We are now over a month into this Jubilee Year of Grace and Hope. The holy doors of each of the major basilicas in Rome are open and every arch/diocese across the world celebrated opening Masses in the Christmas season.
I arrived in Rome on Sunday for a series of meetings this week. During some free time I visited St. Peter’s Basilica and made my ‘pilgrimage’ through the holy door, carrying with me all those entrusted to my pastoral care. Entering a holy door is a moment of grace and meant to renew one’s desire to walk in holiness. The door represents a passage into the presence of God, into heaven itself. This is what a life journey is, a walking towards eternity with God. The words from today’s Mass capture this sentiment well:
“you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and god the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
(Hebrews 12:22-24)
After passing through the holy door, I had enough time to also visit the Adoration Chapel for a moment of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and by God’s providence, a priest was also hearing confessions in English, so I was able to enjoy the beauty of the sacrament of Reconciliation, which as Pope Francis stated in the Papal Bull of Indiction: “is the essential starting-point of any true journey of conversion.” (Spes Non Confundit, Number 5)
I had a profound moment of grace to experience the very presence; the person of Christ, working through his Church, to renew and console me. The moment was truly a renewal of hope for me. I cannot quite express this in all its completeness, but want to remind everyone that Christ is present and active through the Church in a profoundly personal way. Our entire life-journey of faith is to grow in awareness of this nearness of Christ and all that the Holy Spirit is constantly doing to form us more fully and perfectly into Christ’s body.
I’ll simply close this post with a quote once again from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 1-5
Renewed by Christ through his Church, we go into the world to share our faith and hope with others.
