GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS 18 NOVEMBER 2015
GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Wednesday,
18 November 2015
Family - 33. The welcoming door
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
With this reflection we arrive at the
threshold of the Jubilee, it’s close. The door is before us, not just the Holy
Door, but another: the great door of the Mercy of God — and that is a beautiful
door! — which embraces our penance, offering the grace of his forgiveness. The
door is generously open, it takes a little courage on our part to cross the
threshold. Each of us has burdensome things within ourselves. We are all
sinners! Let us take advantage of this coming moment and cross the threshold of
this mercy of God who never tires of forgiving, never tires of waiting for us!
He watches us, he is always beside us. Take heart! Let us enter through this
door!
From the Synod of Bishops, which we
celebrated in the month of October, all families and the entire Church received
great encouragement to meet at the threshold of this open door. The Church was
encouraged to open her doors, to go out with the Lord to meet her sons and
daughters on the path, at times uncertain, at times dismayed, in these
difficult times. Christian families in particular were encouraged to open the
door to the Lord who is waiting to enter, bringing his blessing and his
friendship. And as the door of God’s mercy is always open, so too must the
doors of our churches, our communities, our parishes, our institutions, our
dioceses, be open, because this is how we can all go out to bring this mercy of
God. The Jubilee signifies the great door of the mercy of God but also the
small doors of our churches, open to allow the entrance of the Lord — or often
the exit of the Lord — who is a prisoner of our structures, of our selfishness
and of so many things.
The Lord never forces the door open; he
too asks permission to enter. The Book of Revelation says: “I stand at the door
and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and eat with him, and he with me” (3:20). Let us imagine the Lord knocking at
the door of our heart! In the last great vision of the Book of Revelation, the
City of God is prophesied like this: “its gates shall never be shut by day”,
which means for ever, because “there shall be no night there” (21:25). There
are places in the world in which doors are not locked, there still are. But
there are so many where armoured doors have become the norm. We must not give
in to the idea that we must apply this system to our whole life, to the life of
the family, of this city, of society, much less to the life of the Church. That
would be terrible! An inhospitable Church, like a family closed off within
itself, mortifies the Gospel and withers the world. No armoured doors in the
Church, none! Completely open!
The symbolic management of “doors” — of
thresholds, of passages, of borders — has become crucial. The door must
protect, of course, but not reject. The door must not be forced but on the
contrary, one asks permission, because hospitality shines in the freedom of
welcoming, and dims in the arrogance of invasion. The door is frequently
opened, in order to see if there is someone waiting outside, perhaps without
the courage nor, perhaps, the strength to knock. How many people have lost
faith, do not have the courage to knock at the door of our Christian heart, at
the doors of our churches.... And they are there, they don’t have the courage,
we have taken away trust: please, may this never happen. A door says many
things about the house, and also about the Church. Tending the door requires
careful discernment and, at the same time, must inspire great faith. I would
like to pay a word of gratitude to all porters: of our condominiums, of civil
institutions, of the Churches themselves. Often a porter’s acumen and courtesy
can offer an image of humanity and of welcome to the entire house, right from
the entrance. There is something to be learned from these men and women, who are
watchmen at the places of encounter and welcome in the city of man! To all of
you watchmen of so many doors, be they residential doors or church doors, many
thanks! Always with a smile, always demonstrating the acceptance of that house,
of that Church, so people feel happy and welcomed in that place.
In truth, we are well aware that we too
are watchmen and servants of the Door of God, and what is the name of the door
of God? Jesus! He lights up all of life’s doors for us, including those of our
birth and of our death. He himself affirmed it: “I am the door; if any one
enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (Jn
10:9). Jesus is the door that lets us go in and out. Because God’s sheepfold is
a refuge, it isn’t a prison! The house of God is a refuge, it isn’t a prison,
and the door is called Jesus! If the door is closed, we say: “Lord, open the
door!”. Jesus is the door and lets us go in and out. Those who try to avoid the
door are thieves: it’s curious, thieves always try to enter by another way, by
the window, by the roof, but they avoid the door, because they have evil
intentions, and they sneak into the sheepfold in order to deceive the sheep and
take advantage of them. We must enter through the door and listen to Jesus’ voice:
if we hear the tone of his voice, we are certain, we are saved. We can go in
without fear and go out without danger. In this beautiful discourse Jesus also
speaks of the gatekeeper, whose task is opening to the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn
10:2). If the gatekeeper hears the Shepherd’s voice, he opens and lets in all
of the sheep that the Shepherd brings, all of them, including those lost in the
wood, whom the Good Shepherd went to get back. The sheep are not chosen by the
gatekeeper, they are not chosen by the parish secretary or parish
administrator; the sheep are all called, they are chosen by the Good Shepherd.
The gatekeeper — he too — obeys the Shepherd’s voice. Thus, we can well say
that we must be like that gatekeeper. The Church is the gatekeeper of the house
of the Lord, she is not the proprietor of the Lord’s house.
The Holy Family of Nazareth knows just
what an open or closed door means, for those expecting a child, for those who
have no shelter, for those who need to escape danger. Christian families make
the threshold of their homes a great sign of the Door of the mercy and welcome
of God. It is precisely how the Church will have to be recognized, in every
corner of the earth: as the watchman of a God who knocks, as the welcome of a
God who does not close the door in your face with the excuse that you are not
part of the household. With this spirit let us approach the Jubilee: there will
be the Holy Door, but there is the door of the great mercy of God. May there
also be the door of our heart for all to receive God’s forgiveness and to give,
in our turn, our forgiveness, welcoming all those who knock at our door.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including those from England and the
United States of America. My special greeting goes to the El Shaddai prayer
fellowship and the orthopaedic surgeons of the Ivins Society. Upon you and your
families I invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace. God bless you all!
On this day, on which we are celebrating
the Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts Peter and Paul, I hope for everyone that
the visit to the Tombs of the Apostles may strengthen the joy of the faith.
I address a special thought to young
people, to the sick and to newlyweds. Dear young
people and students, especially from Afragola and Rome, may the
witness of the Apostles, who left everything to follow Jesus, spark within you
the desire to love him with all your might and to follow him; dear sick
people, may the glorious suffering of Sts Peter and Paul give comfort and
hope to your offering; dear newlyweds, may your houses be temples
of that Love from which no one can ever be separated.
APPEALS
The day after tomorrow is International
Children’s Rights Day. It is everyone’s duty to protect children and to place
their good before all other criteria, so they may never be subjected to forms
of slavery and mistreatment nor to forms of exploitation. I hope that the
International Community may carefully watch over the living conditions of
children, especially where they are exposed to recruitment by armed groups;
likewise may it help families to guarantee to every boy and girl the right to
school and to education.
* * *
Then on 21 November, the Church remembers
the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple. On this occasion let
us thank the Lord for the gift of the vocation of men and women who, in
monasteries and hermitages, have dedicated their life to God. So that
cloistered communities may fulfil their important mission, in prayer and
laborious silence, may our spiritual and material closeness never be lacking.
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