Holy Door of Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls opened

Holy Door of Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls opened


On the eve of the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, the second Sunday after Christmas, Cardinal James Harvey, archpriest of the papal basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, opens the Holy Door by crossing the threshold of the basilica at the same time as the jubilee anthem sounded. He says the Church invites each pilgrim “to undertake a spiritual journey in the footsteps of faith.”

By Amédée Lomonaco

“I was happy when they said to me: “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Our feet stand within your gates, O Jerusalem. The words of the Psalmist and the sound of the horn accompanied the rite of opening the last open Holy Door, found in the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, presided over on Sunday January 5 by Cardinal Archpriest James Michael Harvey.

The sequence of moments and images echoes what has already been experienced at the start of the Jubilee of Hope, starting with St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome’s Rebibbia prison and the Basilicas of St. John Lateran and Saint Mary Major. The gaze of the faithful, before entering the basilica which houses the relics of the Apostle of the Gentiles, was turned towards the cross at the top of the tympanum of the mosaic facade. Under this symbol of life overcoming death and sin are two Latin words: “Spes unica”, words which express the certainty that Christ is the hope, the door to enter the Kingdom of God.

Opening of the Holy Door

In the Basilica of Saint Paul, located on Via Ostiense, in the district of the same name, near the left bank of the Tiber and a few kilometers from the place where the Apostle suffered martyrdom, the rite of opening the Door Saint was marked by prayer. . Cardinal Harvey approached the Holy Door, on the right side of the facade, made in bronze with bas-reliefs representing significant episodes in the life of Saint Paul. He then opened the door to a silent prayer from the faithful. The ringing of the Basilica bells preceded the following moments.

Cardinal Harvey crossed the threshold as the Jubilee anthem sounded. The procession, which was also joined by members of the monastic community of Saint Paul outside the walls, headed towards the altar of confession. The cardinal archpriest, accompanied, among others, by Mgr Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and organizer of the Jubilee, walked through the nave of the basilica. The Eucharistic celebration brought together more than 2,800 people.

Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls

Highlights of the opening of the Holy Door and the mass at Saint Paul outside the walls

Joy and hope

Faithful and pilgrims listened to the passage from the Gospel of John on the incarnation of the Word “come to dwell among us”. In his homily, Cardinal Harvey insisted on the opening of the Holy Door, “an act as simple as it is evocative.” “We crossed the threshold of the sacred temple with immense joy, because in a symbolic way, we crossed the door of hope.” He highlighted two key words of the Holy Year: joy and hope. “Joy,” said Cardinal Harvey, “because the Savior has been born; hope because Christ is our hope. »

Forgiveness and mercy

Joy, “the right feeling for the gift of Redemption in Jesus Christ,” unites the times experienced by the Church and the people of God in this present moment, he observed. The joy of Christmas is in fact accompanied this year by the Jubilee, a journey which finds in forgiveness the star of all the steps we take. “The opening of the Holy Door,” he continued in his homily, “marks the salvific passage opened by Christ through his incarnation, his death and his resurrection, calling all members of the Church to reconcile with God and with each other.

Crossing the threshold of the Holy Door with faith means entering “the time of mercy and forgiveness, so that… the path of hope that does not disappoint is open to every woman and every man.” He stressed “how much we need hope right now! In this post-pandemic period, unfortunately scarred by tragedies, wars and crises of all kinds, hope, although undoubtedly linked to the future is also lived in the present.

Pilgrims of hope

He recalled the catechesis of Pope Francis during a recent general audience when he stressed that hope “is not an empty word, nor a vague wish on our part that things turn out for the best”; on the contrary, “hope is a certainty, because it is based on God’s fidelity to his promises.”

Hope should not be seen as “a passive virtue,” he continued, a time of “just waiting for things to happen.” It is in reality, as the Pope underlines in his catechesis, “a supremely active virtue which helps to make things happen”.

The Jubilee of 2025, like every Holy Year, asks us to become pilgrims, Cardinal Harvey concluded, and this implies “feeling part of a community which, for two thousand years, has traveled the roads of this world, proclaiming the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. “The Church invites each pilgrim “to undertake a spiritual journey in the footsteps of faith”. He prayed “that the Holy Spirit…accompanies our steps in this pilgrimage of faith, firm in the hope which does not disappoint not”.

Full video of the mass at Saint Paul outside the walls



sc

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *