Three Doors to Jesus

09-10-2023Pastor's CornerVery Rev. Robert J. Deehan, VF

In a homily in May 2014, Pope Francis spoke about the best ways to get to know Jesus. He said we need to open three doors in order to know Him. “The first door is praying to Jesus. You must realize that studying without prayers is no use. We must pray to Jesus to get to know him better. The great theologians did their theology while kneeling. Pray to Jesus! By studying and praying we get a bit closer… But we’ll never know Jesus without praying. Never! Never! The second door is celebrating Jesus. Prayer on its own is not enough, we need the joy of celebration. We must celebrate Jesus through his Sacraments, because these give us life, they give us strength, they nourish us, they comfort us, they forge an alliance with us, they give us a mission. Without celebrating the Sacraments, we’ll never get to know Jesus. This is what the Church is all about: celebration. The third door is imitating Jesus. Take the Gospel, what did he do, how was his life, what did he tell us, what did he teach us and try to imitate him.”

“Entering via these three doors,” the Pope went on, “means entering into the mystery of Jesus and it’s only in this way that we can get to know him and we mustn’t be afraid to do this. During the day, today, we can think about how the door leading to prayer is proceeding in our life: but prayer from the heart is not like that of a parrot! How is prayer of the heart? How is the Christian celebration in my life proceeding? And how is the imitation of Jesus in my life proceeding? How must I imitate him? Do you really not remember! The reason is because the Book of the Gospel is full of dust as it’s never opened! Take the Book of the Gospel, open it and you will discover how to imitate Jesus! Let’s think about how these three doors are positioned in our life and this will be of benefit to everybody.”

Getting to know Jesus in these ways will enable us to live more fully the vision our parish has set out for us to strive for: “Holy Family strives to be a joyful, welcoming community of faith that encounters Jesus and thinks with His mind and loves with His Heart.”

God bless you!

Fr. Bob