By Georgiana Francisco | Correspondent
As the Church’s Jubilee Year of Mercy comes to a close, the Holy Doors in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, also closed along with those in hundreds of churches and basilicas around the world. A Mass to mark the closing of the Holy Door in the Cathedral was celebrated Nov. 13.
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In his homily, Msgr. Joseph L. Roldán, Cathedral rector, likened the Holy Door as a pass way to eternity for those of us on earth. “We never know when our personal door will close,” he said, “and when it does, we hope that we are ready to pass through it.”
Msgr. Roldan went on to say that for Catholic Christians, their reward in heaven will be equal to how they lived their lives on earth. To emphasize his point, Msgr. Roldan shared an anecdote about a priest and a cab driver who both went to heaven. Upon entering heaven, the cab driver got a mansion, the priest a shack. St. Peter said this was because “when people entered the cab, they were put to prayer, but when they went to Mass, they were put to sleep,” Msgr. Roldan related. While Msgr. Roldan’s story brought smiles to the congregation, he said the story, “ tells us that we if we live with kindness, love, generosity, and most of all, mercy, we will be shown mercy when our door is closed.
“Today we close the Door of Mercy, which has been open for the last year offering pilgrims a way to for us to remember to be merciful beyond the end of this Jubilee year,” he said.
After the Mass, Msgr. Roldán led a procession to the Holy Door, where, in a real and symbolic gesture, it was swung shut and the signage designating it as a Holy Door of Mercy was discarded.
The opening of the Holy Door is a symbol for the Church’s faithful who are offered an “extraordinary path” toward salvation during the time of Jubilee. Those who walked through the Holy Door could receive a plenary indulgence.
A member of the Cathedral since 1981, parishioner Gladys Coriano said the Jubilee Year of Mercy made her more aware of showing forgiveness and being more considerate of her neighbors. “Having the Holy Door at our parish was a constant sign of our need to show mercy throughout the past year.”
Geri Delissio, a pilgrim who came from Mount Laurel to pass through the Holy Door, was glad that she had the opportunity to do so prior to its being officially shut. “I wanted to participate in this special Mass held in honor of the closing of the Holy Doors before the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. During the past year, I tried more than usual to show kindness and be more generous to those less fortunate than I and also followed much of what Pope Francis said about being merciful over the past year.”
Pope Francis called this Jubilee Year an “Extraordinary” Jubilee, setting it apart from the ordinary cycle of jubilees, or holy years, which the Church calls every 25 years, in an effort to focus attention on mercy, the theme of this Jubilee year.
At the start of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, during a general audience on Dec. 9 of last year, Pope Francis asked pilgrims, “Why a Jubilee of Mercy? What does this mean?” The answer, he said, is because “the Church needs this extraordinary moment. I’m not (just) saying ‘it’s good,’ no! I’m saying: the Church needs it.”
The year officially ends on Nov. 20, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, when Pope Francis closes the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. It opened on Dec. 8, 2015, which is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.