VATICAN/GENERAL AUDIENCE - From Gemelli Hospital the Pope continues his Magisterium: "The the poor and foreigners are invited among the first to meet God made child"

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – While Pope Francis is being treated for bilateral pneumonia at the Agostino Gemelli Hospital in Rome, the Holy See Press Office has released the text of the catechism prepared by the Holy Father for the general audience of 19 February 2025.

As part of the cycle of catechisms on the life of Jesus, in the catechism published today, after speaking of the birth of the Son of God, the Pope speaks of the visit of the Magi, "people who do not belong to the people of the covenant ". They are "foreigners, who immediately arrive to pay homage to the Son of God who entered into history with an entirely precedented kingship". After the shepherds, then the Magi. From the Gospels it is clear "that the poor and foreigners are invited among the first to meet God made child, the Saviour of the world".

The Magi, as the text says, " are men who do not stay still but, like the great chosen ones of biblical history, feel the need to move, to go forth. They are men who are able to look beyond themselves, who know how to look upwards".

Once they arrive in Jerusalem, "their naivety and trust in asking for information about the newborn king of the Jews clashes with the shrewdness of Herod, who, troubled by the fear of losing his throne, immediately tries to obtain a better view, contacting the scribes and asking them to investigate". In these lines "the earthly ruler thus shows all his weakness". And not just that of the king.

The experts know the Scriptures and refer to the king "the place where, according to Micah’s prophecy, the leader and shepherd of the people of Israel should be born: little Bethlehem, and not great Jerusalem! Indeed, as Paul reminds the Corinthians, “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). The scribes, "who are able to identify the Messiah’s birthplace exactly, show the way to others, but they themselves do not move! Indeed, it is not enough to know the prophetic texts to tune in to the divine frequencies; one must let them to enter within and allow the Word of God to revive the yearning to seek, the kindle to desire to see God".

Herod asks the wise men who have come from far away to inform him when they find the child. The king, however, acts " as do the deceitful and violent" because "for those attached to power, Jesus is not the hope to be welcomed, but a threat to be eliminated!". But as soon as they leave Jerusalem, "the star reappears and leads them to Jesus, the sign that creation and the prophetic word represent the alphabet with which God speaks and lets Himself be found. The sight of the star inspires an irrepressible joy in those men, because the Holy Spirit, who stirs the heart of whoever sincerely seeks God, also fills it with joy".

So they reached the place where the child was and "they prostrate themselves, adore Jesus and offer Him precious gifts, worthy of a king, worthy of God". Pope Francis describes the reason for this gesture by quoting Chromatius of Aquileia, who in commenting on the Gospel of Matthew, about the Magi, writes: they see "a humble little body that the Word has assumed; but the glory of divinity is not hidden from them. They see an infant child; but they worship God".

"The Magi thus become the first believers among the pagans, the image of the Church drawn together from every language and nation. Let us, too, follow in the footsteps of the Magi, these “pilgrims of hope” who, with great courage, turned their steps, hearts and goods towards the One who is the hope not only of Israel but of all peoples. Let us learn to adore God in His smallness, in His kingship that does not crush but rather sets us free and enables us to serve with dignity", the Pontiff concludes. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 19/2/2025)

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