Rome (Italy). On 24 December 2024, on Christmas night, Pope Francis initiated the Jubilee Year and was the first to walk through the Holy Door. After knocking three times, following the ritual, the imposing doors opened and, sitting in his wheelchair, the Pontiff remained in the doorway of St Peter’s Basilica in silence, absorbed in prayer, in the penumbra. These images are full of meaning that have reached the world and touched the souls of the faithful who were about to live this special year in the sign of hope.
“Sisters and brothers, with the opening of the Holy Door we have begun a new Jubilee. Each one of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of grace. This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world. This is the night when God says to each one, there is hope also for you! There is hope for each one of us. But do not forget, sisters and brothers, that God forgives everything, God always forgives. Do not forget this, which is a way of understanding hope in the Lord.
To receive this gift, we are called to set out with the amazement of the shepherds of Bethlehem. The Gospel says that they, having received the angel’s announcement, “went without delay” (Lk 2:16). This is the indication to rediscover lost hope, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world; without delay”, are the words that preceded the opening.
“Without delay” Mother Chiara Cazzuola and the General Councilors of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, on 26 December 2024, “Pilgrims of Hope”, set out to reach and cross the Holy Door in their turn. One of the Councilors’ recounts:
“A beautiful sunset descends on the Tiber bridge in Rome. The wonderful profile of Castel Sant’Angelo stands out in the sky. We are coming together as a community; we want to live this unique experience together.
Other people join our group. Mother Chiara receives the jubilee cross and precedes us on the way. We begin our pilgrimage along the wide Viale della Conciliazione, a group of volunteers guides us.
Our voices in prayer follow the slow rhythm of our journey. Psalms, litanies of the Saints… prepare us for arrival in St. Peter’s Square. And before that, a stop in front of the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, whose doors are open. This allows us to ‘look’ at the Virgin and “let ourselves be looked at” by Her. Her Presence blesses us.
Everything speaks to us of our ecclesial identity. We are the people of God on the way. The people, who are on both sides of our procession, look at us and contemplate. I wonder what this gesture means to them. Will they live it as an invitation to join us, to be part of our pilgrimage?
The sun is setting and the cold is more felt on our face. But what matters is that our hearts burn with joy because we are entering the central square, a universal space where all ecclesial paths converge. It is the Mother Church that welcomes “everyone”, ” everyone “, ” everyone “.
The beads of the rosary slip between our fingers and help us to contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation so close to us. We climb the central stairs in pairs. And there, wide open, is the Holy Door!
I lean my forehead on it. It is the very Presence of Jesus that embraces me and welcomes me with all my reality, as I am. Kissing it, I kiss Jesus on the Cross, who saves and redeems me, who embraces and frees all humankind, of all times.
I have not come alone to this Door. I carry on my shoulders many who suffer from hunger, disease, violence, abuse, indifference, outrage, marginalization, exile, despair, emptiness, loneliness, insanity, lack of love… All of them pass with me. Those I love and those for whom I pray without knowing them.
I renew my Baptism. It is a call to conversion and to be a new creature and a happy daughter of God. Together we entered the Basilica and together, approaching the tomb of Peter, we professed our Creed.
Every word expresses the confession of our faith, the faith that unites us to the heart of Pope Francis that vibrates with the same beat; the faith of generations of Christians and ‘next door Saints’, of martyrs of yesterday and today, of many who are persecuted and tortured for professing Jesus. This is the faith that we renew, which urges us to recognize ourselves in our dignity as sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of all, heirs of the Kingdom by the pure and infinite Mercy of God.
It is Mercy that comes to meet us at the door of reconciliation. How much grace from God is at hand, even if we do not deserve it. Let us receive forgiveness and let this purification of God renew our whole life.
It is the Father who takes the initiative, lifts us up with His embrace, and returns our full smile. It is the Son who seeks us, looks at us tenderly, calls us by name, and sends us. It is the Spirit who breaks into us, transforms and recreates us in His own way. It is the Love of God that dwells in us and makes us new.
The night passed quickly and we departed from there with a light and an inner force that overflowed in us, contagioned by the deep joy that nothing and nobody can take away. We feel recreated by the Creator God who is all Love, pilgrims and prophets of the hope that does not disappoint, because that Hope is Jesus, our only meaning.”
