Today, we bring our holy season of Christmas to a close with our celebration of
the Baptism of the Lord. We
all know about the Sacrament of Baptism, the primary sacrament of initiation
and the gateway into our Catholic faith. When
I was going through the RCIA process prior to becoming Catholic, I remember
pondering the significance of Jesus’ baptism. Since
John the Baptist was calling the people of Ancient Israel to be baptized and to
repent for their sins and to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Yet,
Jesus himself was the promised one whose path John the Baptist prepared. Jesus, indeed, had no sins to repent
from. Nevertheless, Jesus comes to the waters of the Jordan River to be baptized. Jesus’ baptism shows his solidarity with sinful humanity. Jesus
reveals himself as part of the unity of the Holy Trinity, as the voice of the
Father comes from the heavens to proclaim Jesus as his son, as the Holy Spirit
descends as a dove to bless this event. As we
celebrated the Good News of Jesus being announced to the world in the visit of
the Magi to Jesus and the Holy Family, as we celebrate the graces we receive
from God through Jesus and through the waters of our baptism, we continue to
learn about what the Christmas miracle is all about.
Jesus, God made flesh, brought into the world into the humble manger in
Bethlehem, is the door through which we enter our life of faith. I
thought about the beautiful new doors that we put up in our church here in
Tupelo last spring. We had
several parishioners who dreamed of putting these beautiful new doors up in our
church. I am amazed as to what a
difference they make.
Several years ago Pope Benedict XVI issued
the apostolic letter entitled Porta Fidei – The Door of Faith. Pope Benedict
explained that the door of faith is always open for us, ushering us into the life
of communion we have with God and offering us entry into his Church. We
cross the threshold of the door of faith when the word of God is proclaimed to
us and when our hearts allow us to be shaped by God’s transforming grace. To
enter into the Door of Faith, to receive new life in Christ through the waters
of baptism, we enter into a journey that is to last a lifetime.
This links us to the Year of Mercy that we
celebrate this year in our Catholic faith as declared by Pope Francis. The
Year of Mercy started with an open door as well - a very special open door. There is a Holy Door at St Peter
Basilica in Rome. It had been enclosed
by a brick wall since the last Jubilee Year in the 2000. Workers removed the wall brick by brick. The
doors are only opened during jubilee years so that pilgrims can enter through
them in order to gain the plenary indulgence connected with the jubilee. The rite of the opening of the Holy Door is
intended to symbolically illustrate the idea that the Church’s faithful are
offered an “extraordinary path” toward salvation during the time of jubilee. We
also have a special Jubilee Door in our cathedral in Jackson that will have a
special significance for the faithful in our diocese this year to which we can
go on pilgrimage. Think
of the symbolism of a door, of how when the obstacles of passage to our Lord are
removed. During this Holy Year of Mercy, we hope and pray that the obstacles of personal
weakness, temptation, and sin will be removed so that we will have a holy union
with our Lord. As the workers chipped at those bricks that enclosed that door, removing them brick by brick, we are to chip away at all those things that keep the Door of Father closed to us.
Pope
Francis, reflecting on the meaning of the Holy Door, stated that “it's a door
that opens in the Church in order to reach out to those who for many reasons
are far away.” The
Pope invites families to open their doors “to meet Jesus, who waits for us
patiently, and wants to bring us his blessing and friendship.” The
Pope asserts: A non-welcoming Church or a family closed in on itself would be a
terrible reality that goes against the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and makes
the world more empty and dry. During this Year of Mercy, we are encouraged to be merciful like the
Father. We are to make sacrifices and to
go out of the way to perform works of mercy and to reach out to others. We
are going to have a lot of different opportunities to do this here at St
James. And I encourage all the different
groups and ministries within our parish to reach out to others in our parish
and in our community in works of mercy. We
all know those who we don’t see at mass or who have perhaps have lapsed away
from the Catholic faith. How wonderful
it would be to reach out to those families in this special Year of Mercy. May the
Door of Faith and the permanent transformation we have within us from the
waters of our baptism help us to re-energize us in our life of faith and to be
merciful like the Father.
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