Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Agnes Church, Manhattan
The Most Holy Name of Jesus
January 5, 2020
Acts 4:8-12, Lk 2:21
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided today’s homily:
In the preparation for and the celebration of Christmas, we ponder repeatedly the words of Isaiah, quoted by St. Matthew, that “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prohpet: ‘Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.” (Mt 1:23) We meditate on the words of the Angel of the Lord to Mary in Nazareth, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus” (Lk 1:31), and to Joseph in a dream, Mary “will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). We contemplate two essential realities: that by the incarnation and birth of the eternal Son of the Father, God is with us, and with us with a purpose, to save us from our sins and what our sins inexorably lead to, death. He is with us as our savior, our rescuer, the one who enfleshed the Father’s incredible love and action that we might not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). Therefore it’s fitting for us to celebrate within the Christmas season Mary’s and Joseph’s fulfillment of God’s command through his luminous emissary: “When eight days were completed for his circumcision,” as we heard in today’s short Gospel, “he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
Today, however, we’re doing far more than remembering with joy an historical event that took place eight days after Jesus’ birth. We’re celebrating the reality that the God-man has given us a name by which he wishes to enter into a dialogue of thought, word and life with us.
For most of us who speak English in the west, our names have become simply monikers, ways by which people are able to distinguish us from other siblings and most others. When chosen well by our parents, they connect us to one or more saints whom we can invoke as patrons, and perhaps to ourselves or beloved family members. Just as often today, however, as priests who celebrate many baptisms know, names are chosen by parents to connect their kids to movie stars, singers, or athletes; or the names are simply neologisms invented because parents like the way they sound or want to signify that their child is unique.
At the time of Jesus, however, and in various cultures and languages still, names have been chosen eant to signify a reality or a desired reality, something that is often lost in translation. Abraham, for example, means, “Father of many nations.” Moses means, “He who was taken from the water.” John means, “God does grace.” Michael means “He who is like God.” Mary means “Beloved.” Peter means “Rock.” For a Hebrew speaker to use any of these names, it would be like our saying, “How are you today, Father-of-many-nations?” “What’s up, Beloved?” Using the name reinforces the reality, in both the one bearing the name and the one invoking it. Something like this still happens, I think, with some names. For example, when Italians name their daughter Bella, any time anyone speaks to her, everyone is being reminded of the reality that she is “beautiful.” The same type of thins can happen with names like Faith or Joy. For most of us, the closest thing we’ll experience to this is to be called “Mom” or “Dad” or “Father,” vocatives that reinforce the reality of identity and relationship in the one calling and the one called.
That is what is supposed to happen when we called upon the Son of God and the Son of Mary. To say, “Jesus,” is to say, “God saves.” When we say, “Help me, Jesus,” we should be thinking, “Help me, God-who-saves.” Our interaction with the Lord Jesus should be marked by our relating to him as our Savior, God-with-us-to-save-us not just once in the past on Calvary, but still now helping us live in accordance with that reality in every moment. We should have a holy awe to use it, remembering that in Old Testament times it was only the high priest, once a year, in the holy of holies, who would even mention God’s name; for that reason, we should never treat the name of Jesus like just another name, or use it in vain, or frustration, or anger. At the same time, however, God gave us his name because he wanted us to enter into a cherished bond with him, in fact the deepest friendship of all. He doesn’t want us to come into his presence referring him as “Your Divine Majesty, King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” he doesn’t want us to call him “Rabbi” or “Teacher” that imply a certain professional distance, he doesn’t want even want us to use the French vous, the Spanish usted, the Italian lei, or the Portuguese vôce. He gives us his name, because with reverence, he wants us to use the tu in warm familiarity, in some sense the way Mary with maternal tenderness would have used it as Jesus was growing up in the home in Nazareth, the way Joseph with fatherly affection would have used it when he trained him in the art of carpentry, the way his friends would have used it playing in the village. The Holy Name of Jesus is given to us not fundamentally to make us intimidated but to make us intimate.
Jesus wants us to use this name to enter into deep, personal relationship with him. The saints have urged us to do so.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux said, “The Name of Jesus is Light, and Food, and Medicine. It is Light, when it is preached to us; it is Food, when we think upon it; it is the Medicine that soothes our pains when we invoke it.”
St. Anthony of Padua compared the use of Jesus’ name to oil. Just as “oil has five properties — it floats on the surface of any liquid, it softens hard things, it sweetens bitter things, it is a source of light and provides nourishment for the body — [so] the name Jesus has similar properties: it excels every other name, it softens the hardest of hearts, it sweetens the most bitter experiences, it enlightens our hearts and nourishes our souls.”
St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), perhaps the greatest preacher of the Holy Name in history, whose work led to the establishment of the Feast of the Holy Name, who helped to composed the Litany of the Holy Name, and whose efforts led us to add “Jesus” to the Hail Mary after the Biblical words “blessed is the fruit of your womb,” said in prayer: “O glorious name, gracious name, name of love and of power! Through you sins are forgiven, through you enemies are vanquished, through you the sick are freed from their illness, through you those suffering in trials are made strong and cheerful.You bring honour to those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the toiler, you sustain the weary.”
Whenever St. Bernardine used to preach he would end his sermons diplaying a monogram he had made the first three letters in Greek of the name Jesus — IHS — on a tablet and leading those present in veneration and invocation. He would thereby lead many to conversion, as they would grasp that Jesus is indeed with them, seeking to save, sanctify and succour them at every moment. St. Bernardine’s tablet can still be seen at the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome.
How should we relate with intimate familiarity and holy awe to Jesus by means of his Holy Name? There are many ways that we are called to do so.
First, we are called to believe in Jesus’s name. St. John tells us, “His commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). Our faith in Jesus is expressed in our faith in what his name means and the salvation therefore he brings. We call upon him by that name because we believe in Him and what he has come to do.
Second, we should treat the name of Jesus with reverence. St. Paul writes that because of Jesus’ humble obedience even to death on the Cross, “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11). One great pious tradition, taught to me by my parents, is that we should bow our head when Jesus’ name is said. The name of Jesus is not just another word, but the holiest word anyone could ever say, and our external and interior reaction should be wear witness to this reality.
Third, we should invoke Jesus’ name in our prayer. The Catechism tells us, “The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer” (CCC 435). That’s why all liturgical prayers conclude with the words “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus told us in the Gospel, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). He told us repeatedly in the Last Supper, “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it” (Jn 14:13-14; Jn 15:16; Jn 16:26), but also said, “Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive (Jn 16:23-24). To pray in Jesus’ name means more than simply to pray for worldly things and conclude by saying “in Jesus’ name. Amen.” It means to pray in the person of Jesus. Similar to the way a priest acts in the person of Christ in the Sacraments, so we, when we pray, should be asking for what Jesus would ask for. Jesus wouldn’t ask for fame, or riches, or earthly power, or vain things. He would ask for us to become holy. He would ask for the good of our loved ones or even our enemies. He would ask for a peaceful solution to the growing conflict between the United States and Iran and that the world be delivered from evil. He would pray for an end of violence and hatred against his fellow Jews, like the ugliness we have seen recently in Monsey. He would ask for an end to the fires destroying large swaths of Australia. He would certainly ask for an end to attacks on life, the family, human identity and authentic human love.
The Catechism describes, “The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and ‘brings forth fruit with patience.’ This prayer is possible ‘at all times’ because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.” The Catechism describes five different forms of prayer — praise, thanksgiving, contrition, intercession, and personal petition — and we can and should invoke the name of Jesus in all five: praising him, “How awesome is your name through all the earth!” (Ps 8:2,10); thanking him, as St. Paul says, “giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20); asking for forgiveness, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!”; and asking him for the multitude of what others or we might need. We remember how many miracles were worked in the name of Jesus, like the one by Peter which led to today’s reading for Acts, when Peter said to a paralyzed man, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk” (Acts 3:6). Miracles were even worked by people in the Gospel who were invoking Jesus’ name without Jesus’ permission or by people in the Acts of the Apostles were who adjuring demons “by the Jesus who Paul preaches” (Acts 19:13). Do we believe in the power of Jesus’ name to work miracles still? Do we pray with this in mind?
Fourth, we should live in communion with the Holy Name of Jesus. St. Paul tells us, “Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17). People should be able to recognize us as acting in the name of the Lord. St. Paul described the Church as “all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:2) and for that reason urged us, in Jesus’ name, “that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose” (1 Cor 1:10). Jesus prayed to the Father for unity among his disciples (Jn 17), and we need to beg for it, because disunity, especially in things that matter, is like a blasphemy. If two or more gather but to fight, argue, criticize or rip each other apart, Jesus often is simply not welcome among them. The name of the Lord is meant to be glorified in us (2 Thess 1:12), but that glory will involve our seeking to do everything, in word and deed, in his name. Catholics need to be known as those whose every word and deed glorifies the name of the Lord Jesus.
Fifth, we should proclaim Jesus’ name. We should teach others how to invoke it and to enter into friendship with Jesus. We see that after the Ascension, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were constantly proclaiming the name of Jesus. Jesus selected Saul of Tarsus as his “chosen instrument … to carry my name before Gentiles, kings and Israelites,” and he began immediately in Damascus to speak out “boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:15, 27). St. Philip “preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus” (Acts 8:12). So vigorous were the apostles in doing so that the same Sanhedrin that crucified Jesus ordered them on multiple occasions “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18, 5:40). Do we have the boldness to speak about Jesus before others? Do we give witness to him? Today many people are ashamed to mention Jesus’ name because others might mock us for doing so. But when television, radio, movies, the subways, regularly are full of f-bombs and other vulgarities, should we Christians not bring with humility and reverence Jesus’ name, J-bombing others with the holy power his name brings?
Sixth, we should receive others in the name of Jesus. Jesus tells us, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:5, Mk 9:37, Lk 9:48). He didn’t define the age of God’s child. Of course he would be referring to receiving children in the womb in his name, but he would similarly be referring to receiving the poor, the immigrant, the imprisoned, the sick (Mt 25:31-46). Not to receive others with love — as Jesus would receive them, or as we would wish to receive Jesus — is to not to be acting in Jesus’ name.
Lastly, we should be prepared to suffer for the name of Jesus. Jesus tells us, “You will be hated by all because of my name (Mt 10:22; Mk 13:13; Lk 21:17). He says that “they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name” (Lk 21:12), even that those who kill us will think they are doing a holy service to God (Jn 16:2), because, Jesus says, “they do not know the one who sent me” (Jn 15:21). About St. Paul, he said, that he would have to suffer much on account of Jesus’ name, and when Paul was arrested, he said, “I am prepared not only to be bound but even to die … for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). So likewise we should be prepared to suffer. Many of us already endure derision from fight against God through proxy in us. Many of our brothers and sisters in different parts of the Church have it much more severely, suffer brutal persecution and death. Jesus reminds us, however, “The one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Mk 13:13). He is with us as Savior even in those moments. We should never forget that on Calvary Pilate pinned Jesus’ name above his thorn-crowned head, and Jesus told each of us to follow him. His sufferings were indeed the worst evil ever committed, but they brought about the greatest good. Similarly our own crosses are pulpits and are perhaps the greatest opportunities for us to show the power of Jesus’ name and our faith in it.
The Catechism summarizes the power of Jesus’ name when it says: “The name ‘Jesus’ contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray ‘Jesus’ is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him” (2666).
His name contains the presence it signifies to say the name Jesus is to receive him. When St. Bernardine used to end his sermons, as I mentioned, he used to hold up the monogram IHS and urge veneration and invocation. Today we have something greater. We will call upon Jesus’ name and he will come in the flesh in the Holy Eucharist. Today in the Ordinary Form, and tomorrow in the Extraordinary Form, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany. Imagine what it would have been like for the Wise Men, at the end of their long journey, to have finally gotten to Bethlehem and to see the newborn king of the Jews wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, surrounded by shepherds and animals. Imagine what it would have been like for them to ask Joseph and Mary, “What is his name?,” and then to be told, “God saves!” They would have knelt in homage before the reality of their infant Savior and given him gold, frankincense and myrrh together with themselves. Today Mary and Joseph and all of the saints point out the same reality. Today we meant “God saves” O come let us adore him! O come let us call up him by his most sweet name, the only name under heaven by which we are saved. Blessed be the name of Jesus forever.
The readings from today’s Mass were:
A reading for the Acts of the Apostles
In those days, Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.’ There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
At that time, after eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
