One can never close the door in the face of parents who ask for baptism for their child, even if they are not married in church: the Christian, and especially the pastor, should never forget the gratuitousness of salvation, the closeness of God and the concreteness of works of mercy, whether material or spiritual. This is the strong invitation to always open the door to others, and also to oneself, suggested by Pope Francis in the mass celebrated on Thursday morning, 19 October, at Santa Marta.

"This passage from the Gospel," the Pope immediately pointed out, referring to the passage from Luke (11:47-54), "enters into that style of the evangelist" that is proper to "both Luke and Matthew". It is "we could say" a "style" that indicates "trouble: Woe to you, teachers of the law: woe to you, Pharisees". In fact, Francis explained, 'the Lord is very strong, very strong: he strikes with such force'. In particular, "in today's passage there is an expression that makes one think: 'Woe to you teachers of the Law, who have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter, and those who wanted to enter you prevented'".

In reality, the Pontiff acknowledged, "this verse is a bit obscure: what does it mean to 'take away the key of knowledge', with the consequence of not entering the Kingdom and not even letting others in?" And so, said the Pope, "this taking away of the ability to understand God's revelation, to understand God's heart, to understand God's salvation - the key to knowledge - we can say that it is a serious forgetfulness". Because "one forgets the gratuitousness of salvation, one forgets God's closeness and one forgets God's mercy". And precisely 'those who forget the gratuitousness of salvation, God's closeness and God's mercy have taken away the key to knowledge'. So much so that, the Pope insisted, "one cannot understand the Gospel without these three things".

"They have forgotten gratuitousness," therefore. And "Paul speaks of this in the first reading," Francis said again, referring to the passage in the letter to the Romans (3:21-30): "You are justified freely by his grace." But, the Pontiff warned, "these people forget that everything is free, that it was God's initiative to save us, and they take the side of the law and try to cling to it, and the more detailed, the better: salvation is there for them". And "thus," he continued, "they are so clinging to the law that they do not receive the power of God's righteousness: there is a deception behind justifying oneself with the law: "I do this, this, this and I am happy, I am justified" - "But how am I to do this?" - "No, you have to do it like this, like this, like this" - "But this "like this" how should I do it?" - "Like this, like this, like this"'.

Here, said the Pope, they "arrive at a pile of prescriptions and for them this is salvation: they have lost the key to intelligence which, in this case, is the gratuitousness of salvation". In reality, "the law is a response to God's gratuitous love: it is He who has taken the initiative to save us, and because you have loved me so much, I try to go your way, the way you have shown me", in a word "I fulfil the law". But 'it is a response' because 'the law, always, is a response and when one forgets the gratuitousness of salvation one falls, one loses the key to the intelligence of salvation history'.

And, again, the Pontiff relaunched, those people "have lost the key to intelligence because they have lost the sense of God's closeness: for them God is the one who made the law" but "this is not the God of revelation". In reality "the God of revelation is God who began to walk with us from Abraham to Jesus Christ: God who walks with his people". Therefore "when we lose this close relationship with the Lord, we fall into this obtuse mentality that believes in the self-sufficiency of salvation through the fulfilment of the law".

Here, then, is "the closeness of God", remarked Francis, referring to "such a beautiful passage, almost at the end of Deuteronomy, in chapter 31; when Moses finishes writing the law, he hands it over to the Levites, those who guarded the ark, and tells them 'take this book of the law and put it beside the ark, close to God, because I know your rebellion - he is speaking to the people - and the hardness of your neck'".

"Instead, close to the Lord," the Pope pointed out, "the law is a revelation of the Lord, but it becomes detached, the law becomes autonomous and becomes dictatorial, when God's closeness is lacking". Moreover, he suggested, "we think in prayer: when prayer is lacking, one cannot teach doctrine, not even do theology or moral theology". Moreover, he relaunched, 'theology is done on one's knees, always close to God: these people had lost that sense of closeness, they had forgotten the closeness of God'.Moreover, the Pontiff explained, in doing so those people had also 'lost the memory of God's mercy'. In fact, "in the word of God, the Lord repeats much, much and much 'mercy I want, not sacrifices'". And "this closeness of God, of which we have spoken, reaches the highest point in Jesus Christ crucified". The same "Paul reminds us that we have been justified by the blood of Christ, the flesh of Christ, the blood of Christ". Instead, those people end up forgetting precisely "the flesh of Christ: they forget mercy and therefore end up not knowing the core of the law, which is mercy, always". So much so that, Francis explained, "the works of mercy are the touchstone of the fulfilment of the law, because" they allow us to "touch the flesh of Christ, to touch Christ suffering in a person, both corporally and spiritually".

In this regard, the Pope invited us to think of "the rich man Epulone who in hell asked Abraham to send one of the dead to his brothers to preach, so they could be saved". But "what does Abraham say: 'No, this will not do, for if they are not able to listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen to one who rises from the dead'". In fact, "if they do not have mercy as he did - Epulon had none - nothing is worthwhile!" Francis therefore presented 'these three forgetfulnesses' that 'are the root: forgetfulness of the gratuitousness of salvation, forgetfulness of God's closeness, and forgetfulness of mercy'. And so the turning away from salvation is also at the root of "taking away the key to knowledge: one does not know salvation this way". Hence the Pontiff's exhortation to ask: "What are the consequences?".

Precisely "today's Gospel passage points to two," was the reply. "First of all the closure: 'You did not enter, and those who wanted to enter, you prevented'". Yes, 'these people closed the door to the faithful and the faithful did not understand: they, all their moral theology, made intellectual mannerism, but it did not reach the people and, with that, they drove people away. No, this is not the religion I wanted: this is not the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ'. And, the Pontiff pointed out, "here I think of the responsibility we pastors have: when we pastors lose or take away the key to intelligence, we close the door to ourselves and to others".

"I am reminded", he confided, "and I say this for our edification" of the fact that "in my country I have heard many times of pastors who did not baptise the children of single mothers, because they were not born in canonical marriage: they closed the door, they scandalised the people of God because the heart of these pastors had lost the key to knowledge". More: 'Without going so far back in time and space, three months ago, in a town, a mother wanted to baptise her newborn son, but she was civilly married to a divorced man. The parish priest said 'yes, yes, I will baptise the child but your husband is divorced, stay out, he cannot be present at the ceremony'". And 'this happens today', he said, because 'the Pharisees, the doctors of the law are not things of those times: even today there are many of them'.

For this reason, the Pope said, "it is necessary to pray for us pastors, so that we do not lose the key to knowledge and do not close the door to us and to the people who want to enter".

"And the second consequence," he continued, "is also what the Gospel says: 'When he had gone out from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to treat him in a hostile manner and to make him speak on many subjects, laying snares for him in order to surprise him with a few words that came out of his own mouth'". This is "a corrupt attitude" and "this is the second consequence: when one loses the key to knowledge, whether in the gratuitousness of salvation or in the nearness of God or in works of mercy, one arrives at corruption". And "how do the pastors of those times end up? By laying snares for the Lord to make him fall into the trap and then be able to accuse and condemn him, as they did". In conclusion, the Pontiff suggested asking "the Lord for the grace of the memory of our salvation, of the gratuitousness of salvation, of the closeness of God - and this let us pray - and for the concreteness of the works of mercy that the Lord wants from us, whether material or spiritual, but concrete". With the hope that the Lord "gives us this grace" so that "we can become people who help open the door and to ourselves and to others."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 20/10/2017]