Pope: “In the light of Christmas, let us continue to pray for peace”
On the feast of the Holy Family, Leo XIV recited the Angelus from the Apostolic Palace. He invited everyone to pray “for families suffering because of war”. In his commentary on the Gospel, he said that the family of Nazareth was God's “nest and cradle” in a “despotic world”. On today's ‘Herods’: ‘Let us not allow them to suffocate the flame of love in Christian families.’
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - ‘In the light of the Lord's Christmas, let us continue to pray for peace.’ At noon today, the last Sunday of 2025, Leo XIV recited the Angelus before the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, still enveloped in the Christmas spirit. On the feast day of the Holy Family of Nazareth, from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope asked for prayers, entrusting himself to their intercession ‘for families suffering because of war, for children, the elderly, and the most vulnerable’.
In his commentary on the Word of the Day (Mt 2:13-15, 19-23) that preceded the Marian prayer, the Pope emphasised the ‘mortal threat’ that originated with Herod and cast a shadow over the ‘bright picture of Christmas’. Herod the Great (c. 73 BC - c. 4 BC) was ‘a cruel and bloodthirsty man, feared for his brutality,’ and at the same time ‘lonely and obsessed with the fear of being deposed,’ Prevost said. He ordered the massacre of the innocents because he felt ‘threatened in his power.’
In his kingdom, in fact, God was performing ‘the greatest miracle in history,’ but he could not see it because he was ‘blinded by the fear of losing his throne, his riches, his privileges.’ Meanwhile, in Bethlehem - as the evangelist Luke recalled in the Christmas liturgy - ‘there is light, there is joy: some shepherds received the heavenly announcement and glorified God before the manger.’ And all this in the royal palace sounds like ‘a threat.’
The ‘hardness of heart’ of the ruler of Judea highlights ‘the value of the presence and mission of the Holy Family’. It is, ‘in the despotic and greedy world that the tyrant represents, the nest and cradle of the only possible answer of salvation: that of God,’ continued Leo XIV. The ‘flight into Egypt’ represents a ‘moment of trial.’ It is Joseph's response to the voice of the Lord, who ‘brings the Bride and the Child to safety.’ ‘The flame of domestic love to which the Lord has entrusted his presence in the world grows and gains strength to bring light to the whole world.’
Starting from the witness of the Holy Family, the Pope invited us to look at ‘our families, and the light that can also come from them to the society in which we live.’ Even today, the world is populated by its ‘Herods.’ ‘Its myths of success at any cost, of unscrupulous power, of empty and superficial well-being, and often pays the consequences in loneliness, despair, divisions and conflicts,’ he explained. ‘Let us not allow these mirages to suffocate the flame of love in Christian families.’
Instead, Leo XIV suggested that we preserve in them ‘the values of the Gospel: prayer, attendance at the sacraments [...] healthy affections, sincere dialogue, fidelity, the simple and beautiful concreteness of everyday words and good deeds.’ So that they may truly become ‘a light of hope for the environments in which we live, a school of love and an instrument of salvation in the hands of God,’ he said.
.png)
