What is a Holy Door?
Yesterday,(Gaudete Sunday), the young people of St. Ninian’s took part in the opening of the Holy Door at St. Mirin’s Cathedral, Paisley. The most distinctive feature in the ceremonial of the opening of the Jubilee Year is the unwalling of the Holy Door. ‘The Holy Door is opened to evoke the concept of forgiveness. According to “Mondo Vaticano,” a mini-encyclopaedia published by the Vatican, the designation of a Holy Door may trace back to the ancient Christian practice of public penitence when sinners were given public penances to perform before receiving absolution. The penitents were not allowed to enter a church before completing the penance, but they were solemnly welcomed back in when their penance was fulfilled. Still today, Holy Year pilgrims enter the basilicas in Rome through the Holy Door as a sign of their repentance and recommitment o a life of faith.
The ritual for opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica goes back to 1499 when Pope Alexander VI opened the door on Christmas Eve to inaugurate the Holy Year 1500. This was when the door was wooden. The bronze door panels that stand at St. Peter’s today, made by Vico Consorti, were consecrated and first opened Dec. 24, 1949, by Pius XII in proclamation of the 1950 Jubilee, a scene represented in the bottom right panel.’
What does it mean to go through a Holy Door?
A very important symbolic act performed by each pilgrim has been to pass through the Holy Door. Christ identified Himself as “the door.” The Holy Door “… evokes the passage from sin to grace which every Christian is called to accomplish. Jesus said, ‘I am the door’ (Jn 10:7) in order to make it clear that no one can come to the Father except through Him. This designation, which Jesus applies to Himself, testifies to the fact that He alone is the Saviour sent by the Father.
There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into this life of communion with God: This is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation. To Him alone can the words of the psalmist be applied in full truth: This is the door of the Lord where the just may enter” (Ps 118:20).’
Therefore to pass through a Holy Door is to pass from this world into the presence of God, just as in the old Temple of Jerusalem, the High Priest on the Feast of Yom Kippur passed through the door of the Holy of Holies to enter into the presence of God to offer the sacrifice of atonement.
Moreover, to pass through the door is to confess with firm conviction that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Lord and the Saviour who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation.
With great courage, a person freely decides to cross the threshold leaving behind the kingdom of this world so as to enter the new life of grace of the Kingdom of God. The Holy Year is a time when God pours forth abundant graces to quench the thirst of our souls. It is a time when the people seek to grow in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
