OSV News illustration/Crosiers

The Peace and All Good Column

Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., is the seventh Archbishop of Atlanta. In “Peace and All Good,” he shares pastoral reflections.

At Christmas, the church does not merely recall a beautiful story from long ago; she proclaims a living mystery. God has drawn near. The eternal Word has taken flesh. Love itself has entered history through the quiet vulnerability of a child laid in a manger. 

In his apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”), Pope Leo XIV reminds us that “the Incarnation is not an idea to be contemplated from afar, but a love that seeks closeness, a God who desires to be touched by our poverty.” Christmas reveals the astonishing humility of God, who chooses not power or spectacle, but tenderness and nearness. The Holy Father continues: “In Bethlehem, the Lord entrusts himself to human hands, so that every human heart might learn again how to receive and how to love.”  

This is the heart of Christmas: to receive love so freely given, and to allow that love to transform us. 

This mystery was captured with particular clarity by St. Francis of Assisi. In the year 1223, in the small town of Greccio, Francis desired to help the people see with their own eyes what the Son of God chose for our sake. He arranged a simple scene: a manger, hay, an ox, a donkey and the proclamation of the Gospel. There was no statue of the Child—only the empty manger—so that Christ might be born anew in the hearts of those who gathered. 

St. Francis wanted people to be moved, not to sentimentality but to conversion. He wanted them to grasp, as Pope Leo XIV writes in “Dilexi Te,” that “the love revealed in the Child of Bethlehem unsettles us, because it asks not to be admired but to be welcomed.” The manger confronts us with a question: will we make room for him? 

The manger also points us unmistakably toward the poor. Christ is born without shelter, dependent upon the generosity of others. The Holy Father insists: “There is no true devotion to the Incarnate Lord that does not pass through concrete love for the least.”  

To kneel before the Child of Bethlehem while ignoring the poor, the migrant, the elderly, or the unborn, is to misunderstand the Gospel. At Christmas, we are invited to recognize the face of Christ in those who live on the margins and to allow our charity to become intentional, sacrificial and enduring. 

In a world marked by conflict, violence and deep division, the child in the manger also comes as the Prince of Peace. The angels’ song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” is not a naïve dream but a divine promise. Pope Leo writes: “Peace is born where hearts are disarmed by mercy and nations remember that power is given for service, not domination.” 

Christmas calls each of us, in our families, parishes and communities, to be artisans of peace: to renounce hatred, to seek reconciliation and to refuse the logic of indifference. 

As families set up nativity scenes in their homes and churches, we are continuing the legacy of St. Francis. These simple displays preach a profound sermon. They remind us that God is found not only in the extraordinary but in the ordinary rhythms of family life, in the poor, in the forgotten and in the quiet acts of faithfulness that mark daily discipleship. 

Christmas is also a call to mission. The Holy Father writes: “Those who have encountered the humility of God can no longer live for themselves alone; they become witnesses of a love that bends down to raise others up.” 

To celebrate Christmas authentically means to let Christ be born again through works of mercy, reconciliation and hope—especially toward those who feel there is no room for them. 

Dear friends, may this holy season renew our wonder before the mystery of Emmanuel, God-with-us. Like Mary, may we ponder these things in our hearts. Like Joseph, may we respond with quiet obedience. And like St. Francis, may we rejoice in the poverty and joy of the manger, allowing it to shape the way we live, love and work for peace.  

May this Christmas fill your hearts with the warmth of love, the joy of hope and the peace that surpasses all understanding.