With a post on «The Holy Door that opens on #Christmas night is the invitation to make a transition, an Easter of renewal, to enter that new life that is offered to us by the encounter with Christ. #Jubilee2025″, wrote the Pontiff, uniting the mystery of the Nativity to the heart of the Christian faith: redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Christmas and Easter: a profound bond
In his message, Pope Francis underlined how Christmas, often experienced with a sense of joy and intimacy, is profoundly connected to Easter, the culmination of the Christian mystery. This perspective is also represented in the oriental icons of the Nativity, which depict Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a tomb-shaped manger, a symbol that anticipates the sacrifice of the Cross. The opening of the Holy Door, which took place on Christmas night, thus becomes a tangible sign of a new beginning: an invitation to cross the threshold of sin and closure to embrace the new life given by the encounter with Christ. This ritual gesture, which dates back to the extraordinary Jubilee of 1423 wanted by Pope Martin V, is today full of universal spiritual and symbolic resonance.
The Jubilee of Hope
The Jubilee 2025, long heralded as the “Jubilee of Hope”, opens in a world in search of peace and reconciliation. Never before has humanity felt the need for spiritual and moral regeneration, and the Holy Door appears as the gateway to collective renewal. “Moving on” is the expression that the Pontiff chose to express the meaning of this Jubilee journey. It is about taking an act of faith and courage, overcoming the barriers of indifference and selfishness to build bridges of peace and solidarity. It is an invitation addressed not only to Christians but to all humanity, to open up to hope, welcoming the gift of divine mercy.
A ritual that spans the centuries
The opening of the Holy Door is a rite that has spanned the centuries, keeping its solemnity intact. It was Pope Alexander VI, at Christmas 1499, who introduced for the first time the symbolic gesture of opening the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica. Since then, every Jubilee has seen this moment as a sign of grace and reconciliation. This year too, the rite has been renewed with particular attention to the themes dear to Pope Francis: mercy, care for creation and commitment to the weakest. The Holy Door, therefore, is not just a symbol but a call to concrete action: “opening” the doors of the heart and of society to justice and brotherhood.