TODAY'S CONNECTION

This "connection" came to me this morning as I was praying.  The connection is between the Jubilee Year and the Visitation.  Just as Elizabeth stood before Mary before the birth of their children, our Holy Father Pope Francis stood before the Holy Door and prayed before opening it.

How his heart must have been leaping for joy!  There would have been the immediate anticipation of the moment, couple with the hopes for the year.  He must have felt the weight of the door somehow reflected the weight of his responsibility.  He must have been aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit as the Mercy of God in Christ Jesus was being proclaimed and celebrated in this simple act of opening a door.

I know I feel like Elizabeth as I watched that historic moment on Dec. 8th.

Here is what Pope Francis had to say:

In a few moments I will have the joy

of opening the Holy Door of Mercy.

We carry out this act – as I did in Bangui –

so simple yet so highly symbolic,

in the light of the word of God

which we have just heard.

That word highlights the primacy of grace.

Again and again these readings

make us think of the words

by which the angel Gabriel

told an astonished young girl

of the mystery

which was about to enfold her:

“Hail, full of grace” (Lk 1:28).

The Virgin Mary was called to rejoice above all

because of what the Lord accomplished in her.

God’s grace enfolded her and made her worthy

of becoming the Mother of Christ.

When Gabriel entered her home,

even the most profound and impenetrable of mysteries

became for her a cause for joy, a cause for faith,

a cause for abandonment to the message revealed to her.

The fullness of grace can transform the human heart

and enable it to do something so great

as to change the course of human history.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception
expresses the grandeur of God’s love.

Not only does he forgive sin,

but in Mary he even averts the original sin

present in every man and woman

who comes into this world.

This is the love of God which precedes,

anticipates and saves.

The beginning of the history of sin

in the Garden of Eden

yields to a plan of saving love.

The words of Genesis reflect

our own daily experience:

we are constantly tempted to disobedience,

a disobedience expressed in wanting

to go about our lives

without regard for God’s will.

This is the enmity which keeps striking

at people’s lives,

setting them in opposition to God’s plan.

Yet the history of sin can only be understood

in the light of God’s love and forgiveness.

Sin can only be understood in this light.

Were sin the only thing that mattered,

we would be the most desperate of creatures.

But the promised triumph of Christ’s love

enfolds everything in the Father’s mercy.

The word of God which we have just heard

leaves no doubt about this.

The Immaculate Virgin stands before us

as a privileged witness of this promise and its fulfilment.

This Extraordinary Year is itself a gift of grace.

To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover

the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone

and goes out personally to encounter each of them.

It is he who seeks us!

It is he who comes to encounter us!

This will be a year in which

we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy.

How much wrong we do to God and his grace

when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment

before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy

(cf. Saint Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, 12, 24)!

But that is the truth.

We have to put mercy before judgment,

and in any event God’s judgement

will always be in the light of his mercy.

In passing through the Holy Door, then,

may we feel that we ourselves are part

of this mystery

of love,

of tenderness.

Let us set aside all fear and dread,

for these do not befit men and women who are loved.

Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering

that grace which transforms all things.

Today, here in Rome

and in all the dioceses of the world,

as we pass through the Holy Door,

we also want to remember another door,

which fifty years ago

the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council

opened to the world.

This anniversary cannot be remembered

only for the legacy of the Council’s documents,

which testify to a great advance in faith.

Before all else, the Council was an encounter.

A genuine encounter between the Church

and the men and women of our time.

An encounter marked by the power of the Spirit,

who impelled the Church to emerge from the shoals

which for years had kept her self-enclosed

so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm,

on her missionary journey.

It was the resumption of a journey

of encountering people where they live:

in their cities and homes, in their workplaces.

Wherever there are people,

the Church is called to reach out to them

and to bring the joy of the Gospel,

and the mercy and forgiveness of God.

After these decades, we again take up

this missionary drive with the same power and enthusiasm.

The Jubilee challenges us to this openness,

and demands that we not neglect

the spirit which emerged from Vatican II,

the spirit of the Samaritan,

as Blessed Paul VI expressed it

at the conclusion of the Council.

May our passing through the Holy Door today

commit us to making our own

the mercy of the Good Samaritan.