ROME, Italy — Pope Francis noted Monday that Christmas is followed by several feasts of early Christian martyrs, providing a healthy antidote to the superficiality that sometimes marks the season.
Surprisingly, these days “commemorate some dramatic figures of martyr saints,” the pontiff said during his midday Angelus message in Saint Peter’s Square. “Today, for example, Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr; the day after tomorrow, the Holy Innocents, the children killed by King Herod for fear that Jesus would take away his throne.”
The Christian liturgy “really seems to want to steer us away from the world of lights, lunches and gifts in which we might indulge somewhat in these days,” he added.
The reason for this, Francis continued, is that “Christmas is not the fairy tale of the birth of a king, but it is the coming of the Savior, who frees us from evil by taking upon himself our evil: selfishness, sin, death.”
“This is our evil: the selfishness we carry within us, sin, because we are all sinners, and death,” he declared.
The pope went on to note that the martyrs themselves are those who are most similar to Jesus, because they offered him the supreme witness of their blood.
Even in our day, “martyrs are numerous, more so than in the early times,” he said. “Today let us pray for these persecuted martyr brothers and sisters, who bear witness to Christ.”
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