Fr. Fintan Lyons. This morning shortly after 9, the great double door of St Paul’s Basilica in Rome, was pushed open by the Archpriest of the Basilica, Cardinal Harvey, in the last of the symbolic acts initiating the Holy Year 2025. The Holy Year tradition is based on an Old Testament practice described in the book of Leviticus 25:10: ‘Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee’. In the Old Testament it was realised that things could come to a breaking point in people’s lives and God in his mercy would intervene.
The year of jubilee was revived in 1300, and in the course of the centuries the interval was changed to 25 years. In 1300, as now, the Jubilee began with the opening of the door of St Peter’s so that pilgrims could come seeking the mercy of God, it was an era when human misery was seen as the result of universal sinfulness, and hope for the future was grounded in being freed from sin. In addition to the spiritual benefits, the hardships involved in many pilgrimages can have a transformative effect on a pilgrim’s lifestyle.
Besides Rome, there are many other places of pilgrimage and Ireland has its quota; Jerusalem would be the ideal destination but for many centuries it has been accessible only on an individual basis and the holy places are not accessible at all at present..
There is a special significance about today’s ceremony at St Paul’s, because Pope Francis, in the document inaugurating the year, quoted extensively from St Paul – his Letter to the Romans – and used four words from it as the theme for the year: ‘Hope does not disappoint.’
Overall, this Jubilee year, is meant to encourage us at a time when everywhere, you can say, there is foreboding about what the year holds in store. In the Old Testament the nature of the jubilee was legislated for, it brought remission of debts, the liberation of prisoners.
Today the pope can only make an appeal regarding prisoners in the world’s overcrowded jails or countries sunk under the weight of debt:
I propose that in this Jubilee Year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society; and programmes of reintegration in the community.
Pope Francis actually and very symbolically pushed open the door of one of Rome’s prisons the day after Christmas.
How does this opening of the door touch the lives of all of us? For some, life can be experienced as a door closed against fulfilment – the way forward in a career blocked, a relationship aspired to denied, being held in the grip of addiction. Pope Francis acknowledges this when he says: ‘uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt.’
Is it really helpful then, to continue the quotation from St Paul, ‘Hope does not disappoint’ to its conclusion – ‘the love of God has been poured into our hearts’, because today many have no sense of this inpouring of God’s love? Or if the passage in the second reading doesn’t seem to apply: ‘God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created.’
But in fact, there is hope for all, though many today may not experience the power of the traditional Irish conviction: Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras. Instead of our having to knock we have only to open, because in the Book of Revelation Jesus says: ‘I am standing at the door, knocking. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in and share a meal with them’. In the gospels this is what Jesus actually did, with the marginalised of society.
The initiative has always come from God, it is for us to open the door of our hearts. The door of the church here is open, encouraging all to enter and open our hearts to an encounter with God’s grace – of forgiveness, of healing, of encouragement, of faith itself, whatever our need is.