Kingdom of Bahrain – Our Lady of Arabia
Opening the Holy Door
Jubilee Year of Saint Arethas and Companions
4th November 2023

Your Excellency Bishop Aldo Berardi,
Reverend Father Ben Barrameda, Vicar General,
Reverend Father Saji Thomas, Rector of the Cathedral,
Reverend Fathers, Sisters.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is a great joy to be with you this morning for the solemn opening of the Holy Door marking the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Saints Arethas and Companions on the 1,500th anniversary of their martyrdom in Najran, Saudi Arabia. 523 – 2023! 1,500 years ago!

In my capacity as the Holy Father’s Representative – the Apostolic Nuncio in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, it is my pleasure to bring you the greetings of our beloved Holy Father Pope Francis on this important occasion for the life of the Church here in the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia.

Pope Francis has asked me to assure all of you gathered here this morning and those who are following the ceremony which is being transmitted online of his closeness in prayer. To all of us, he extends his blessing and he asks us to remember him in our own prayers.

On this very day one year ago, the Holy Father was here among us on a pastoral visit to the Kingdom of Bahrain. What a wonderful and blessed occasion that was! What a wonderful moment it was when he visited this Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia and held an Ecumenical Prayer Service with the representatives of the Christian churches present in the Gulf region! Here we are again one year later gathered in prayer in this beautiful Cathedral as we begin the Extraordinary Jubilee Year with the Opening of the Holy Door.

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.”

Very often in his teaching Jesus used the image of the door or the gate. In St John’s Gospel we read where Jesus says (Jn 10:9) “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved”. Jesus is the door, the gateway to eternal life.

In Psalm 117 we read “Open to me the gates of holiness, I will enter and give thanks. This is the Lord’s own gate where the just may enter.”

We have begun the Jubilee of Saint Arethas and companions by entering the Holy Door – it is a special privilege that has been granted to the Vicariate by the Holy Father for this Jubilee Year to open the Holy Door here at the Cathedral, in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait and Qatar. As we pass through this door, we want to renew our faith, asking the Lord to give us the grace to bear witness to him even if we meet with persecution as Arethas and his companions did before us.

May this Jubilee Year be a time of grace for all of us and a time of spiritual renewal. May the example of the holy Martyrs teach us the virtues of faithfulness and perseverance.

In his teaching, Jesus uses the image of the door to bring home to us that salvation is not automatic. You remember for instance the time when Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem passing through many towns and villages, on his way to Jericho and Jerusalem. He is approached by a man who wants to know if only a few will be saved. One has the feeling that he expects the answer to be ‘Yes’ and that he regards himself as being among the chosen ones.

Jesus does not answer the question directly but he implies that those who are saved are not necessarily those who regard themselves as God’s chosen ones but rather those who walk a certain path in life. That path, of course, is precisely what he is proposing through his own life and teaching. It is a narrow door, he says, which many will not be able to enter.

When the Master comes at the end to close that door for the last time, some will stand outside knocking and begging for the door to be opened. They will hear very frightening words, “I do not know where you come from.” They will counter by saying, “We ate and drank in your company. You taught in our streets.” But he still says he does not know them and tells them to go away.

Jesus was often accused of eating and drinking with sinners but it did them no good unless, as a result of their contact with him, they changed their way of living.

It is clearly not enough to be just in Christ’s company or to have heard his teaching. For example, just being a baptised Catholic or routinely fulfilling a few religious obligations (like being physically present at Sunday Mass) is not the same as really being a part of what is going on. To enter by the “narrow door” is to be actively committed to living the Gospel in one’s daily life.

Each day and all the days of our lives we have to walk through that narrow door, that door of faith and trust and love for Jesus and our brothers and sisters. Only then will we find ourselves joining the patriarchs, the prophets, the holy martyrs and all the saints in that life of unending happiness and union with our God for which we were made.

In today’s world it is not easy to be a Christian. Very often our faith is put to the test, even ridiculed. How many nasty comments are made on social media making fun of us because of our convictions! How many Catholics are beaten, imprisoned and even put to death because they bear the name of Christ! This is not something new. It has been going on down the centuries.

As we begin the Extraordinary Jubilee year of Saint Arethas and Companions, we ask the Lord to open the door to us and to allow us to enter. To remain outside is to be locked out, to be excluded, to be kept in the cold and the darkness. To pass through the door is to enter inside, to become members of a family, to belong, to come into a place of warmth, of light and intimacy.

Maybe much of our lives we spend on the outside wandering around, lost, going around aimlessly, not sure of the direction of our lives, following whatever it is that tempts us and leads us astray. The Lord is the door. There is no other way to life except through him.

In terms of the Gospel, the doorway to life can be summed up in the word “love”. Saint Arethas and companions understood this very well 1,500 years ago when they made the supreme sacrifice of their lives for their faith and were willing to shed their blood for love of the Bridegroom. They understood very well the words of today’s Gospel: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”

We have walked through the Holy Door this morning. We begin this Holy Year as a pilgrim people and the Lord is reminding to us that He is the door to life.

“Open to me the gates of holiness, I will enter and give thanks.”

Saint Arethas and Companions, pray for us!

+ Eugene M. Nugent
Apostolic Nuncio to Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar