BLOG

The word “door” is not strange to us; both the rich and the poor have in homes irrespective of the esthetic difference. The door is the rightful way into a house compared to the window. When one passes through it, they are either going in or out; it separates two “worlds,”; the inner and the outer worlds. The door of mercy leads you not just into the Church but into the mystery of God’s love and mercy.

The holy father declared this year (2016) the jubilee year of mercy. It is the year we especially celebrate the mercy of God; it is a call to be merciful and to be open to mercy.

Pope Francis calls on the Church to symbolically pass through the door of mercy in our various local Churches into the merciful heart of Jesus Christ. Passing through the door should transform us spiritually to be united to Christ in repentance and faith. The door is not opened for us to go out of mercy but to go into mercy; it is an invitation to dwell in Christ the most merciful. It is a call to experience and shares the mercy of God, just as the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos puts it, “to practice the charity of the heart and the charity of the hand.”

When the door of mercy is opened, we should see Christ in spirit and faith. He is the one who opens the door that leads to the Father, and he himself is the door.

As we celebrate this year of mercy and continue our Lenten observances, we call on God the Father to accept us the way we are, fill us with the Holy Spirit, and transform us into what he wants us to be through Christ our Lord.