed up at the sky” and have “tried to read the future in the heavens, seeking on high for a truth that was absent below.” However, they “remained lost, confounded by their own oracles. On this night, however, ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined’ (Is 9:2).”

“Into time and space—in our midst—comes the One without whom we would not exist,” the Pope continued. “Born in the night is the One who redeems us from the night. The hint of the dawning day is no longer to be sought in the distant reaches of the cosmos, but by bending low, in the stable nearby.”

Thus, “the need for care and warmth becomes divine since the Son of the Father shares in history with all his brothers and sisters. The divine light radiating from this Child helps us to recognize humanity in every new life.”

After citing the last Christmas homily of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Leo preached that “there is no room for God if there is no room for the human person. To refuse one is to refuse the other. Yet, where there is room for the human person, there is room for God; even a stable can become more sacred than a temple, and the womb of the Virgin Mary become the Ark of the New Covenant.”

The Pope added:

Let us marvel, dear brothers and sisters, at the wisdom of Christmas. In the Child Jesus, God gives the world a new life: his own, offered for all. He does not give us a clever solution to every problem, but a love story that draws us in ... Will this love be enough to change our history? The answer will come as soon as we wake up from a deadly night into the light of new life, and, like the shepherds, contemplate the Child Jesus.

After citing the last Christmas homily of Pope Francis, with which the jubilee year began, Pope Leo preached that “now, as the Jubilee draws to a close, Christmas becomes for us a time of gratitude and mission; gratitude for the gift received, and mission to bear witness to it before the world. As the Psalmist sings: ‘Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all the peoples’ (Ps 96:2–3).”

Pope Leo concluded:

Brothers and sisters, contemplation of the Word made flesh awakens in the whole Church a new and true proclamation. Let us therefore announce the joy of Christmas, which is a feast of faith, charity and hope. It is a feast of faith, because God becomes man, born of the Virgin. It is a feast of charity, because the gift of the redeeming Son is realized in fraternal self-giving. It is a feast of hope, because the Child Jesus kindles it within us, making us messengers of peace. With these virtues in our hearts, unafraid of the night, we can go forth to meet the dawn of a new day.

 

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Further information:

• Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord - Midnight Mass (Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana)