Sacred Signs: The Door

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs. We have often gone into church through the door. And each time it has said something. Have we realised it? What is the door there for? Perhaps this question astonishes you. ‘So that we may go in and out,’ you answer. It is not a difficult question – you are right: but to go in and out there is no need of a door! Any opening in the wall would be enough, with a few planks and beams for opening and closing. People could go in and out; it would be cheap and just as useful: but it would not be a door. A door does more than merely serve this purpose – it talks. Just think – when you pass between the portals you feel: ‘Now I am leaving outside things – I am walking in.’ Outside is the world – beautiful, full of life and activity – but also with much that is ugly, low. It has the character of a market: everyone is running about, everything is spread out on show. We will not call it wicked, but still something of that kind the world has in it.