The Holy Name of Jesus

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“And for this God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all names, so that all beings in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus, and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).

Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. It was a feast that wasn't celebrated for some time but was reinstated by Pope JohnPaul II—a very beautiful feast, whereby we celebrate the name of Jesus; very appropriate, as we adore the Christ Child in the stable in Bethlehem.

“When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus., the name the angel had given him before his conception” (Luke 2:21).

We're told in the [Collect of the Mass]: “No other name under heaven had been given to men by which he can be saved” (Acts 4:12). There's a great power in this name. Christ is to be known by this particular name, and not another one.

St. Irenaeus says, “Through the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, Satan is cast out from men, and wherever anyone shall call upon him, invoking him…, He comes and stands close by, accomplishing the petitions of those who invoke him with a pure heart” (St. Irenaeus, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching).

And so, very often in Scripture and in the liturgy, we find the Church praising the name of Jesus. In the Divine Praises of Benediction, we say, “Blessed be his holy name.”

Today is a day to utter that word with a special sweetness and intimacy and fragrance. That name can bring peace to troubled hearts in difficult moments. It can help us to remind ourselves of our divine filiation. It can help us to summon up the strength of virtue much needed in certain moments when we have a difficult trial, when we need a bit more of God's strength to do something or to say something.

Calling the person by their name indicates familiarity. We could imagine how Our Lady and St. Joseph would have uttered the name of Jesus with great love. “St. Bernard invested the holy name of Jesus with a sense of personal romance” (Ronald Knox, Sermon on the Divine Name).

St. Josemaría in The Way takes up that idea. He says, “Don't be afraid to call Our Lord by his name—Jesus—and to tell him that you love him” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, Point 303).

In the intimacy of our prayer, we can say, ‘Jesus, I love you. Teach me how to love you more. Teach me to learn in the intimacy of Bethlehem these days all the great lessons that you want me to learn. Let me to take my spiritual life more seriously, to tell you that I want to cease all messing in my life, to focus on you a little more and a little better as I see the Holy Family doing.’

The Second Commandment of God prescribes respect for the Lord's name. We could think of all the ways and times in which the name of the Lord is disrespected, and how we, by uttering that name with affection, with love, can make up for so many times that Our Lord must be affected and insulted by the ways in which His name is pronounced.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God” (Catechism, Point 2143).

A name is a gift. When we are born, each of us is given a name, a Christian name. At Confirmation, we get another name. Christianity gives a lot of importance to names. We're not given a number. We don't have our individuality and personality taken away from us in an anonymous sort of way.

The Catechism says the name reflects the dignity of the person, and every human person has dignity. That's why they have a name. When we meet people, very often the first question we ask, and we should ask, is, What is your name? We try to remember people's names as much as we can. It's a great compliment to them.

The angel said, “You shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). It’s very proper that the Son of God made man would also have a name.

The Catechism says, “The Lord's name is holy. For this reason, one must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration” (ibid.).

What do we say to Jesus when we enter into the intimacy of Bethlehem? Very often we could just utter His name in silent, loving adoration. Isn't that what Mary and Joseph must have done?

“The person will not introduce His name,” we're told, “into his speech unless to bless, praise, and glorify it” (ibid.).

Blessed be the name of God, praised be the name of God, glorified be the name of God. “Respect for his name,” we're told, “is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God himself, and to the whole sacred reality it evokes” (Catechism, Point 2144).

If you respect a person's name, often you respect their family, their relatives, maybe the town that they come from, many things that they represent and that they believe in.

The same thing with Jesus. When we respect His name, we respect His mother, His father, the whole of His doctrine, everything that He stands for.

We're told in Scripture that “the good shepherd calls the sheep by name” (John 10:3). God knows us by our name. He calls each person by name. The Catechism says that “everyone's name is sacred” (Catechism, Point 2158).

Some psychologists say that the word in the English language that people most like to hear is the sound of their own name. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it.

It's good manners to pronounce people's names correctly, and to address people by their names. We try not to say, ‘Hey you!’ or give them all sorts of other terms, but to know their name.

For the Jews, names were of great importance. There are some cultures in the world where the name describes what the person will be in later life, or some aspect of their family traditions, in Asia in particular. Likewise for the Jews, when a name was given to someone, it represented what that person was to be in the future.

The name represented the reality of that person's being at the deepest level. We're told in St. John, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Great things are tied up to those who believe in His name. The leper approached Our Lord and said the words, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47).

When we invoke the name of Jesus, we may find that many obstacles disappear, because Our Lord has told us, “All that you ask in my name, I will give you” (John 14:13). That's pretty powerful stuff!

St. Padre Pio says, “Has the Lord not told us that he is faithful and promised never to allow us to be vanquished? ‘God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it’” (1 Cor. 10:13).

In moments of greater temptation, we lose our peace—to be envious or jealous or angry or all sorts of other temptations—all we need to do is call on the name of Jesus, and He will give us all the grace we need to withstand that temptation.

“How could you persuade yourself of anything else?” he says. “Isn't Our Good God far above anything we can conceive? Isn't he more interested than we are in our salvation? How many times has he not given us proof of this? How many victories have you not gained over your very powerful enemies, and even over yourself, through the divine assistance, without which you would inevitably have been crushed? He will always sustain you with his powerful arm so that you may not stumble.”

It's very proper that we would always have the sweet name of Jesus on our lips—in moments of tension, in moments of difficulty, in moments of emergency, and also in the moments when we get out of bed in the morning.

Many versions of the Morning Offering begin with the word ‘Jesus.’ “O Jesus, through the Most Pure Heart of Mary, I offer you all my thoughts, words, actions, sufferings, feelings of this day.”

The name of the person we love is special. There's somebody in your life that you love in a special way and you say their name in a special way, and you'll find it will bring peace to your heart.

There was a movie many years ago called West Side Story, one of the first musicals that was made, where there was a song all about the word ‘Maria.’ “I'll never stop saying Maria...how beautiful a sound can be.” The words of that song are very beautiful. The words really express that the name of the person that we love is special. It changes everything, it broadens our horizons, it brightens every day.

The pronouncement of the Holy Name can lead us into the intimacy of Bethlehem. “Jesus, Jesus, may you always be my Jesus.” “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.” Our Lord said in Isaiah, “I have called you by your name, you are mine” (Isa. 43:1).

The Prelate of Opus Dei on one occasion said, “Let us not forget that Jesus did not come only in the first Nativity, nor will he present himself only at the end of time. Our Lord constantly wants to be present in our souls, and he counts on us to sanctify all noble human realities. He acts through the grace of the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, and also through the example and word of his disciples, of his friends.

“Let us make our way towards Bethlehem, then, closely united to Mary and Joseph. They will teach us to show affection and refinement, to follow him, to fall in love with him.

“The fruit of this greater intimacy will be the aspiration St. Josemaría expressed seventy-five years ago: ‘I want my mere presence to be enough to set the world on fire for many miles around, with an inextinguishable flame. I want to know that I am yours. Then, let the Cross come: never will I be afraid of expiation. To suffer and to love. To love and to suffer. What a magnificent path! To suffer, to love, and to believe: faith and love. The faith of Peter, the love of John, the zeal of Paul’” (Javier Echevarría, Letter, December 1, 2006 quoting St. Josemaría Escrivá in Apuntes íntimos dated December 28, 1931, as cited in Andrés Vázquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, Volume 1).

“Today's celebration allows us to reflect in a special way on the stupendous fact of the Incarnation—God entering our world so thoroughly that nothing has been the same since. The Incarnation has radically transformed our personal lives and the whole history of the world” (cf. Adrien Nocent, The Liturgical Year: The Christmas Mystery).

“For the Son of God”, said St. Athanasius, “became man so that we might become God” (quoted in the Catechism, Point 460). In other words, the Incarnation is a starting point of our divinization. We are not mere passive bystanders in the Incarnation, but rather, by becoming “partakers of his divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), we may work with Christ to rebuild the world for the glory of the Father.

On this day, we can place our joys and our fears, our tears and our hopes, at the feet of the Word Incarnate. Only in Christ, the New Man, is true light shed upon the mystery of human existence. “The glory of God is the human person fully alive” (St. Irenaeus).

Chesterton wrote about Christmas. He said, “Christmas is a time to stand on your head.”

“When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the unexpected. It's the festival of surprise. This is the night,” Fr. Horacio de la Costa said, “when shepherds wake to the song of angels; when the Earth has a star for a satellite; when wise men go on a fool's errand, bringing gifts to a Prince they have not seen, in a country they do not know. This is the night when one small donkey bears on its back the weight of the world's desire, and an ox plays host to the Lord of heaven. This is the night when we are told to seek our King, not in a palace, but in a stable.

“Although we have stood here, year after year, as our fathers before us, the wonder has not faded; nor will it ever fade; the wonder of that moment when we push open that little door, and enter, and entering find a mother who is a virgin, and a baby who is God.

“Chesterton said, ‘And for all of us, the only way to view Christmas properly is to stand on one's head.’ Was there ever a home more topsy-turvy than Christmas, the cave where Jesus was born? For here, suddenly, in the very heart of Earth, is heaven; down is up, and up is down; the angels have looked down on the God who made them, and God looks up to the things He made.

“There is no room in an inn for Him who made room and to spare, for the Milky Way! And where God is homeless, all men are at home.

“We were promised a Savior, but we never dreamed God Himself would come and save us. We know that He loved us, but we never dared to think that He loved us so much as to become one of us.

“But that is the way God gives. His gifts are never quite what we expect, but always something better than we hope for. We can only dream of things too good to be true; God has a habit of giving things too [good] to be false. That is why our faith is a faith of the unexpected, a religion of surprise.

“Now, more than ever, living in times so troubled, facing a future so uncertain, we need such faith. We need it for ourselves, and we need to give it to others. We must remind the world that if Christmas comes in the depths of winter, it is that there may be an Easter in the springtime” (Horacio de la Costa, Homily, as published in The Guidon, December 24, 2016).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty, heaven's glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of seeing the glory of this night.

“To become a child in relation to God,” we are told, “is the condition for entering the Kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become small. Even more: to become ‘children of God,’ we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born of God.’ Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this ‘marvelous exchange’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Points 525-526).

We enter into the stable in Bethlehem to experience all of these things.

St. Edith Stein, otherwise known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Jewess, one of the patronesses of Europe, says, “Come and drink from the springs of living water that the Savior releases to the thirsty and that stream to eternal life. The Word has become flesh and lies before us in the form of a little newborn child. We may come to him and bring him gifts...

“And then, in a new year, we should go with him the entire way of his life on earth. Every mystery of this life that we seek to discern in loving contemplation is for us a fount of eternal life” (Edith Stein, Before the Face of God).

This lady, as a Jewess, she said, spent the whole of her life searching for truth. She found the truth in the Christ Child.

She was later murdered in Auschwitz, martyred, and became a great saint. She said, “A new year at the hand of the Lord, we do not know whether we shall experience the end of this year. But if we drink from the fount of the Savior each day, then each day will lead us deeper into eternal life and prepare us to throw off the burdens of this life easily and cheerfully at some time, when the call of the Lord sounds” (ibid.).

We can turn with great affection and intimacy to the Holy Family. Mary and Joseph would have said the name of Jesus with great devotion and love.

We're told in the Furrow that “Our Lord sent out his apostles to preach and when they came back, He gathered them together and invited them to go with him to a desert place where they could rest. … What marvelous things Jesus would say to them and tell them! Well, the Gospel is always relevant to the present day” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 470).

Like the apostles, if we withdraw to the peace and silence of Bethlehem, Our Lord will also have marvelous things to say to us: marvelous plans for the future, great apostolic plans, divine calls for us to see the mission that He's given to us in our life.

The presence of Christ in Bethlehem is like a personal call to each one of us. “You are mine. I've called you by your name” (Isa. 43:1). “Come, follow me” (Matt. 4:19). See the pathway I'm laying out for you: the pathway of humility, of detachment, of self-giving, of generosity.

We're told also in the Furrow, “What must the cheerful way that Jesus looked upon people have been like? It must have been the same which shone from the eyes of his Mother, who could not contain her joy. ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!’—and her soul glorified the Lord while she carried him within her and by her side. O Mother! May we, like you, rejoice to be with him and to hold him” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 95).

We could imagine the joy of Our Lady in Bethlehem; how her soul “magnified the Lord” (Luke 1:46). Maybe we could dream that she would give us the Christ Child, and let us hold Him in our arms, and sing sweet and loving things to Him, and fall in love with this great Baby who has come to change the world.

In the Furrow we're also told, “I give you thanks, my Jesus, for your decision to become perfect Man, with a Heart which loved and is most lovable; which loved unto death and suffered; which was filled with joy and sorrow; which delighted in the things of men and showed us the way to Heaven: which subjected itself heroically to duty, and acted with mercy; which watched over the poor and the rich and cared for sinners and the just. I give you thanks, my Jesus. Give us hearts to measure up to yours” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 813).

And so, we ask Our Lord to come into our heart, to change our heart, to magnify it in all sorts of ways, in spite of our miseries.

The Furrow also tells us, “The Lord converted Peter, who had denied him three times, without even a reproach, with a look full of love. Jesus looks at us with those same eyes, after we have fallen. May we also be able to say to him, as Peter did: ‘Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you’ (John 21:17), and amend our lives” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 964).

As we say the sweet and holy name of Jesus, He looks upon us like He looked at Peter—with a look of love, inviting us to correspond with generosity to the great things that He asks of us.

And if we keep our eyes on Our Lady—her soul is magnifying the Lord more and more—Our Lady all the time will show us the way to her Son, Jesus.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

RK