Zephaniah 3:14-18 / Philippians 4:4-7 / Luke 3:10-18
It has been said that when God closes the door, He opens a window.
Whatever we think about that, it somehow sounds rather ridiculous.
It seems that God closes the door that we can walk through and makes us climb in through the window. Just how can God be like that?
Certainly, God is not like that! Because God never shuts a door without opening a few other doors.
God has His reasons for closing a door, but we look so long and so sadly about a closed door without realizing that there are many other open doors.
But of course, an open door is like a mystery. Because between the things that are known and the things that are unknown, there is the door.
We may have this experience of walking through a door and into a room and then we forget why we have come into the room for.
Somehow when walking through the door, something has changed. It’s like we have entered into another dimension or into another domain.
Last Tuesday, on the 8th December, Pope Francis blessed and opened a special door at St. Peter’s Basilica. It is called the Holy Door of Mercy.
And with that he declared the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, as he entered through that door.
On that same day, Archbishop William Goh also blessed the Holy Door of Mercy at the Church of Divine Mercy.
The Pope has also decreed that the following Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, in every diocese, whether at the cathedral or another church of special significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the duration of the Holy Year.
Our parish, the Church of the Sacred Heart, is designated as one of the five churches in Singapore to have the Holy Door of Mercy and a pilgrimage church for the Holy Year.
Today, the main door of the church is blessed and we are called to cross the threshold of the Holy Door.
But the door can only have meaning when we associate the door with Jesus, who is the Door. There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into the life of communion with God, and that is Jesus.
To pass through that door is to profess our belief that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour.
To pass through that door means that it is a decision and a choice to leave the worries and anxieties and our sinfulness behind and to enter into the divine life of God.
Our parish is designated as one of the pilgrimage churches because it is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which represents the love and mercy of God.
And more than that, we pass through the door and into the mystery of the Heart of Jesus.
In other words, we pass through the door and we enter, not just into God’s house; we enter into a divine domain, we enter into the Heart of Jesus who is full of love and mercy.
Love is what God gives us when we don’t deserve it. But because of our sins, we deserve punishment. Yet because God is merciful, He spares us from the punishment due to our sin.
But the mercy of God cannot and should not be taken for granted.
As we heard in the gospel, the people asked John the Baptist, “What must we do?” we too ask the same question – What must we do to ask for God’s mercy?
Now if we want something we never had, then we must be prepared to do something we have never done.
In this Year of Mercy, we cross the threshold of the Holy Door of this church, and we ask for the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as God the Father has been merciful with us.
So we will have to relook at the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which we can find in the pamphlet printed by our parish for the Year of Mercy.
Since we are one of the pilgrimage churches, we must be prepared to provide refreshment and hospitality to the pilgrims who will be coming to our church.
We priests must be prepared to be available to hear confessions and to provide spiritual guidance and healing for those seeking God’s forgiveness.
We must quickly organize ourselves to be of service to those who will be coming to our church to make their pilgrimage.
So in the weeks to come as we plan out what to do as a pilgrimage parish, we will also ask you to come forward to serve so that we can show the face of God’s mercy.
But first and foremost, let us familiarize ourselves with the spiritual program as laid out in the pamphlet.
We ourselves must experience the mercy of God before we can lead others to experience God’s mercy.
Indeed, God has opened the door of mercy for us and inviting us to enter through it and experience mercy and in turn be heralds of God’s mercy.
This is a special year in which the doors of mercy are fully opened to everyone. Let not our sinfulness close these doors.