The Basilica of the Nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem is the only sanctuary which has miraculously survived, up to our day, the history and the conflicts of that land so mysterious and so plagued with violence. This is owed to the fact that, during the Arab-Muslim occupation, the caliph Omar, in 638, entered to pray in the place of the birth of the prophet Issa (Jesus), making the basilica a place of worship for the Muslims too.
One of the particularities of the Basilica is that, even though it is a majestic place, beautiful, large and full of stupendous mosaics, you can only access it through a particularly small door. To enter, you must bend down.
The historical reason for this “anomaly” is the attempt to protect the holy place, impeding access to who would seek to desecrate it. Entering, however, one cannot but think also of the symbolic meaning of this “inconvenience”: I am the door: if one enters through me, he will be saved; he will enter and exit and find pasture (Jn 10:9).
Jesus identified Himself with the door of true life, the one sought by every man in the frenzy of his daily life. It is a narrow door, just like the one in Bethlehem that can be accessed only by becoming small, or rather, recognizing his own smallness. How narrow is the door and narrow the path that leads to life, and few are those who find it! (Matt 7:14).
Christmas, which is about to arrive, is the celebration in which this narrow door came to find us in an absolutely unforeseen way, which makes it much easier to have access to true life. It is enough to contemplate that child who lays there, in Bethlehem, from the “great” position that He had, deciding to make Himself small, fragile, and needy of everything, to help us to not be afraid of ourselves, of our infinite and, at the same time, limited humanity. From that moment that changed the history of the world, “bending own,” making oneself small is not consenting to the ill will of someone who tries to keep us down, but means following an attraction, bowing down to contemplate the Mystery of God made man, just like the angels, the Magi, and the shepherds.
To cross the great Holy Doors, it is necessary to make yourself small, recognizing your own need
Baby Jesus attracts us in His smallness to give us His greatness, that is, His very life. In the end, all of us were created to enter into the humble greatness of God.
This is exactly the experience that one has entering into the Basilica of Bethlehem.
And it is the experience that we can have in Rome, crossing the Holy Doors of the four basilicas that Pope Francis will open on the occasion of the upcoming Jubilee, beginning with that of the Basilica of St. Peter, beginning on Christmas night.
To cross the great Holy Doors of today, there is no need to bend down physically. And yet, one must make oneself small, recognizing his own need for forgiveness and grace. The Jubilee derives, in fact, from an ancient Hebrew feast in which, every 50 years, they celebrated a year in which, among other things, the slaves were granted freedom. The Church made this feast Her own, resignifying it in the light of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ.
Each of us has a profound need to be freed from the slavery of evil that threatens our lives. We need to pass through this door, in two directions, so to speak.
We desire to enter into the embrace of forgiveness of Christ, experience the mercy that He gives us incessantly through the sacraments and communion with our brothers. And we desire to exit as well, to bring this joy, this “jubilee,” to those we encounter along the way, following Christ who leads us to the pastures of true life, communion with Him and among us: I am the door: if one enters through me, he will be saved; he will enter and he will exit and he will find pasture.
