Acknowledging our sins with their “name and surname” helps us to “prepare for Christmas with great faith”, because “great faith is needed for the healing of our souls, the existential healing, the re-creation that leads us to Christ”. Pope Francis said this in the homily of the Mass he celebrated at Santa Marta today. “Being transformed – he reiterated – this is the grace of health that leads to Jesus”. We should overcome the temptation of saying “I cannot do this”; instead, we should let ourselves be “transformed” and “re-created by Jesus”. “Take courage” is the word of God: “We are all sinners, but look at the root of your sin and let the Lord go there and re-create it; and that bitter root will bloom, it will bloom with works of justice; and you will be a new man, a new woman. But if we think: “Yes, of course, I have sinned, I go to confession… a few words, and then I keep on like this…’, then I do not allow myself to be re-created by the Lord. We think, just a few brushstrokes and that is the end of the story! No! My sins, with name and surname: I have done this, and that, and that, and I am ashamed in my heart! And I open my heart: ‘Lord, my only Lord. Re-create me! Re-create me!’ And then we will have the courage to head towards Christmas with true faith”. According to the Pope, we always “seek to conceal the gravity of our sins”. When we underestimate envy, for instance. But – Pope Francis remarked – “that is a very bad thing! It is like the poison of a snake” that tries to “destroy the other!”. Hence, for the Pope, we are all called to “go to the root of our sins, and then entrust them to the Lord, so that He may cancel them and help us to move forward in the faith”. Then Pope Francis went on to tell the anecdote of a saint, “a scholar of the Bible, who was too strong a character, quick-tempered, and was constantly asking the Lord to forgive him, with much sacrifice and penance. “The saint would say to the Lord: ‘Are you happy, Lord?’ – ‘No!’ – ‘But I have given you everything!’ – ‘No, there is something missing – ‘But what is missing, Lord?’ – Your sins are missing! Give me your sins!’. This is what the Lord asks of us today: ‘Do not be afraid! Give me your sins and I will make of you a new man, a new woman’. May the Lord give us the faith to believe this”.