Credit: Vatican Media
CV NEWS FEED // During the celebration of Christmas Eve Mass at the Basilica of St. Peter, Pope Francis proclaimed, “This is the season of hope in which we are invited to rediscover the joy of meeting the Lord.”
Before the evening Mass, from outside the Basilica, Pope Francis knocked four times on the Holy Door. After it swung open, the bells tolled, and the Pontiff was wheeled across the threshold as the choir began the entrance hymn.
The Holy Door, a special entrance in each major Roman Basilica that is opened only during Jubilee years, represents Jesus, who described himself in the Gospel of John: “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.”
“An angel of the Lord, bathed in light, illuminates the night and brings glad tidings to the shepherds,” Pope Francis said at the start of his homily. “Sisters and brothers, this is our hope. God is Emmanuel, God-with-us. The infinitely great has made himself tiny; divine light has shone amid the darkness of our world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth.”
With the opening of the Holy Door, the Pope explained, “we have inaugurated a new Jubilee, and each of us can enter into the mystery of this extraordinary event. Tonight, the door of hope has opened wide to the world.”
The Pontiff emphasized that, like the shepherds in Bethlehem, “with haste, we too are called to recover lost hope, to renew that hope in our hearts, and to sow seeds of hope amid the bleakness of our time and our world.”
“Christian hope,” he highlighted, “is not a cinematic ‘happy ending’ which we passively await, but rather, a promise, the Lord’s promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs.”
Centering his homily on the meaning of Christian hope, Pope Francis explained, “Hope is incompatible with the detachment of those who refuse to speak out against evil and the injustices perpetrated at the expense of the poor.”
“Christian hope, on the other hand, while inviting us to wait patiently for the Kingdom to grow and spread, also requires of us, even now, to be bold, responsible, and compassionate in our anticipation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise,” he added.
“Sisters and brothers, this is the Jubilee. This is the season of hope in which we are invited to rediscover the joy of meeting the Lord,” the Pope reiterated.
He concluded his homily with a message: “Dear sister, dear brother, on this night, the ‘holy door’ of God’s heart lies open before you. Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And remember that with him, joy flourishes; with him, life changes; with him, hope does not disappoint.”
Walking through the Holy Door during a Jubilee year is a traditional expression of faith in Christ that dates back to the 13th century. To Catholics, walking through any designated Holy Door during the Jubilee grants a plenary indulgence—the removal of all temporal punishment for sins that have already been forgiven.
In the United States, the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., has been designated as a point of pilgrimage.
Nevertheless, a significant number of Catholics around the world aspire to cross the Holy Doors of the four major Roman Basilicas: St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major, and St. John Lateran. Rome is expected to receive some 35 million pilgrims during the year.
