Bethlehem:

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, celebrated the traditional Christmas Midnight Mass in the Church of St Catherine at the Basilica of the Nativity with mostly Palestinian Christians on hand for the liturgy. The little chapel marking the place where Jesus was born can be found in the Grotto below the Basilica.

The Patriarch started his sermon by making the following observation: Just as Mary and Joseph had no place in Bethlehem, so too does it appear that there is no space for Christmas, joy, or peace today because everyone is affected by the suffering, Israelis and Palestinians alike. “Thousands of people have been deprived of their basic needs; they are hungry, and they are even more exposed to incomprehensible violence. There seems to be no place for them, not only physically, but also in the minds of those who decide the fate of nations. This is the situation in which the Palestinian people have been living for too long,” he said.

"My thoughts are with the two million people living in Gaza," he said. As everyone is now aware, their condition is accurately described by the phrase "there was no room for them." Cardinal Pizzaballa mentioned the suffering of the Palestinians. Even though they are on their land, they are always told that they are unwanted.  He said the Palestinians have been waiting for the world community to come up with measures to end their forced occupation and its effects for decades.

“However, today it seems to me that each of us is entrapped by one’s pain. Hatred, resentment, and the spirit of revenge occupy all the space in our hearts and leave no room for the presence of others. Yet, we need others. Christmas is precisely about this: God making Himself present in a human way and opening our hearts to a new way of looking at the world,” he added.

“Not that the world has always been hospitable to Christ: it isn’t news that the Christian faith and the Christian meaning of Christmas are but a faint memory in today’s secularized and materialistic culture. Yet this year, here and elsewhere in the world, the noise of weapons, the children’s tears, the suffering of the refugees, the cry of the poor, and the grief of so many mourning families, seem to make our songs lose harmony. It seems difficult to rejoice and our words seem empty and void.”

 “Let it be clear: Christ's coming into our world has opened for us and for eternal salvation, which nothing and no one will ever be able to close. The faith, hope, and love of the Church of God are unfailing and solidly rest on the faithful Promise of the Lord. They do not depend on the changing times and the adversity of the circumstances that surround them.”

"May Christ be born again in this land and may the Gospel of peace for the whole world begin again from here," the Patriarch prayed.

“May the fear of night and death be banished from the minds of those who believe in Him, inspiring them to witness and carry out their duty! In the hearts of those who do not yet believe, may He also come again as a yearning for goodness and peace, truth and justice!”

“God always finds room for His Christmas. Even for us, here, today, despite everything, even in these dramatic circumstances, we believe so: God can make room even in the hardest of hearts. The place of Christmas is first and foremost God. Christmas, the Nativity of Christ, is in the beginning, within the merciful Heart of the Father. His infinite and endless love eternally generates the Son and gives Him to us in Time, even in this time. The salvation of man was decided upon in His good and holy will.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him”.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, also attended the Christmas Mass with the Patriarch. The liturgy was attended by about 1,500 people, despite the absence of pilgrims. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who usually attends the Midnight Mass, was not present this year.