In the traditional Roman calendar today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The Holy Name should bring to mind everything the Lord did for us so that we might be saved.
We revere His Cross and make the sign of the Cross. We also revere His Holy Name. When we hear His Holy Name we remove our hats and, during worship in the traditional form of the Roman Rite, we at times are directed by the rubrics to bend the knee.
What does the Lord Jesus Himself say about His own Name?
In John 16:23 Jesus reveals His unity with the Father and the power of His Name saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.” In Mark 9:38-39 we read an exchange between the beloved disciple and the Lord: “John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.’” The Gospel of John says that, “these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).
His Name points to His Person, and His Person is our path to everlasting life.
Signs and wonders are connected with Jesus’ Holy Name. The Apostles and disciples worked many miracles through the Name of Jesus (cf. Acts 2:38; 3:6; 3:16; 4:7-10; 4:29-31; 19:13-17). The Apostle Paul wrote to his flocks about the Name of Jesus. What he taught reveals a fundamental aspect of God’s will for us who are His images. St. Paul wrote: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 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” (Philippians 2:9-11).
God focuses in the Second Commandment on what we might do with our hands (Exodus 20:4: “You shall not make for yourself a graven image…”) and in the Third on what we might say (Exodus 20:7: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain”).
The Holy Name is worthy of our love and our fear.
Keep in mind not only love for the Name but also the fear which is Its due. Do not exclude from your thought about God or your devotions the healthy fear, reverential awe. In Scripture forms of words for “fear” occur hundreds and hundreds of times. Christians having a loving reverential fear for God.
Scripture is imbued with loving fear of God. For example, this passage the Book of Revelation which can teach us something of awe and fear which is God’s due and is the “beginning of wisdom”. Consider the liturgical worship where you are. Is the liturgical worship of God where you are imbued with sense of awe? Think about that question as you read this:
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” (Rev 19:11)
Our liturgical worship is to be a glimpse of mystery, a glimpse of heaven to come.
God’s Holy Name is sacred. “God fearing” men and women need not have terror of the Lord, but speaking and hearing His Holy Name will warm them with His love. Reflection on the Holy Name will also teach us something about our place before God and all He has done for us and desires to do.
In the Name of Jesus we obtain every blessing and grace for our sojourn in this world and for our eternal reward in heaven. Jesus said:
“If you ask the Father anything in my name he will give it you.” (John 16:23)
For those of you who desire healing of body and soul, consider also this about the Name of God. This must apply to the Holy Name of Jesus. We read in Malachi,
“But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2).
Amidst the vicissitudes of this world we depend in fear and love on His Holy Name, which we invoke in our neediest moments. Let us never invoke it in vain or frivolously!
Blest be His Holy Name.
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Thank you for a marvelous blog post on the Holy Name of Jesus. :)
Thank you for this post; I’m going to print it out to reflect on occasionally. Our family has been attending the TLM for almost 3 years, and while I do prefer this Mass and all that goes with it (like the traditional calendar), I still struggle w/it. I really, really just wish it could be said in English. I know all the arguments for the Latin, and theoretically, I understand & accept them. But I still want to understand what’s going on. I know I’m not alone. My friends who crave a reverent Mass won’t attend the TLM for exactly this reason.
You said something Father, which struck me. You’ve said it numerous times, but for whatever reason, it struck me this time, “Is the liturgical worship of God where you are imbued with sense of awe?” I must answer w/a resounding “yes”. Case closed.
I pray I will keep at the forefront of my mind that Mass is not about me, or me understanding what’s going on. It IS about me being imbued with a sense of awe & realizing that in my humanity I will NEVER understand what is going on – & I don’t need to. The first time we attended a high TLM Mass, our then 9-year-old said when asked what he thought, “It was confusing, but I could tell something holy was going on”. That could not be said w/regards to anywhere I’d ever attended Mass previously.
Blessed be His Holy Name indeed.
It’s surprising how many people don’t know or care that there could be something wrong with saying “Oh my G-d” (using the dash that Jewish people use out of reverence so as not to reproduce that expression) or Jesus’ name as they would use either as a disposable interjection (like “golly”) or as if it were any number of expletives (or alongside them).
I didn’t know saying the name of God in that way wasn’t okay until my grandparents told me when I was 8 or so. I actually had a conversation with a relative over the summer where she said she had no idea saying “Jesus [expletive]-ing Christ” offended me (because she doesn’t believe in Him), and I had been hurt because I thought she knew full well and just didn’t care.
One of our pastors when I was growing up came to us after years of prison ministry (the parish was an adjustment!). He told us about an inmate was letting loose in front of him. “Don’t ever say that in front of me,” he told the guy, and the inmate was very apologetic, also saying he had no idea.
So, to make a long story short, the situation has deteriorated to where a lot of people don’t even know anymore that the Name of Jesus, and of God is sacred. The Fatima Act of Reparation is a good one to know, and in passing, whenever I hear an “OMG,” I try to remember to silently say “Admirable is the name of God,” after the account of a vision of Jesus to Sr. Marie of St Peter:
“Oh if you only knew what great merit you acquire by saying even once, Admirable is the Name of God , in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy.”
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You mention that in the traditional form, there are times when we are directed to bend the knee at the Holy Name. Don’t forget, in the Ordinary Form, we are directed to bow our heads at every mention of the Name of Jesus. Sadly, hardly anyone knows that rubric exists.
In his exorcism memoirs, Fr. Amorth recounts how casually (and yet it is always rather calculatedly, isn’t it?) blaspheming the Names of the Holy Trinity, or most beloved BVM, can be directly responsible for the beginning of demonic infestation, oppression or possession, of the blasphemer, but also, chillingly, the souls around the blasphemer, e.g. the granddaughter of a bitter old man.
Blessed be the name of Jesus.
The Golden Arrow
‘May the most holy, most sacred,
most adorable, most mysterious
and unutterable Name of God
be always praised, blessed,
loved, adored and glorified,
in heaven, on earth and in the hells,
by all the creatures of God,
and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.’
The Golden Arrow was revealed by Our Lord Jesus Christ to a Carmelite nun of Tours in 1843 as a reparation for blasphemy. Jesus said: “This Golden Arrow will wound My Heart delightfully, and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy.”
Dear @Fr Z,
very sorry, but I though we Catholics counted the ban on graven images as a part (an implementing one) of the First Commandment and then “Do not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain” as the Second, and distinguish two commandments against coveting (not the neighbor’s wife, 9th; not his goods, 10th).
Just saying. No offense intended. (After all, in this at least our difference with the Protestants is no matter of faith.)
Television shows like South Park and their vulgar abuse and taking the Lord’s name in vain as a shocking offense in ordert to be popular has entered the vocabulary of many of the youth, in high schools, in colleges, etc. Just as the ‘F’ word has lost all meaning and is applied in any old fashion to emphasize any old thing, Our Lord’s name has subsequently been taken to be a meaningless throw-away word to emphasize one’s astonishment with something. That is rather the point of the evil one. If they world cannot eliminate Christianity in its visible forms and symbols and words, then it will go the route of emptying Christian symbols and words of all meaning by reducing them to the same level of the ‘F’ word as its taken today.
I think it should be pointed out that the point of taking the Lord’s name incorrectly is ‘in vain’, as if, His name was meaningless. It would be okay to say, “Oh my God” under distress or even in joy if you were legitimately calling our to Him to help you or to praise Him. So it’s all about context. Similarly, Christ on the Cross cried out, “My Lord! My Lord! Why have You forsaken me?” Of course He was quoting the beginning of a Scripturaly verse. You may indeed cry out to God and appeal to His name if you genuinely intend to. But do not use His name or call Him in vain when you have no need to.
One example I would use to illustrate to others who have a habit of taking the Lord’s name in vain, even unbelievers, is what if I were to take the name of your mother/loved one, and say it meaninglessly whenever I stubbed my toe or something bad happens or just freely inserting it into sentences like “Samantha F—ing Sue!” Or used their own name instead. How would they feel about that? Or in an explosive way, would they like to substitute the Prophet Mohammed instead? So if they want to practice the tolerance they like to think they adhere to, they ought to avoid saying it.
Given the nearly complete lack of regard for the Holy Name of Jesus today, even among Catholics, perhaps we should consider making this feast a holy day of obligation, but it would have to be moved away from the Christmas season to make it grab people’s attention and be most effective. It couldn’t be during Lent or Easter, either, so it wouldn’t get superseded by something else. Other holy days were instituted in response to concerns present at the time of their institution, so this makes great sense. Maybe if, say, June 18 were a holy day of obligation and priests explained that we were in Church because of the common disregard for the Holy Name of Jesus, people might clean up their acts. If June 18 is a Sunday, it gets transferred to the following day as a day of obligation, no Monday exception. When at least Catholics started giving reverence to the Holy Name of Jesus, the day could be returned to its traditional place on the calendar as an ordinary feast, and everyone would be told from the beginning that this would be the goal.
I cannot support hearing His Holy Name misused. I could not get a co-worker to stop doing so – he thought I was petty – until I made him imagine the office using his wife’s name in the same vein.
I would love to have one of the “IHS” moulds to mount over the door of my house, as is ubiquitous in Tuscany (St Bernadine of Sienna), but have never seen them for sale. Does anyone know of a supplier?
January 3rd is still The Most Holy Name of Jesus, but alas, an optional Memorial.