Holy Year of Redemption
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25 March 1983
Paris, France

Mother Rogé, Father Lloret, my dear Sisters,

I could begin this morning's conference by announcing to you that this is the year of "The Open Door." In a few hours' time, the Holy Father in Rome will knock three times on the door of St. Peter's which is known as the Holy Door, sealed by Paul VI at the closing of the last Holy Year, and the masonry will fall down. When the dust has subsided, the Pope himself will, as a humble pilgrim, enter through that Holy Door, to be followed in the course of the coming twelve months by thousands and thousands of other pilgrims, all of whom will be seeking God's pardon for their sins and the grace of reconciliation with the Church, which is the Body of Christ. The special grace which the Holy Father has requested us to ask of God is a deeper appreciation of that central grace in all our lives--the grace of the Redemption brought to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. "The specific grace of the year of the Redemption is, he has written, therefore, a renewed discovery of the love of God Who gives Himself, and a deeper realization of the inscrutable riches of the Paschal Mystery of Christ gained through the daily experience of Christian life in all its forms. The various practices of this Jubilee Year should be directed towards this grace, with a continual effort which presupposes and requires detachment from sin and from the mentality of the world which `lies in the power of the evil one' and from all that impedes or slows down the process of conversion." (Jubilee of Redemption, p. 8, 6 Jan. 1983).

To turn your minds away from Rome for a moment and back here to France, I've been haunted these last few days by the scene of those four Daughters of Charity of Arras who in the course of the French Revolution gave their lives for the faith at Cambrai on the 26 June 1794. We are told that, as they were led to execution, they sang joyfully the stanzas of the Ave Maris Stella. The final line of the first stanza of that hymn, which should be so dear to every Daughter of Charity, is one where Our Lady is saluted as "Felix coeli porta," the happy door of heaven. It is a most felicitous phrase for, not only was Mary the door through which the Word Incarnate came when He entered into this poor, sinful, distressed world of ours, but she is the door through which all of us, now become adopted children of God, our Father, through baptism, and co-heirs with Christ, make our pilgrim way back to God.

Mary is the open door of heaven. Her Son referred to Himself as the door, "I am the door of the sheep," (Jn 10:9) and we are living in the year of the open door. As we contemplate the image of the open door--be it Christ Himself, Mary His Mother, or the great jubilee door which the Pope is opening today--try to live this year as an open door. Be a door that is fully open to others, especially to the poor. Be an open door to the members of your community, that is, be transparent, be simple in your relationships with one another in love. Be an open door to all: allow people to use you, to pass through you. Allow people to take you for granted. Be an open door by being humble. An open door does not discriminate, allowing some to pass and some not. In one word, open the doors of your hearts widely to all this year, and especially to the poor. Open the doors of your hearts widely to those who claim a little more understanding from you. Open the doors of your hearts more widely to the claims which obedience is making upon you in this year, so historic for the future of the Company. In a word, open the doors of your hearts so widely today that neither the poor, nor your Sister Servant nor your Sister companions will feel any hesitancy in coming to ask of you a simple service in the name of Christ, Who is ever standing at the door and knocking. (cf. Rv 3:20).

It is time, you may be saying, that I made some reference to the great feast which we are celebrating within our Community. So, let me congratulate you on the Renovation of your Vows which you have made here this morning. The Renovation made by so many thousands of Sisters today has a special character. The Renovation today is being made in the course of the three hundred-fiftieth Anniversary of the Foundation of the Company. The Renovation this year, too, is being made in the course of the three hundred-fiftieth Anniversary of the death of Marguerite Naseau, whose life and character have been so magnificently evoked by Mother Rogé in her letter of the 2 February. The Renovation this year is being made on the very day when the Holy Father is proclaiming a Jubilee Year in honor of our redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom all good things come.

The grace of Renovation is indeed a marvelous grace, but I am well aware how costly a grace it must be for some Sisters, how much humility its asking must call for. Let us not forget the measure of responsibility which rests on Sister Servants, Visitatrixes, Mother General and her Council in asking this grace for you. Let us not now look back, but rather forward: "... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14). Yes, your vocation, my dear Sisters, is to press forward in all things lovingly towards Christ, lovingly towards Him in your service of the poor. Allow me to single out one word which for all Christians, and especially for us during this Jubilee Year, should often be on our lips and in our hearts. It is a word to which I have already referred. It is reconciliation. It is a word which lies at the very heart of the Sacrament of Penance which has been and is such a constant concern of the present Pope. It is the theme of the Synod to be held by the Pope in Rome next October.

My suggestion to each Sister in each community on this Renovation Day is that this year she should strive to engrave that word, reconciliation, deep in her heart and in her consciousness. Let the Sacrament of Reconciliation find a new place in her life. Ask not what you may be getting out of the Sacrament of Penance, but rather ask what Christ, the Spouse of your soul, wishes to offer you through it. Secondly, reconciliation in the local community. There is hardly a community in the Company without its tensions, misunderstandings and the difficulties that come from the diversity of temperaments that compose it. But would it not be wonderful to think that during this Jubilee Year there would be no day when the sun would go down on the anger of even one Sister in our Community? Would it not be wonderful to think that at the end of each day of this Jubilee Year, each Sister in her local community would be reconciled one with the other?

Some time ago I was asked publicly what I thought of two Sisters who in the same community were not talking to each other for quite a long time and who were in that way a source of pain and of scandal to the Community. It did not take me too long to reply. "What," I asked, "would St. Vincent reply to such a question?" Here is a typical reply of his: "Now I recommend you, as you have this holy custom of asking forgiveness, never to fail to do so when you have given reason to anyone to feel annoyed, and at once, or at least in the evening, to ask her forgiveness for having mortified her. This is in conformity with the Word of God which says: `Let not the sun go down on your wrath'." (Eph 4:26). (Conf. Eng. ed., 4 March 1658, p. 1043).

He would motivate each of those Sisters to humbly ask pardon of each other. All of us are aware how difficult this is. All of us are aware, too, that there will be momentary periods when Sisters find it difficult to talk to one another because of some hurt, real or imaginary. There will be in some of our communities occasions when Sisters will lapse into what can only be described as 'wounded silence'. But let not such silences be for long. Let not the sun go down upon them. What I say to you, I am quite certain St. Vincent and St. Louise would address to communities this opening day of a year that is characterized by the joy of reconciliation. Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the things that were to its peace. We must not allow Him to weep over even one of our communities because it does not know the things that are to its peace, through the practice of reconciliation. This is the year when we honor in a special way the fact that Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God "making His appeal through us." (2 Cor 5:18-20). What a vocation is yours, my dear Sisters, to be "ambassadors of Christ" to the poor with His message of reconciliation and that with Him there is to be found "abundant redemption." (Col 1:14).

As you try to live this ideal of reconciliation in your local community throughout this year, be conscious of the gentle presence of Mary, the Mother of God, who, through her obedient generosity, brought it about that the Word was able to take flesh in her womb and become the "Felix coeli porta" for the millions and millions of sinful, squabbling children whom she is always trying to reconcile, so that she may present them to her son, Jesus--she who is the most clement, the most loving, the most sweet Virgin Mary.

Yes, Sisters, by the grace of God, just try to be in this Jubilee Year for the poor and for each other what Mary already is for each one of us--"felix coeli porta"--a happy door to heaven.

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