“What does God want to tell us here?”: Nuncio in Kenya Says Christmas Night Reveals God Who Enters Africa’s History

Archbishop Hubertus van Megen during the Episcopal Consecration and Installation of Bishop Peter Kimani Ndung’u as Local Ordinary of Embu Diocese in Kenya. Credit: Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

“These inventions changed the course of humanity and are still changing it. Other inventions will follow, of which we do not know yet, which will put humanity on a new course, different from anything we know,” he said.

The birth of Jesus, the representative of the Holy Father in Kenya said, belongs to that category of decisive moments, comparable to inventions and events that redirected the course of humanity.

Credit: Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

Drawing from the Gospel Reading of Christmas Night Mass, he recalled that Jesus Christ was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus, a ruler celebrated in his time as “venerable,” even divine, hailed as “savior” who brought “good news” through the Pax Romana.

The Roman Empire, Archbishop van Megan noted, had achieved unprecedented reach and organization, stretching into North and East Africa, facilitating trade, communication and relative peace. An ancient inscription even proclaimed that “the birthday of this God (Caesar Augustus) brought good news to the world. With his birthday a new time began,” he said.

Credit: Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

Yet it was precisely within this imperial order that God acted in an unexpected way. “It is in that Pax Romana,” the Apostolic Nuncio said, “where the world is ruled by a venerable Ruler, a God-like Emperor, who is the Savior, whose birthday is celebrated all over the world, that a couple moves to Bethlehem.”

Joseph and Mary, themselves of royal descent through the house of David, travelled not in triumph but in obedience to an imperial decree, he narrated during his December 24 night homily.

The Dutch-born Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya following his appointment in February 2019 emphasized a truth that seems to resonate with African realities: powerful rulers rarely grasp how their decisions affect ordinary people.

Credit: ACI Africa

“The great of this earth have no idea how their decisions and laws affect the little men and women of the street,” he said.

Leaders may invoke “mwananchi” (Kiswahi for ordinary citizen) and celebrate the “hustlers” (in Kenya, an enterprising person who is determined to succeed and "makes things happen" through hard work, often against significant odds in a challenging economy) during campaigns, only to forget them once in power, Archbishop van Megen said, adding, “It is the little man or woman of the street who will suffer most.”

Yet even these flawed structures, he stressed, were mysteriously used by God. “You might even say that God used Caesar Augustus so as to guide the history of humanity towards the birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem,” he observed.

Referring to the decisive Nativity of Jesus Christ, Archbishop van Megen noted that while the emperor celebrated in Rome, “a new emperor was born in a stable in Bethlehem,” an event Augustus never knew had been shaped, in part, by his own policies.

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Explaining the contrast, the representative of the Holy Father in Kenya said that the child born in Bethlehem directly challenged imperial ideas of power and salvation. “He would be called Son of God, the same way as the emperor was called Divi Filius, ‘the divine son’, but this infant was born in a stable and not in a palace. He was truly the child of a hustler’s couple, of mwananchi,” he said about the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel scene of angels announcing the birth to shepherds further underlined this reversal, Archbishop van Megen said, and quoting Luke’s Gospel passage for Christmas Night Mass, recalled, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

For the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya, this heavenly proclamation carried a clear message: “Glory pertains to God in the highest. God, the King of the Universe, is the only venerable, the only one worthy of adoration.”

For Africa, a continent that knows both the promises and disappointments of political power, the Apostolic Nuncio’s words carried particular weight. True peace, he insisted, “does not come from alliances with the emperor but from adoring God in justice and truth.” While poets once claimed that a new era began with Augustus, “now with the Child Jesus the world started all over again.”

Reflecting on the calendar itself, the Nuncio reminded the faithful: “We live in the year of the Lord 2025, moving into 2026. A new era started.” Christmas, he said, invites believers to pause in the “silent night” and contemplate a God who “enters in our history into our poverty.”

Turning the focus inward, he urged Catholics to read their own lives through this lens of providence. “Tonight, we may look into our personal history and see how God set the beacons for us so as to meet Him in our lives,” he said, encouraging gratitude for both joyful and painful events, all held “within divine providence.”

Credit: ACI Africa

Standing at the altar of the Carmelite sisters, the Nuncio returned to his central question: “What does God want to tell us here, what does he want to show us?” His answer lay in the humble manger of Bethlehem and in the call articulated by St Paul: a grace that trains believers “to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world,” while awaiting Christ, “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As Africa moves into a new year marked by uncertainty and hope, the Nuncio concluded with a prayer that echoed across the continent: “May this Christmas truly be a blessed Christmas. May He be our Savior who brings good news to all people of goodwill.”