Time to Close the Doors
Did you ever ask why the doors were closed? Do you think it is only because of fear of the Jews? Or is there another meaning which is much more significant for the modern Catholic than at any other time in the life of the church? In a sense the room holds the entire church in expectation of extinction. No one wants to venture outside the safe zone and be picked up for believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Certainly this reality calls us to reflect more deeply about our commitment to the faith. The room represents the Catholic soul. It is important today to close the doors.
In our understanding of the doors we note that the doors in our personal lives are the 5 senses through which everything enters the person. When these senses are operative for the pleasure that they can give, the body gains while the soul loses. When we close the doors and mortify our senses the body loses while the soul gains. It is a fact that when the senses are seeking their delight then the delight of the soul is unable to enter. Our Lord is the true delight of the soul and hence it is imperative to close the doors to the heart for the Lord to enter there.
What then are the methods to close the doors of the soul? First, the soul must realize as St. Teresa explains in the Interior Castle that God’s graces are dependent upon our desire. Our desire to become more intimate with God requires penance and the denial of self. Entering into the mansions of the soul is an ordered affair. In each and every step which leads us to our Lord we find a certain payment is required. Whenever God wishes to give a gift to us He always asks a favor from us. The favor is always an act of self-denial.
Once the soul establishes the goal of meeting Jesus and the doors of the senses are closed then the revelation of the divine enters. The effect of His entry is “Peace” which the world cannot give. He will then show the credibility marks of suffering and dying for us. The wounds are the jewels of divine presence and the entry way to a deeper prayer life. Never neglect the challenge of St. Thomas: “I will not believe unless I place my fingers into the wounds of His hands and feet and my hand into His side.” We must only admit the suffering Christ and no other. Today there is a Christ that is effeminate and cannot save. He is the Christ of the modern world of flesh verses the spirit. Note that in his demand that the Lord is only too ready to compile and state that “blessed are they who have not seen but believe.”
Our faith must be intact, integral, united. We cannot let go of one iota of the doctrine of the Lord. Blessed is the one who holds to the entire Gospel and teaches others. The pattern of the credibility test of St. Thomas remains in the church to remind each of us that only through the Cross is the glory of God achieved and only through that Cross will you and I discover all the riches of the divine life that our Lord came to share with us. Through our blessed Mother we are aided in closing the doors of our soul to the sensual and encouraged to wait for the appearance of the Son of God. Today silence is without question an obligation in order to close the door of the soul. Make your plans but never forget that each mansion of the soul purifies the soul for more and more delights of the Father through the sufferings of the Son.
May you continue to experience the resurrection of divine life day after day and pray for the consecration of the nation of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray also for the new traditional bishop who will be consecrated on May 11th. Great things are coming upon this world of ours; let us prepare by daily acts of penance to save a sinner’s soul.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt, S.D.B.
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