The Most Holy Name of Jesus
This Sunday we honour the Holy Name of Jesus, the Name given to the newborn Babe on the day of His circumcision. Last Sunday we noted in the Gospel within the octave of Christmas the prophecy of Simeon about the sword of sorrow that would pierce Our Lady’s heart. Today, we hear St Paul remind us that the Name of Jesus has been exalted because He humbled Himself to the death on the cross. We also hear St Peter tell us that the Name, the only Name that can save us, is that of the One who was crucified for us.
One cannot help but marvel at this constant reminder that the newborn babe with His beautiful, sweet Name has come to save, and in order to save He must suffer. Indeed, we know that the Name Jesus means Saviour. The angel who appeared to Joseph told Him that the Name would be given because “He will save His people from their sins”. When we read the Old Testament, we find the Hebrews constantly in danger and in need of God’s help. The psalms and other canticles beg God to watch over His people and to deliver them from their enemies. But these enemies were always understood as other peoples who were lording it over God’s own chosen race. The enemy was on the outside.
The word the angel spoke to Joseph reveals to us a new situation. God is coming in the flesh to save His people, but the enemy to be overcome is not the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians nor anyone else. The enemy is right there in our own hearts. The enemy is within. The enemy is sin. It is from sin that Jesus comes to save us. That is His mission, and that is the mission of the Church, to save sinners. To save sinners from what? From their sins which offend God and separate from Him, and lead, if unrepented, to eternal separation from God, to damnation. This is why Jesus came, this is why He suffered and died. This is why He instituted the Church and the sacraments.
In our day, St Peter’s words in the epistle have truly become a sign of contradiction. He writes: “There is no salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There is no salvation in any other. There is no other path that leads to God than the path that Jesus has shown us and that is Himself. A pluralistic world cringes when it hears such language, for a pluralistic world believes only in the autonomy of the individual. The language of the Gospel is exclusive, for, while it includes all peoples in the offer of salvation, it excludes from the forgiveness of sins and therefore from salvation all those who do not acknowledge the Holy Name of Jesus, and the Church He founded, as being the only way to salvation. It is certainly a hard truth today, one that so many people refuse and that far too many clergy fail, for that reason, to preach.
But the truth is no less true for being denied by more people. On the contrary, it ever stands as the norm to which we must conform our lives. Nor does it take much effort to understand why it is so. If any religion is a path to God, then every person is his own path to God, which ultimately means only that each person is self-referential. If tomorrow I start my own religion, one of whose tenets is that outside my own little church there is no salvation, and I end up being the only one who believes it, I can do as I please, for all religions lead to God (so they say). But if someone else starts their own religion, one of whose beliefs is that all religions lead to God except the religion of Fr Pius, then we can see without difficulty how absurd it is to say that there can be a plurality of true religions, for all religions contradict each other on major points. Since there is only one God and one Saviour and one Truth, there can be only one true religion. Such is the Catholic truth proclaimed and taught infallibly from the beginning.
This does not lessen our sorrow at seeing so many people who do not know Jesus, or who do know Him but don’t really seem to care. Or who say they believe in Jesus but refuse the Church He founded. What must we do? What can we do when the ears of so many are so deaf to the comforting words of the Saviour, the eyes so blind to the light of His teaching, the hearts so callous and indifferent to all that He suffered for us?
The saints tell us that, against all odds, we must continue to be witnesses to the truth by our words and deeds. Indeed, it is not uncommon that a clear word spoken to someone who apparently opposes it and even violently rejects it, will later bear fruit, for the word of truth has been heard, a seed has been sown, and it may grow later at an unexpected time, for we are made for the truth and cannot rest until we find and acquiesce to it. On our part, all it takes is a bit of courage to sow such a seed and a bit of humility to accept possible rejection or criticism.
But the saints also tell us that it is even more important that we strive to become saints ourselves. How do we do that? By allowing Jesus to purify us more and more, to be our Saviour. And how do we do that? By renewed faith in His love for us and continued efforts to conform our lives to what He has taught us. No one can prevent us from working towards sanctity every minute of our lives. This consists of the persevering acceptance of our daily cross and the constant lifting up of our souls to the true God through simple acts of faith, hope and charity.
In this, we have a model in the one who had the privilege of naming Jesus, that is, St Joseph. Even though He was the foster father of Our Lord, the only man the Son of God looked up to, he knew at the same time that Jesus was his Lord. From Him he learns about God. He learns it by contemplating the Child who accepts to become one of us and to be constrained within the limits of our frail humanity. As Joseph observes Jesus, he becomes more holy, more like the Incarnate Son. Because of this, he has become a most powerful intercessor and an exemplary model of the spiritual life, as is summarised in the following passage:
“We must continue to trust in Saint Joseph. Nothing pleases him more than our trust. And then, we must imitate Saint Joseph: do not speak; do not talk about ourselves; make ourselves forgotten; think of Jesus and Mary; render service to others as much as we can, as Saint Joseph served Jesus and Mary. Avoid asking too many services from others. Manage on our own as much as we can: ask for service when we cannot do otherwise. In short, help everyone and do not bother anyone. And also cultivate, in small sacrifices, true spiritual joy. We absolutely need it to persevere. To persevere we need joy. This is why Jesus wanted to rise from the dead and appear to his friends: so that they would stock up on joy, so that they would understand that joy is behind the cross and even in the cross. Smiling at others is already rendering them a service. For a soul that is in trial, the smile of a friend is sometimes enough to give it courage. And if we are in trial, we must strive to smile… Always see the good side of things, entrust everything to Saint Joseph and never worry” (Dom Augustin Joly, 1965).
In this way, day by day, step by step, the Holy Name pours out its sweet balm over our souls and the daily crosses become sweet, for we know they lead to an eternal kingdom.
