Vatican City, 19 December 2015 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis another Holy Door, that was not
however located in a church or cathedral. It was the entrance to the
Caritas hostel at Termini Station, Rome, where the frailest members
of society receive welcome and assistance. This door, in the hostel
named after its founder Don Luigi Di Liegro, is now called the Door
of Charity and, passing through it, the Pope entered the refectory
dedicated to St. John Paul II, where he was awaited by two hundred
men and women, accompanied by the volunteers from the Centre. He
celebrated Holy Mass and pronounced a homily in which he reaffirmed
that power is not the path of salvation and the Heaven cannot be
bought with money.
“God comes to save us, and He finds
no better way to do so than to walk with us, to make our life His”,
said Francis.”And the moment of choosing the path, He did not
choose a great city of a great empire; He did not choose as a mother
a princess, a countess, an important person; He did not choose a
luxurious mansion. It seems that all of this was done intentionally
almost in secret. Mary was a girl aged just sixteen or seventeen, in
a remote village in the outskirts of the Roman Empire, that nobody
knew of. Joseph was boy who loved her and who wished to marry her, a
carpenter who worked for a living. In total simplicity … And when
he repudiated her – because they were engaged, and in such a small
village, you know how gossip circulates. All in secret, in spite of
slander and gossip. And Joseph realised that she was pregnant, but he
was righteous. All hidden, despite the slander and gossip. And the
Angel explains the mystery to Joseph: “'This Son that your fiancee
carries in her womb is the work of God, the work of the Holy Spirit.
When Joseph awoke from his dream, he did what the Angel of the Lord
had ordered him to do: he went to Mary and took her as his wife. But
all in secret, all humbly. The great cities of the world knew nothing
of this. In this way God came in our midst. If you want to find God,
seek in in humility, in poverty, look for Him where He is hidden: in
those most in need, in the sick, the hungry, the imprisoned”.
“When Jesus speaks about life, He
also tells us know we will be judged. He will not say, come to me
because you … are a benefactor of the Church. … No. You do not
pay your way to Heaven. He will not say, you are very important, you
have studied a lot and have many honours, come to Heaven. No. Honours
do not open the door to Heaven. What will Jesus say to open to us the
door to Heaven? 'For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty
and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was
naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in
prison and you came to me'. Jesus is in humility”.
“Jesus' love is great”, the Pope
exclaimed. “Therefore today as I open this door, I would like the
Holy Spirit to open the heart of all Romans, and let them see the way
to salvation! It is not luxury, it is not the way of great riches, it
is not the route of power. It is the road of humility. The poorest,
the sick, the imprisoned – Jesus says even more – the greatest
sinners, if they repent, will precede us in Heaven. They have the
key. He who acts in charity is the one who allows himself to be
embraced by God's mercy”.
“Today we open this Door and we ask
for two things. First, that the Lord open the door of our heart. We
are all in need of this as we are all sinners; we all need to hear
the Word of the Lord. … Second, may the Lord help us understand
that the path of presumptuousness, the road of wealth, the road of
vanity, the road of pride, are not roads to salvation. May the Lord
let us understand that in His caress as a Father, there is His mercy,
His forgiveness, and when we draw close to those who suffer, those
who are discarded by society: there we find Jesus. This Door, that is
the Door of Charity, the Door where may people are helped, many who
are discarded, shows us that it would be good if all of us, all
Romans, to know what it means to be discarded, and to feel the need
for God's help. Today let us pray for Rome, for all the inhabitants
of Rome, starting with me, that the Lord may give us the grace to
feel discarded, that we have no worth; only He can give us mercy and
grace. To approach that grace we must draw closer to the rejected,
the poor, those who are most in need, because it is on this closeness
that we will be judged”.
May the Lord today, opening this door,
give this grace to all of Rome, to every inhabitant of Rome, so as to
move forward in that embrace of mercy, in which the father takes his
wounded son, but the wounded one is the father: God is wounded by
love, and for this reason He is able to save all of us. May the Lord
grant us this grace”.
After the Mass, the Pope greeted the
participants and commented that Christmas is drawing hear and the
Lord is now close. “But when he was born, in that manger, no-one
realised that He was God. This Christmas, I would like the Lord to be
born in the heart of every one of us … hidden, as if nobody knew
it, but He was there. This is what I would like, this close of the
Lord. Pray for me, and I will pray for you”.
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