The Name Above Every Name: Salvation Revealed and Lived
MASS In nómine Jesu
LESSON Acts 4:8-12
GOSPEL St Luke 2:21
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
Beloved in Christ, welcome to this broadcast Mass on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
We also commemorate today the third manifestation of the Divinity of Christ in the Epiphany, being, of course, as we have just heard, the changing of water into wine at Cana of Galilee, His first miracle. The tradition of the Church for many centuries has been to celebrate this Feast of the Holy Name on this Second Sunday, the miracle of Cana of Galilee being the first public demonstration of Christ’s Divinity through miracles. And so perhaps it is wholly appropriate that we remember the Name that means our salvation at the same time as we commemorate this, as it were, beginning of the public ministry—the salvific ministry of Jesus.
We are told in the Epistle by St Peter in the Acts of the Apostles how the Apostles attributed their miraculous powers of healing—and we might say of persuasion—to Jesus. And we know ourselves that for centuries the Holy Name has been the most effective means by which people have come to know the love of God and thus their redemption.
The Name Jesus comes from the Greek Iesous, which was derived from the Aramaic Yeshu. It means “Yahweh is salvation.” From Apostolic times, the Name has been treated with the greatest respect, as honour is due to the Name which represents our Lord and our God.
Liturgically, of course, you will note that every time the Holy Name is mentioned, I bow my head. This is in token of, or in respect of, those words of St Paul from Philippians that were given as the Introit to this Mass: “At the Name of Jesus let every knee bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and let every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.”
Here we might suppose that the bow of the head is an accommodation, perhaps a pragmatic solution, to compensate for not always genuflecting every time the Holy Name is mentioned. The custom for preachers is that every time the Holy Name is mentioned, the clergy in choir will doff their biretta. Indeed, part of the reason why I myself generally choose not to preach wearing the biretta is so that I may mention that Holy Name without having to break things up, as it were, or interrupt myself by performing the doffing of the biretta.
The rule of thumb is that after three mentions of the Holy Name one simply leaves the biretta off, but I figure that as I always bow my head at the Holy Name, that is indication enough.
But consider, my brothers and sisters, how many times do we hear the Holy Name. For sure, we might hear it several times with a very excitable preacher. For sure, we hear it several times in the Liturgy, and every time the priest profoundly bows his head.
There are, of course, other contexts in which we hear the Holy Name mentioned—these less honourably, it might be said. And this, my brothers and sisters, as Christians, we should try to counter whenever we come across it.
For the Holy Name has begun to be used by many not as a form of exclamatory praise, but rather as an expression of exasperation or frustration, as an expletive rather than as an invocation of prayer. How many times do we hear the Holy Name used in this awful way on television, in films? It seems that every macho anti-hero has to swear by the Holy Name.
The same is true, sadly, that what is presented on television or in film is not so much a representation of what is generally happening in the populace, but itself dictates how people behave, so that it is sadly commonplace these days for many people—a great many people—to use the Holy Name improperly in everyday speech, in everyday contexts.
Adherents of other faiths would not allow the names sacred to them to be abused in this way. The Muslims, for example, every time mention is made of their holy prophet, will bless him immediately after his name has been mentioned. They say, “Muhammad, peace be upon him.”
So sacred is the Name of God to the Jews that they will not even mention His Name, and instead say Adonai, “Lord,” and in their Scriptures will use an abbreviation rather than even spell out His Name—the Tetragrammaton, YHWH—substituting letters for the whole Name of God.
Why then do we, as Christians, allow the Most Holy Name to be wrongfully used in the way that it generally is?
Is it not time, my brothers and sisters, as we reflected yesterday, that we should start reclaiming our Christian culture, reclaiming our Christian heritage? For it is, in fact, blasphemy to use the Holy Name in any other way apart from honouring and reverencing the Saviour of the world, the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
In the last few years, Western governments have dropped blasphemy laws, hoping that their new equality and diversity policies will instead encourage people to behave respectfully of others’ beliefs and the things they hold dear. This means that the only way for us to defend the proper respect that ought to be shown to the Holy Name is now by ourselves asserting, as adherents of other faiths have done and do, the fact that it offends us to hear the Name of our Saviour misused.
We have seen how adherents of other faiths have defended their holy personages. We have seen how adherents of other faiths have reacted and responded to perceived blasphemies. For sure, we as Christians should never resort to violence. Nonetheless, we should—we ought—and now perhaps we must—speak up about our feelings on this matter.
Yes, we can argue from a position of respect that it is wholly disrespectful to us, as adherents of Christianity, to hear the Holy Name misused. But we should seek to do so now perhaps more forcibly, using lawful means, as adherents of other faiths regularly do.
Yet the most effective way that we might be able to counter the misuse of the Holy Name is by ourselves being careful and concerned to express to those who misuse it our upset, our sadness, or our offence.
I think I have shared with you before how sometimes people react when they see a traditional Catholic priest in clerical collar enter a room or a place where they might not necessarily expect to see one. They are wont often then to exclaim the Holy Name, to which I am quick to respond, “No—just His humble servant.”
But it should be possible, my brothers and sisters, especially amongst our family and friends, to remonstrate with them gently, calmly, but firmly, and to express our sorrow at their misuse of this Name which is so precious to us. It should not be a stretch, surely, for any relation or friend to abstain from misusing the Holy Name in our presence. It is not too much to ask. Surely not to do so is to allow something so sacred to be abused.
For the Holy Name is the Name above all names. This Name means salvation. It means God. It is all-holy and it is all-powerful.
This is a word—this is a Name—that means something. Yes, all words mean something, but this word literally means everything. For the Name of Jesus, meaning “God saves,” sums up, personifies, and gives a name to the very essence and nature of God.
For it is in and through Jesus that God’s love is ultimately made manifest. It is in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus that our salvation is made possible. It is by believing in the Name of Jesus that, as the Apostles and Gospel writers tell us, we are saved.
The Holy Name is synonymous with God. It speaks to God; it speaks of His love made personal, made tangible in the Incarnation, made tangible in the Word made flesh, and ultimately made knowable and realisable in reference to our salvation.
For all our preaching and all our worship is in the Name of, and by virtue of the meaning of, that Sacred Name. It is all for Jesus.
It should be, my brothers and sisters, that whenever His Name is mentioned, God’s love is made manifest. It should be that whenever His Sacred Name is mentioned, God is honoured and glorified.
We have reflected during this Christmas season on the reality that we ourselves are called to be extensions of the Incarnation—how each and every one of us is called to manifest God’s loving Christ to the world. To see us should be to see Christ in us. In our lives as Christians we should be aspiring to such a level of holiness, such closeness with God, that our own identities may become synonymous with that of our Saviour, so that we might say with the Apostle: “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
It ought to be, my brothers and sisters, that everyone who meets us should essentially expect to meet Christ—to meet Jesus, to meet God.
Again, remember our reflections about the Sacrament of Baptism: how it blesses us, hallows us, consecrates us, makes us temples for the Spirit of God, making us dwelling places and meeting places. We should be so striving in our lives as Christians to ensure that others who meet us do indeed meet Christ.
And this is on a profound level. This is not just about being nice. It is not about giving a pious performance of what we imagine Christ would have been like in person on earth. Rather, it should be that when anyone interacts with us, they feel God’s love.
We said during the Epiphany Octave how we should be striving to become living, breathing icons of the Epiphany—revelations and manifestations of God in Christ, personifications of His love. And so what matters most for us as Christians should be our care, our concern, and our endeavour, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, to manifest charity.
And this is possible. This is doable. As we have reflected before, particularly during the Octave of All Saints, you and I have already met living saints—persons about whom there is something special, something different: those who always have a good word to say, those who are always willing to help and serve, those who are wise and gentle even in admonishment, those who are humble and yet whose presence is unmistakable.
You cannot train yourself to become such a person. You cannot, like an actor, assume a personality or mannerism. These individuals are one-offs, unique as each of us is unique. What makes them recognisable is not something of themselves, but something that manifests through them. And the only way to enable that is to live purposefully, determinedly, lovingly, in communion with God.
We should not be afraid of holiness, but we should understand what holiness is. More often than not, it is we ourselves who prevent holiness—closeness with God—by not addressing the sins that prevent us from receiving His grace and knowing His love.
We all become complacent about sin. We all fall into the trap of presuming upon God’s mercy. Many of us, compromised by worldly values, become confused about what sin even is. And so we carry burdens that prevent us from growing in holiness and closeness with God.
Yet the remedy is simple. Anyone who invokes and implores the Holy Name with a humble and contrite heart will know God’s mercy and forgiveness and realise reconciliation with God. Place yourself in God’s presence, confess with sincerity, ask forgiveness, and trust in His mercy.
For Jesus tells us that anyone who asks in His Name will be heard.
We should strive daily to remember and invoke the power of the Holy Name—to implore it, to praise it, to invoke it in times of need—and to trust in the power of that Name to save. Like St Anthony of Egypt and Christians throughout the centuries, trust and believe in the Name of Jesus.
We should strive for personal holiness so that others may perceive something of Jesus in us and be drawn to Him. We should be living vessels, living manifestations—epiphanies—of God’s love.
We must counter the misuse of this most sacred and powerful Name, trusting its power to give us the strength and courage to speak, gently but firmly, explaining why it must be honoured, reverenced, and praised.
But we will only be heard if we ourselves manifest the power of that Name: God’s love made manifest in Jesus, who saves us.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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