“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
33 …. The ‘Door’ represents two different worlds, two zones, the known…where you are standing, and the unknown…the other side of the door. In the oriental culture there exists two doors; one which opens to the heavens , the other that opens to the underworld.
To protect their holy places from evil spirits, the Egyptians used to ercct, to build, two lions in the doorway of their sanctuaries. In the pyramids, in the narrow paths leading to the sarcophagus, there used to be found an inscription with the words, ‘door of the channel’, whch meant, the door leading to heaven.
The people of Messopotamia believed that at the entrance of both doors, leading to heaven and to the underworld, one would always find ‘divine guards’ watching over the entrances.
This idea of a ‘door’ leading from this world to the other, was very common in the biblical writings. We refer to the very first Book, the Genesis, wherein we read that when Jacob got up from his sleep he said: “How frightful is this holy place. This must be the house of God, and that is the door leading to heaven.” (28/7)
When Hesekiah, king of Israel was still in his youth, he was struck with an illness and felt that death was fast approaching and he said: “I say, I’am still midway in my life, yet I have to leave; for the rest of my life I will stay at death’s door.” (Is.38/10).
When you arrive at the door, or Gate of a city, you enter and find yourself in the centre of the main square, that would mean that you are expected to participate in the public life, in the customs of the people…because you are in their midst. You will be even expected to observe the Laws and, if needs be, even defended by the local Laws. (Ruth, 4, 1-11; 2 Sam. 15, 2; Job, 31, 21).
All court cases were held at the Door, Gate of the city so as everyone present will be witness to the process of justice. This means that whoever was responsible to open and close the Gate or Door, was responsible for the city. This is reflected in the words of Psalm 87, 2:”The Lord built Sion on the holy hills; He loves its gates.”
In like manner if someone manages, by force, through fighting, battle or warfare, to take over the main Gate or Door of a particular city, the conqueror would own the city. (Gen. 22,17, Matt. 16, 18). This was referred to by the Italian poet Dante Allighieri in his Divine Comedy, in the section of Hell, he mentions that ‘Pepe satan aleppe’, which literally means, ‘Door satan won’. In Maltese, the translation is very understandable; Pepe (Bieb = door), satan (satan = satan), aleppe (għeleb = overcome). /34
Certain information,from “Signs and Symbols in the Bible” by kind permission of Mons. Lawrence Sciberras, Biblical Scholar, Gozo, Malta.
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