“They are focused on the ego, on its interests, and therefore they are out of breath, they cannot go beyond satisfaction and optimism,” the pope said.
In contrast, Francis said the Christian perspective is characterized by “praise, astonishment and gratitude,” based on the mystery of the Incarnation expressed in an antiphon from the evening liturgy: “O marvelous exchange! The Creator of man became man, born of the Virgin. We have been made partakers of the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
The pope said the Church best learns true Christian gratitude and hope from the Virgin Mary, as she contemplates the newborn Savior.
“The hope of Mary and of the Church is not optimism, it is something else: it is faith in God, faithful to his promises,” Pope Francis said. “This faith takes the form of hope in the dimension of time, one could say, “on the way”. The Christian, like Mary, is a pilgrim of hope.
