Saint Rose was the first South American to be canonised, and she led, to say the least, a very interesting life, and devoted much of it to prayer and penance, especially for those who had fallen away from the Church, and for the holy souls in purgatory. Good works that we should perform every day.
Our Lord often accused the religious leaders of his day of shutting the door of heaven in people’s faces. But it stands to reason that if you can close and lock a door you can also unlatch it and throw it wide open. That’s the awesome truth tucked away in today’s gospel. Our Lord is telling us that we can actually open the door of heaven for other people.
And the door of heaven is, of course, a person: our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the “gate” and the “way”. The Way, the Truth, and the Life. But how can we open this door? Well, by opening ourselves. By opening the door of our lives to others so that people can come to see Jesus who lives in us and find their own way to a relationship with him.
Just as there are several ways to close a door, there’s more than one way to open it. We can open it through acts of kindness and love. We can try to encourage someone. A forgiving, understanding, compassionate heart can do it.
Our Lord tells us that some of the Pharisees went to great lengths to find other people and train them in their own misguided ways. While Our Lord frowned on the end result, the way they went the extra mile to win people over was quite remarkable and it worked. And we have to do the same if we want to usher people through heaven’s door, we too will have to go out of our way to build relationships with them. Then we too may get the privilege of holding heaven’s door open as a friend walks through.
Dum Tacet Clamat 