On the ground floor of the Barberini Palace in Rome, a room contains several crucifixes painted on wood. In some of these 13th century representations, Christ has a suffering face, head bowed, while others show him triumphant, already in glory. These differences illustrate the theological debates of the first centuries of Christianity, to which the pope referred in his first homily of 2025.
Is Christ only man, only God, both, or one then the other?, asked the first Christians, before the great ecumenical councils established, between the 4th and 8th centuries, an orthodoxy . This was recalled on Wednesday 1is January, by Francis, from St. Peter’s Basilica, where eight days earlier he had opened Jubilee 2025.
« Christ Jesus, our Savior, was born of a woman; He is made of flesh and blood; He comes from the bosom of the Father, but He is incarnated in the womb of the Virgin Mary », recalled the pope, on the occasion of the solemnity of Mary mother of God. He had previously warned against the return of certain heresies: “a temptation fascinates many today, (and) could also seduce many Christians: that of imagining or creating an “abstract” God linked to a vague religious idea, to a passing good feeling. On the contrary, Jesus is concrete, he is human, born of a woman. He has a face and a name, and he invites us to have a relationship with him “, he insisted.
Protect life
This humanity of Christ commands man to “ take care of life “, he continued. God’s choice to incarnate in “a defenseless, fragile newborn who needs his mother’s care, needs diapers and milk, caresses and love » commits us to protecting life from start to finish, “ from conception until natural death », Underlined Francis, implicitly recalling his firm condemnation of abortion and euthanasia.
« This new year which is opening, let us therefore entrust it to Mary, Mother of God, so that we learn to take care of (…) life in the maternal womb, the life of children, the life of those who suffer, the life of the poor, the life of the elderly, the lonely, the dying “, he detailed. Francis then referred, at the end of the homily, to the message for the 58e world day for peace, 1is January 2025, made public by the Vatican on December 12.
Three concrete actions for 2025
The Pope asked “three actions” concrete measures for 2025. First, that the external debt of vulnerable and poor countries – the level of which has become astronomical since the Covid-19 epidemic – be forgiven, or even canceled. Francis defends the idea that the forgiveness of this debt is not an act of charity, but of justice. The rich and industrialized countries being the most polluting, they would have developed “an ecological debt” towards poorer countries, explains the Pope, convinced that “external debt has become an instrument of control” and exploitation.
Another concrete action: the Pope calls for the death penalty to be abolished “ in all nations » in 2025. “This practice,not only transgresses the inviolability of life, but also destroys all human hope of forgiveness and renewal,” he writes, without explicit reference to the United States, where Catholic President Joe Biden commuted, on December 23, 2024, the sentences of 37 inmates sentenced to death, a few weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, on January 20, 2025 The latter, on the contrary, assured that death sentences would be increased.
As a third action, the pope put forward the idea that a percentage of the profits of the arms industries be taken to fight world hunger. For several months now, Francis has repeated almost every week his indignation at the colossal enrichment of the arms sector, which has in fact never been doing so well since the Cold War. In 2023, the turnover of the top hundred defense groups increased by 4.2% to reach around 600 billion euros, according to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published on December 2, 2024. .
« I call for a firm commitment to promoting respect for the dignity of human life, from conception to natural death, so that everyone can love their own life and look forward to the future with hope. », concluded the Pope, this 1is January, from the basilica, before joining the nearby Apostolic Palace, for the Angelus.
At the window, above St. Peter’s Square, Francis began by wishing those gathered a Happy New Year. “Today, on this first day of the year, dedicated to peace, let us think of all the mothers who rejoice in their hearts, and of all the mothers whose hearts are full of pain, because their children have been taken away by violence, by pride, by hatred”said the pope who repeated his prayers for Ukraine, Gaza, Israel and Burma.