PORTA FIDEI : THE CONCEPT OF THE DOOR OF FAITH

In the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 14:27 we read :"And when they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles." Thus Paul and Barnabas and their arrival in Antioch from the mission, is recounted.


The Holy Father uses this account to open his Apostolic Letter given  Motu Proprio, reminding us that the same "Door of Faith"remains open to-day. Now, as then, this door leads into the Church which is the mystical Body of Christ, where God's sacred Word is proclaimed and the Grace accompanying that proclamation, opens the hearts of men.


He quickly moves to the point that this leads to -  a journey that lasts a lifetime . From Baptism to Death, we move from earning the privilege of calling God Father , to the end in eternal life which Jesus made available to us through His Death and Resurrection. In the course of our always epic journey faith brings us belief in the Triune God, the Father Who willed the Son should come, the Son Who came to save not to condemn and the Holy Spirit Who leads the Church toward the return of Christ in glory.ThisTriune God is Love as St .John tells us.

Pope Benedict in procession in St.John the Lateran Basilica

The Holy Father shows that from the very beginning of his Pontificate he has been encouraging us to recover the sense of this journey through life to renew our joy and enthusiasm in our encounter with Christ. He notes that frequently people take for granted the stable existence of faith and become pre-occupied with the social, political and cultural consequences of that faith. However he deftly shows that such stable existence of faith and the culture it has bred,can no longer be taken for granted and, further are often openly denied due to a widespread crisis of faith.

In this way, the Holy Father begins the Letter which will announce the Year of Faith and seek to renew our relationship with Christ in His Mystical Body the Church. We will consider the Motu Proprio in these manageable portions because even though it is easily read, it is densely- packed  with ideas and needs to be absorbed thoughtfully.