Parishioners, above, exit through the Door of Mercy on the mauka side of the cathedral Dec. 13. At the opening Mass for the Year of Mercy Dec. 8, right, the bishop blessed a copy of the new diocesan pastoral plan, “Stewards of the Gospel.” (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
Bishop Larry Silva opens Hawaii’s door to the global year of consolation, pardon and hope
By Darlene J.M. Dela Cruz
Hawaii Catholic Herald
“What if you were told that you had been selected by God to bear the savior (the world) needs so desperately?”
Bishop Larry Silva posed that question to an evening congregation gathered at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the opening day of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
“Would you be greatly troubled?” the bishop asked. “Would you ultimately make the response, ‘I am the servant of the Lord’?”
Reflecting on the response of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the bishop encouraged local Catholics to model her obedience and courage. We are all called in service to God, he said, to be unafraid to “share the good news of his merciful love to all who have strayed away.”
The Dec. 8 Mass at the cathedral was the first of two ceremonies celebrated by Bishop Silva to begin the Year of Mercy in Hawaii. Pope Francis declared the jubilee year, focused on compassion and love, to run until Nov. 20, 2016.
About 200 Island faithful attended the local Year of Mercy opening liturgy. Themes of mercy were woven into the Mass music, homily and prayers.
Bishop Silva during the Mass connected the Dec. 8 celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with the Year of Mercy. The solemnity commemorates the conception of Mary without original sin, an essential part in preparing her to become the mother of Jesus.
Mary’s “great mission” in God’s plan of salvation, the bishop said, still resonates with us today.
“We are in Mary’s shoes,” Bishop Silva said in his homily. “You are the ‘highly favored one’ that God has chosen to bear the savior the world so desperately needs.”
“God’s mercy restores us so we can have the strength and the courage” to “make the Word become flesh” in our words, deeds and love for others, the bishop added.
After his homily, the bishop blessed a copy of the new diocesan pastoral plan, “Stewards of the Gospel.” Brought to the sanctuary in a stately folder by Blessed Sacrament Father Robert Stark, head of the diocesan Office for Social Ministry, the pastoral plan highlights ways for Island Catholics to evangelize.
It is our mission, the bishop said, to go beyond our parishes and bring the Word to all those in need.
Opening the door
Halfway around the world at the Vatican on Dec. 8, Pope Francis ushered in the Year of Mercy by opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pontiff explained in an apostolic letter earlier this year that the Holy Door “will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.”
Passing through a Holy Door in Rome — either at St. Peter’s or one of the other three papal basilicas — is a requirement for pilgrims to obtain special graces during a jubilee year.
For the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis asked the world’s bishops to open Holy Doors at the cathedrals and other churches in their own dioceses.
On Dec. 13, at the regularly scheduled 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Bishop Silva opened the downtown Honolulu church’s “Door of Mercy.”
The bishop has also designated a Holy Door for at least one church on every island: St. Catherine Church, Kapaa, Kauai; St. Theresa Church, Kihei, Maui; Sacred Hearts Church, Lanai City; St. Michael Church, Kailua-Kona, Big Island; St. Joseph Church, Hilo, Big Island; and St. Damien Church, Kaunakakai, Molokai.
The opening of the Door of Mercy in Honolulu coincided with Pope Francis’ opening of the Holy Door at Rome’s cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on the Third Sunday of Advent.
In his homily at the Dec. 13 Mass, Bishop Silva tied the significance of the Door of Mercy with the day’s first reading from the book of Zephaniah. The Scripture passage assures Israel that God takes “great delight” in his people. God does not rebuke them for their faults; instead, he rejoices over them with singing.
“He sings to us, ‘Fear not, do not be discouraged,’” the bishop said. “When we come in the door (of mercy), we gather to hear God sing songs of gentle, quiet love to us, so those songs can make us more merciful.”
The bishop again underscored the importance of extending God’s love and compassion to others.
“It’s not so much what we do when we come in that Door of Mercy, but what we do when we go out the door,” he said. “God is tuning our voices to sing with his. Now the song that God sings is you.”
Initially, the door selected to be the Door of Mercy was the one on the right side of the front of the cathedral. The designated door was later changed to the one on the building’s mauka side.
Inside the cathedral the door was flanked with fresh orchids and surrounded by a decorative oversized artificial maile lei. Maui artist Phil Sabado created a painting of St. Damien and St. Marianne of Molokai placed beside the door. Outside, above the door, hung the sign “Puka Hoano,” Hawaiian for “Door of Mercy.”
Before blessing the door at the end of the liturgy, the bishop sang with the congregation “Misericordes Sicut Pater,” the official hymn specially written for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. The titular antiphon is translated from Latin as “Be Merciful as Your Father Is.”
