“For a spiritual leader who denounces a world divided by walls, a Church shuttered by cliques and hearts hardened to compassion, opening wide the Holy Door for the Year of Mercy will be a significant and symbolic moment for Pope Francis.” This quotation is from the Vatican and it is copied verbatim.

In Catholic tradition, the Holy Door represents the passage to salvation – the path to a new and eternal life, which was opened to humanity by Jesus. It also symbolizes an entryway to God’s mercy – the ultimate and supreme act by which He comes to meet people. Mercy is “the bridge that connects God and humanity, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness,” the Pope wrote.

Doors always have had a special meaning for the Catholic Church.  “The door of a Church marks the divide between the sacred and profane, separating the Church’s interior from the outside world. It is the boundary defining welcome and exclusion”. The door also is a symbol of Mary – the mother, the dwelling of the Lord – and she, too, always has open arms and is ready to welcome the children of God home. The door especially represents Christ Himself – the one and only way to eternal life. As Jesus said, according to the Gospel of John (10:9), “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” The Holy Year traditionally begins with the opening of the Holy Door to represent a renewed opportunity to encounter or grow closer to Jesus, who calls everyone to redemption.

Jesus knocks on everyone’s door; he yearns to accompany and nourish everyone. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me,” the Book of Revelation quotes him as saying. But doors are also narrow, Cardinal Noe wrote, and people must stoop with humility and “be brought down to size by conversion” in order to be “fit” for eternal life. That is why passing through a Holy Door is part of a longer process of sacrifice and conversion required for receiving an indulgence granted during a Holy Year.

A plenary indulgence, the remission of temporal punishment due to sin, is offered for pilgrims who also fulfil certain other conditions: Reception of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, visits and prayers for the intention of the Pope and performing simple acts, such as visiting the sick. This spiritual process of encounter and conversion is made tangible in the elaborate rituals developed over time for the opening of the Holy Door.

The symbolic ceremony of opening a Holy Door came more than a century after the first Holy Year was proclaimed in 1300. Some have found meaning in the fact that Jesus had five wounds and St. Peter’s Basilica has five doors. Opening the Holy Door recalls the piercing of Jesus’ side from which poured forth blood and water, the source of regeneration for humanity.

The Holy Door of St. Peter’s, in fact, is decorated with 16 bronze panels depicting the story of Jesus, in His mercy, seeking His lost sheep. The symbolism of the hammer in the hands of the Pope represents the power and jurisdiction God gives him to cast away the stones of sin, chink open hardened hearts and break down walls separating humanity from God. The removal of the wall also conjures up pulling away the stone that sealed the tomb of Lazarus, whom Jesus resurrected from the dead.

For the closing of the door at the end of the Holy Year, the traditional rite included the Pope blessing and spreading the mortar with a special trowel and setting three bricks for the start of a new wall – a symbol of the spiritual rebuilding of the Lord’s house as well as the ever-present human temptation to put up new barriers against God with sin.

While there have been some changes to those ceremonies over time, the Holy Door is always a reminder that because of God’s mercy, any obstacle can always be removed, and the door to hope and forgiveness is always there waiting.

A very important symbolic act performed by each pilgrim has been to pass through the Holy Door.  Christ identified Himself as “the door.”   Jesus said, ‘I am the door’ (John 10:7) in order to make it clear that no one can come to the Father except through Him.  This designation which Jesus applies to Himself testifies to the fact that He alone is the Saviour sent by the Father.  There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into this life of communion with God:  This is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation.  To Him alone can the words of the psalmist be applied in full truth:  ‘This is the door of the Lord where the just may enter’ (Psalm 118:20).”

In opening the door, the Holy Father has traditionally struck the door three times with a silver hammer.  The striking of the door also has symbolic meaning:  Moses struck the rock so that water would pour out miraculously to quench the thirst of the people (Numbers 20:6ff); the Holy Year is a time when God pours forth abundant graces to quench the thirst of our souls. 

God struck the earth to free St. Paul and Silas from prison, which resulted in the jailer and his family asking for baptism (Acts 16:25ff); God has struck our hearts, opening them to His graces, beginning with the saving grace of Baptism.  As our Lord hung upon the cross, the soldier struck His most Sacred Heart, and out flowed blood and water, symbols of the Holy Eucharist and Baptism (John 19:31f) which nourish each of our souls.  In all, the striking of the door symbolizes the release of graces, flowing abundantly to the faithful.

Moreover, when the door opens, the obstacles of passage to our Lord are removed.  During the Holy Year, we hope and pray that the obstacles of personal weakness, temptation, and sin will be removed so that we will have a holy union with our Lord.

The Vatican announced that, for the 2025 Jubilee year — the Jubilee of Hope — five “Holy Doors” will be opened, beginning on Christmas Eve, as Pope Francis opens the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. Peter’s Basilica.   The Holy Door must be extraordinarily important if the Holy Father, the successor of St. Peter, opens it.  The Jubilee of Hope will take place from Dec. 24, 2024 — Christmas Eve — to Jan. 6, 2026, the feast of the Epiphany.

The Holy Doors will be located at the Basilica of St. Peter, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. A fifth door will also be located at a prison, the name of which has not yet been announced. The five Holy Doors were specified by Pope Francis when he officially proclaimed the 2025 Ordinary Jubilee on the feast of the Ascension on May 9. 

John Paul II adds that it is the responsibility of every believer to cross the threshold of this “door.” Why? “To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life (Matthew 13:44-46).”  He also acknowledged that this was the spirit he was going to have as he, the Holy Father, was to be the first to pass through the Holy Door. “Through the holy door … Christ will lead us more deeply into the Church, his Body and his Bride.” 

Over the years, other official references point to scriptural explanations outlining the importance of the Holy Door via Jesus’ messages and titles. 

• “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Luke 11:9). 
• “I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come into you and eat with you, and you with me” (Revelation 3:20). 
• “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved” (John 10:9). 

“The message the Holy Door gives to those who, after reflecting before it, cross the threshold and enter the Basilica, is part of the essence of the Gospel: it is the message of God’s mercy bending over man’s misery”.

In addition, the master of Papal liturgical celebrations has explained how the prayer before opening the door comes from Luke’s Gospel when Jesus proclaims in the Nazareth synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has sent me ... to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.” It “clearly links the Jubilee year to the mystery of Christ made present in the time of the Church.”  For this year, Pope Francis also explained, “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. John 10:7-9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Timothy 1:1).” 

God Bless Nigeria!!!

God Bless the Catholic Church!!!