Long ago while walking in Montreal, I came across an orange street work sign alongside Montreal’s Cathedral, Marie-Reine-du-Monde. It said, “Rue Barré” (road blocked). I took a snapshot for Instagram and posted: ‘le chemin vers Dieu n'est jamais barré.’ – The way to God is never barred.

I found myself thinking about this recently while reflecting on Holy Doors and on being pilgrims of hope in this Jubilee year. Confession time: until recently, I found the idea of Holy Doors to be a bit silly. Only recently have I come to have a greater appreciation for popular piety generally and for Holy Doors specifically. 

It took the theme of the Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope,” to help me connect to the spirituality of the Holy Door. It struck me how doors are used as symbols of hope all the time, both in Scripture and in the secular world. By means of a door, we pass from one place to another. Hope is not in what we will find on the other side of the door. It is in our desire to respond to God’s invitation to walk through the door in the first place. I recently led a reflection on Holy Doors and the Jubilee at our all-staff meeting. I was moved by the stories people shared of the different doors they have walked through in their lives and their stories of seeing doors that were sealed and only open to specific people – the antithesis of a Holy Door.

While in Rome this past December for the elevation of Cardinal Leo, I had the chance to see the Holy Door at St. Peter’s before Pope Francis opened it to mark the beginning of the Jubilee. We even filmed our Jubilee Christmas Message in front if it from inside the Basilica. After leaving Rome, I travelled directly to Bethlehem at the invitation of Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He is the president of our partner, Caritas Jerusalem, and the invitation was to attend a two-day global partner’s meeting where we could spend time with the staff and see the incredible work they are doing in extremely difficult circumstances. Cardinal Pizzaballa spoke to us about the terrible suffering of his people, especially in Gaza. He called Gaza “a destroyed reality.” He also gave the antidote to this destroyed reality: Hope. 

He said, “It is not simple to talk about hope here. First of all, we must not confuse hope with solutions―political solutions or social or economic solutions. We know very well that the solution is not close. We have to be realistic. But hope is not a solution. Christian hope is something else. It is the desire to change the reality.”

Hope is the desire to change reality. This to me is what choosing to walk through a Holy Door both nurtures and expresses. We can nurture this desire by making pilgrimages to Rome to pass through the Holy Doors opened by Pope Francis (the other Holy Doors outside of Rome, including Quebec City are not being opened for the Jubilee). For those of us for whom Rome is not accessible, there are other pilgrimages within our own local churches that we can make. 

The more we nurture and express our desire to change reality, the more it will bear fruit in our actions. If we pass through a Holy Door and nothing changes within us, then we will fail to take actions that bring us closer to God’s plan for us and for humanity. If we fail to take these actions, then we will find that one side of the door looks exactly like the other side and our pilgrimage has been little more than an empty expression of piety. It was this empty piety I sometimes observed in my youth that led to my wholesale rejection of things like holy doors. 

But I was wrong because I believe that we can pass through the Holy Doors (and make other pilgrimages in this jubilee year) that will truly rend our hearts and souls more determined than ever to change reality and to act. These actions are manifold and diverse – individual and collective. What they share though is the desire to make of the Love of God visible. Cardinal Pizzaballa ended his address to us by saying, “The desire in Caritas is still there. We don’t give up. We will never give up. Our love is not just a word, it is an action.”