The homily of John Paul II during the Holy Mass in Saint Peter Basilica, for the Opening of the Holy Door. Mercy and peace through the strength of Jesus of Nazareth who died and rose again

1. "Hodie natus est nobis Salvator mundi" (Responsorial Psalm)
For 20 centuries this joyful proclamation has burst forth from the heart of the Church. On this holy night the Angel repeats it to us, the men and women living at the end of a millennium: "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy... To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior." (Lk 2:10-11) We have prepared to welcome these comforting words during the season of Advent: in them the "today" of our redemption becomes a reality.
At this hour, the word "today" rings out with a unique sound: it is not only the commemoration of the birth of the Redeemer; it is the solemn beginning of the Great Jubilee. We are spiritually linked to that unique moment of history when God became Man, taking to Himself our flesh.
Yes, the Son of God, of one being with the Father, God from God and Light from Light, eternally begotten of the Father, became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and assumed our human nature. He was born in time. God entered history. The incomparable eternal "today" of God has become present in everyday human life.

2. "Hodie natus est nobis Salvator mundi" (cf. Lk 2:10-11)
We fall down in adoration before the Son of God. We unite ourselves in spirit to the wonder of Mary and Joseph. As we adore Christ, born in a stable, we build our own the faith, filled with astonishment, like the shepherds of that time; we feel their same amazement and their same joy.
It is difficult not to be overcome by the eloquence of this event: we remain enthralled. We are witnesses of that instant of love that unites the eternal to history-the "today" which begins the time of jubilation and hope, for "to us a Son is given; and dominion is laid upon His shoulders" (Is 9:5), as we read in the text of Isaiah.
At the feet of the Word Incarnate let us place our joys and fears, our tears and hopes. Only in Christ, the new Man, is true light shed upon the mystery of human existence.
With the apostle Paul, let us contemplate the fact that in Bethlehem "the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all." (Tim 2:11) This is the reason why on Christmas night songs of joy ring out in every corner of the earth, in every language.

3. Tonight, before our eyes we see fulfilled what the Gospel proclaims: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him... might have eternal life." (Jn 3:16)
His Only Begotten Son!
You, O Christ, are the only begotten Son of the living God, come among us in the stable of Bethlehem! After 2,000 years, we re-live this mystery as a unique and unrepeatable event. Among all the children of men, all the children born into the world down the centuries, You alone are the Son of God; in an ineffable way, Your birth has changed the course of human events.
This is the truth that on this night the Church wants to pass on to the third millennium. And may all you who will come after us accept this truth, which has totally changed history. Ever since that night in Bethlehem, humanity knows that God became Man: He became Man in order to give man a share in His divine nature.

4. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God! On the threshold of the third millennium, the Church greets You, the Son of God, who have come into the world to triumph over death. You have come to illuminate human life through the Gospel. The Church greets You and with You she wishes to enter the third millennium. You are our hope. You alone have words of eternal life.
You who came into the world on Bethlehem night, remain with us!
You who are the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, guide us!
You who came from the Father, lead us to Him in the Holy Spirit, along the path that You alone know and that You have revealed to us, that we might have life and have it in abundance.
You O Christ, the Son of the living God, be for us the Door!
Be for us the true Door, symbolized by the door that on this Night we have solemnly opened!
Be for us the Door that leads us into the mystery of the Father. Grant that no one may remain outside His embrace of mercy and peace!
"Hodie natus est nobis Salvator mundi": It is Christ who is our only Savior! This is the message of Christmas 1999: The "today" of this Holy Night begins the Great Jubilee.
Mary, dawn of the new times, be at our side as we trustingly take our first steps into the Jubilee Year!
Amen!

Dante has a clear memory of the great crowd of pilgrims who came to Rome for the Jubilee of 1300, as we can discover from reading a brief comparison in his Divina Commedia. Thus, he was an eyewitness to the attraction that the city of Rome exercised on the souls of believers and was confirmed in the most solemn way possible that year by Pope Boniface VIII.
How can we explain the great influx of people into Rome in the early days of 1300? According to the historian Frugoni there were various causes, among which should be emphasized the spiritual climate of the end of the century, pervaded by eschatological currents looking for signs of a renewal that was at the same time personal and social. It was a climate that was widespread among the faithful, as testified by Cardinal Iacopo Stefaneschi: "The faith of the citizens and foreigners increased more and more. Some of them affirmed that on the first day of the century the stain of all sins would be cancelled, and that on the others there would be a hundred years indulgence; and so for almost two months they preserved both these hopes together with doubt, though they came in great numbers."
Boniface VIII was able to grasp and recognize this ferment among the people, and so he proclaimed the first Jubilee in the history of Christianity on February 22, 1300, the feast day of the Throne of Saint Peter, creating a new institution that was destined to last to our day. The date of the proclamation of the Jubilee of 1300 is an indication also of the Pope's desire to reaffirm the central role of the figure of Peter and the primacy of Rome. At the time, the celebration of the Jubilee was subject to modification over the course of the year. At first Boniface granted plenary indulgence to all those who, after repenting and confessing, visited the basilicas of St. Peter's and of San Paolo Fuori le Mura. Citizens of Rome had to visit the churches for thirty days, pilgrims for fifteen. Subsequently, Boniface decreed that the pilgrims would receive the indulgence even if they only visited the two apostolic basilicas only once. Indulgence was denied to enemies of the Church, which included the king of Sicily, the Colonna family and their followers. The last day of the Jubilee, Christmas Day 1300, Boniface declared that all those who were in Rome on that day would be granted full remission of their sins, even if they had not absolved all the conditions which had been set previously.
In the course of the Church's history, Christians have lived the Jubilee years with great faith. In his proclamation of the Jubilee of 2000, John Paul II mentioned in particular Saint Philip Neri, who for the Jubilee of 1550 initiated "Roman charity" as a welcome for pilgrims.
A fundamental element of the Jubilee is indulgence, by which the mercy of the Father is manifested in the forgiveness of sins and the mystery of the communion of the saints in the cancellation of punishment.
The sign of pilgrimage brings man back to his condition of homo viator, a creature on the way from birth to death on a path that is not always easy, but sustained by the certainty of the presence of the Redeemer.
Another sign is the Holy Door, opened for the first time in 1423. The door is the sign of Christ, of the grace by which every person can approach the Father. Going through the Holy Door means recognizing that Jesus is the Lord of life.