Readings & Reflections: Holy Name of Jesus Memorial, January 3,2020
The Lord Jesus promised, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do” (Jn 14:13). For “the name ‘Jesus’ contains all…. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies” (CCC: 2666). “You have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 6:11). For there is no “other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). This memorial provides us the chance to live with special attentiveness before the Holy Name. “If you think the name ‘Jesus’ continually, it purges your sin and kindles your heart; it clarifies your soul, it removes anger and does away with slowness. It wounds in love and fulfills charity. It chases the devil and put out dread. It opens heaven, and makes you a contemplative. It puts all vices and phantoms out from the love” (Richard Rolle).
AMDG+
Opening Prayer
“Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit and let me grow in the knowledge of your love and truth. Let your Spirit be aflame in my heart that I may know and love you more fervently and strive to do your will in all things.” In your Mighty Name, I pray. Amen.
Reading 1
1 Jn 2:29–3:6
If you consider that God is righteous,
you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness
is begotten by him.
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness,
for sin is lawlessness.
You know that he was revealed to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin.
No one who remains in him sins;
no one who sins has seen him or known him.
The word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4
R. (3cd) All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.
Alleluia
Jn 1:14a, 12a
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jn 1:29-34
John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him,
but the reason why I came baptizing with water
was that he might be made known to Israel.”
John testified further, saying,
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky
and remain upon him.
I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain,
he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection 1 – Jesus the lamb of God
‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him’(“I confess I did not recognize him.”)
Quite an awful number of times, Jesus was right there at the doorsteps of my heart yet I did not recognize Him. Quite a number of times I wonder why I fail to see the Lord in my circumstances, in the people around me and in the way the world has treated me.
Life to me seems to be a contradiction especially when I begin to focus on myself. All that I see and feel are one and the same: me, myself and what is mine. It is only those that evolve around me and those that cater to me which I recognize. At times, hardly could I feel God and His presence in anything I do. Likewise hardly could I see Him in others. (“I confess I did not recognize him.”)
This is the situation I find myself in when my heart is blotted by my sinfulness and my heart is under the control of my emotions. This is my pitiful circumstance when anger fills my heart, when joy, peace and understanding give way to my brokenness and everything else falls apart. Worst of all, I fail to see God and His ways, His thoughts, His love and all that He has sent me so that I may draw closer to Him. I become blind to self, hardened to my self-righteousness and cause me to be indignant to anything that shows some semblance of opposition to what I want and hope to pursue. I have no space for our Lord and His love. My unforgiveness becomes dominant as bitterness is the flavor my life. These are the times when “I confess I did not recognize Him.”
Today’s first reading says: “We are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him.”
If we are God’s children, then we should be able to recognize Him, not only in moments of blissful joy but even amidst adversities. If we are God’s children then we should be godly people who seek Him and His Word. We should be looking for anything that flows from a deep relationship with Him through fellow believers, through the same body of Christ. As godly people, we get the nourishment , encouragement and refreshment from the Word of God. We are closely drawn to our Lord and with His strength we endure the storms of life. We are fruitful in our work and we prosper in what we do. We are content and not anxious that peace and serenity of heart mark our lives.
But most important of all, as God’s children, we should have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We may be broken, quite rough on the edges and at times be prone to sin yet with Jesus dwelling in us, we slowly but surely attain the character of God. With Jesus in our hearts, we shall be like Him in our ways.
Today, as we all journey back to our heavenly home and be confronted with countless trials and difficulties the question that comes to heart is whether we have gone out of our way in knowing Christ in a very intimate way. Have we sought perfection in Christ to even want to become like him up to the cross?
Our goal is to strive for perfection by casting away sin as we are all obligated to throw off sin. “Let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us let us persevere in running the race which lies ahead. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
John, the Baptist said, ‘Now I have seen for myself and have testified. This is God’s Chosen One.’ If one day we are able to finish the race with Jesus continuing to dwell in our hearts, no one else but the Father will testify to the truth that in Jesus we are His Chosen Ones.
Rejoice! “Sing joyfully to the Lord all you lands. Break into song, sing praise. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God!”
Direction
Admit fault once revealed and remain reconciled with our neighbor. (The man who remains in him does not sin. The man who sins has not seen him nor known him.” Abide in God! Remain connected to Him!)
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I need your grace and blessing so that I may see you and recognize you amidst my sinfulness. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reflection 2 – Behold the Lamb of God!
John calls Jesus the Lamb of God and thus signifies Jesus’ mission as the One who redeems us from our sins. The blood of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) delivered the Israelites in Egypt from slavery and death. The Lord Jesus freely offered up his life for us on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Corinthians 5:7). The blood which he poured out for us on the cross cleanses, heals, and frees us from our slavery to sin, and from the “wages of sin which is death” (Romans 6:23) and the “destruction of both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
John points to Jesus’ saving mission – to offer up his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins
It is significant that John was the son of Zachariah, a priest of Israel who participated in the daily sacrifice of a lamb in the temple for the sins of the people (Exodus 29). John recognized that Jesus was the perfect unblemished lamb offered by the Father in heaven as the one and only sacrifice that could cancel the debt of sin, and free us from death and the destruction of body and soul in hell.
The Holy Spirit reveals who Jesus truly is – the Son of God and Savior of the world
When John says he did not know Jesus (John 1:31,33) he was referring to the hidden reality of Jesus’ divinity. But the Holy Spirit in that hour revealed to John Jesus’ true nature, such that John bore witness that this is the Son of God. How can we be certain that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God? The Holy Spirit makes the Lord Jesus Christ known to us through the gift of faith. God gives us his Spirit as our helper and guide who opens our hearts and minds to receive and comprehend the great mystery and plan of God – to unite all things in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10).
Do you want to grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ? Ask the Lord to pour his Holy Spirit upon you to deepen your faith, hope, and love for God and for the plan he has for your life.
“Lord Jesus Christ, fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit and let me grow in the knowledge of your great love and truth. Let your Spirit be aflame in my heart that I may know and love you more fervently and strive to do your will in all things.” – Read the source: http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2020/jan3.htm
Reflection 3 – Who takes away the sins of the world?
Every time we celebrate Mass, we say, “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” This prayer comes from today’s gospel passage, when John the Baptist points out Jesus to his followers and calls him “the Lamb of God.” Where did this image come from, and what does it tell us about Jesus and his impact on our lives?
John was probably thinking of the Passover, the great saving event of the Jewish people, when God rescued them from Egypt and slavery. On the night of their deliverance, the Israelites smeared the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and were spared by the angel of death, who killed the first-born of the Egyptians. The lamb had saved them from destruction. John saw in Jesus the one who had come to save his people and take away their sins. And we know, even better than John did how true his vision was. For Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood so that our sins might be forgiven. His victory over sin and death is celebrated in the Book of Revelation: “I looked… and heard the voices of many angels… and they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.’ Then I heard every creature… cry out. “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, for ever and ever’” (Rev 5:11-13).
On that first Passover in Egypt, the Israelites made a sacred meal of the lamb they had slain, and then set out on their journey to the Promised Land. In a few minutes, in our own sacred meal, right after we pray to Jesus the Lamb of God, we will eat his body and drink his blood in Holy Communion. For the Lamb not only saves us from sin and death, he feeds us with himself and gives us the strength to carry on. The Bread and the Wine are food for the journey – a journey from the slavery of sin to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.
Life is a journey. Where am I headed? How does Jesus help me find my way?
Reflection 4 – Lambs of God
Familiarity, of course, does breed contempt. And our familiarity with this Scripture we have heard year after year helps us to miss the impact of what the prophet, John the Baptist, is saying. In reality he is saying something very startling, very novel, although we have become so accustomed to hearing it that it passes over our heads. John is declaring, “Here is the Lamb of God.” And then he adds a job description: “who takes away the sins of the world.”
Well, there’s lots of “sins of the world” in every age and what takes them away according to conventional wisdom–or is supposed to–are mighty programs, powerful reforms, or the threat of dire penalties.
A case in point. In the 1920s the “sin of the world” was alcohol and its attendant evils. To take away this sin the government introduced Prohibition. It would make the country a better place. And so, as you recollect, the plan was to prohibit the sale and use of alcohol not only by law, but by constitutional amendment. The belief was that without alcohol, industry would be more productive, the country would be more prosperous, drunkenness would end, wife-beating would stop, child abuse would disappear, and poverty would be eliminated.
And so the political movement that introduced Prohibition was built around the theme of “Save the Children.”And the movement swept over the nation as state after state voted to amend the constitution. And at first alcoholism did go down and productivity did go up and society did benefit. But only at first. Then the bootleggers and the rum runners appeared. The speakeasies took over; the gangsters moved in. There were terrible wars and murders and general mayhem. Graft and corruption became so widespread that the law became a joke. The bootleggers even began to operate in schoolyards, selling to children, and recruiting them to deliver the illegal booze. So the campaign for repeal began and again the slogan was “Let’s repeal prohibition to save the children.” And then state after state voted that the Eighteenth Amendment should be removed from the United States Constitution and in 1933 Prohibition was repealed. Prohibition, the powerful program to take away the sins of the world, failed.
Communism was to take away the world’s sin of poverty and inequality. It came in like a lion–full of roar and blood–but for seventy years the top-ranking “equal” comrades got richer and richer while millions of people were massacred in the drive “to make life better.” Communism was a powerful, massive, bureaucratic, atheistic movement with an elaborate spy system, secret police, and censorship that ultimately failed to feed the people either physically or spiritually and so it collapsed.
In the United States, the civil rights movement was to take away the sin of racism and many laws struck a blow for the equality of races, but every day we learn that racism is far from dead. The sexual revolution was to take away the sins of repression and prudery but wound up giving us AIDS, border babies, and a massive abortion industry.
The point is that it is no small thing to come along and proclaim that something or someone would take away the sins of the world. It’s been tried before and hasn’t worked. John the Baptist, it would seem, is a dreamer like all the rest. But that is to sell John short. He is not an unrealistic dreamer. He comes from the desert, from the prophetic tradition of wisdom, and in that wisdom, unlike all others, he gives us a striking metaphor. Notice what he does not say, “Behold the Lion of God who takes away the sins of the world,” that is, a strong, ferocious leader who could fight and conquer evil by sheer force. Instead John says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes way the sins of the world.”
And in this phrase we get something different, the message that self-sacrifice and self-effacement and self-responsibility grounded in faith will take away the sins of the world. It’s the meek who will inherit Earth. It’s the little lambs–and those lambs of God–the little people of principle, honesty, and integrity who will conquer sin and take it away, not the lions of programs, projects, and processes, as helpful and well-intentioned as they may be. Ultimately the battleground is in the heart and that’s where Jesus could shine. John had it right.
Two examples. Recently an article in the paper bemoaned the fact that workers cheat and defraud the country’s health insurance system, thereby adding such a considerable burden to an already overtaxed system as to threaten a total collapse that would cause great hardship to millions of people. But more than that; the article consistently pointed out that these cheating workers who sought and collected fraudulent compensations (often with the collusion of doctors and lawyers) did not even think there was anything wrong, unethical, or immoral about what they were doing. And moreover, it was noted that such desensitization was present by far among the young, those under forty; they were the majority of workers who had no conscience at all about the matter. Such fraud for them was a non-issue as far as ethics went. The hurt given to millions by what they were doing simply does not register. Their behavior shocks the health system and shocks the nation’s conscience. More laws will, of course, be passed; more prosecutions; more “lion” efforts. But, in the last analysis, it must be the lambs–the parents, teachers, moral heroes–who will take away such a sin of the world of the young adrift with no moral rudder.
Flannery O’Connor in one of her short stories tells of two fourteen-year-old girls who used to spend weekends with their relatives. Well, they’re twins and are going through a very hyperactive stage, complete with giggling and secrets. And every now and then they call each other “Temple I” and “Temple II” and go off into peals of hysterical laughter. Finally the aunt demands to know what it’s all about, and after much merriment the two girls try to explain. They begin to relate that Sister Perpetua, the oldest nun at the Sisters of Mercy in Mayville, had given them a lecture on what they should do if a young man should…should…and they just couldn’t finish. They broke into long and repeated peals of laughter and so had to start all over again. They said that Sister Perpetua said that what they should do if a young man should….and again they broke up. But after much hilarity and giggling they finally managed to finish the sentence, “…if a young man would behave in an ungentlemanly manner with them in the back seat of an automobile.” And Sister Perpetua said they were to say, “Stop, sir, I am a temple of the Holy Ghost!” and that would put an end to it.
The girls thought it was hilarious. The aunt did not. But the story carries a point. The point is that if people–the little ones–have self-respect, if they know they are children of God–temples of the Holy Spirit–and take personal responsibility, they need not rely solely on a massive lionized condom program to guide them. Those lambs with self-worth, self-respect, and personal morality will save the world.
Or, if you want a more contemporary example, recall the fascinating movie Moonstruck, that story of a vigorous, even riotous Italian family and their need to love and be loved. The mother of the family, played by Olympia Dukakis, correctly suspects that her husband, Cosmo, is having an affair. And then almost by accident she herself is drawn into what we call a relationship. It’s nothing more than sharing a meal with a man who happens to be very nice to her. And he accompanies her home and it’s a time when they know that nobody else is in the house and he asks if he can come up. And she answers gently but firmly, “No, no, I know who I am.”
That’s not the lion roaring “no!” It’s the Lamb taking away the sin of the world.
“Behold,” said John referring to Jesus, “it’s the Lamb of God who will make the difference. One who will go silently to the shearers, turn the other cheek, pray for one’s enemies, who will counsel that we give a coat to one who asks for a shirt, and go two miles with the one who sought one mile. This is the Lamb who says, Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart, who would not call fire down upon the Samaritans, or condemn a fallen woman. This is the Lamb who lays down his life for his friends, whose weakness is our strength.”
That’s John’s message, his bold, novel proclamation. Salvation is not from the society’s lions. Salvation is from Christ’s lambs. (Source: Fr. William J. Bausch. More Telling Stories Compelling Stories. Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications, 2000, pp. 115-119).
Reflection 5 – How well do we know God?
Why do some people avoid sins that I so easily commit? Why do any of us fall prey to temptations that others say no to without a struggle?
Today’s first reading points out that those who belong to God base their actions on righteousness, and those who don’t know him choose lifestyles of sin.
How well do you and I really know God? Consider the sins you’ve already overcome. How did you stop being vulnerable to this particular temptation? If you remember it well enough to analyze it, you’ll notice that you learned something about God that rendered the temptation powerless.
For example, many years ago I knew a Catholic prayer group leader who was actively involved in witchcraft. Since she did not give me the opportunity to help her see the error of her ways, I was tempted to strangle her with her rosary beads. Whenever I saw her, I did not remain in God; my thoughts did not stay pure and I did not behave like a child begotten of the Father.
Then at a Catholic Charismatic conference, which we both attended, I finally heard God reminding me that he loves her. And if he loves her, so should I, for a child learns by imitating the parent.
I ran to Confession for the grace that God would provide through this Sacrament, the supernatural help that would empower me to love her. The priest gave me an easy penance, but I felt God giving me an additional penance: “The next time you see her, give her a hug and tell her that you love her.” My knee-jerk reaction: “What? Are You nuts, God?” (Knee-jerk reactions mean that we’re a jerk when we should be on our knees in prayer.)
Reluctantly, I promised to obey. I spent the rest of the weekend looking for her. Oddly, I never saw her again. All God had wanted from me was my willingness to love her regardless of her sins. Since then, it’s been a lot easier for me to resist this same temptation, not just with her, but with others, too, who are difficult to love.
We will never fully know God on this side of the gate to heaven. When we sin despite a genuine desire to be holy, it’s because there’s something we still need to learn about how good God is and how helpful he wants to be.
Jesus prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.” The more we know what God is really like, the more we understand what’s holy and what’s sinful, and the more horrified we feel about doing a sin. Temptations become powerless.
In today’s Gospel passage, John the Baptizer describes how he came to know that Jesus is the Son of God. The same thing happens to us. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to see and recognize Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers us with understanding so that we can imitate Jesus. The Holy Spirit enables us to behave as true children of the Father. – Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2019-01-03
Reflection 6 – Behold! The Eucharist is the Lamb of God!
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In every Mass, we hear the presiding priest say the words of John the Baptist that are quoted in today’s Gospel passage: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Behold what? A wafer of bread? The priest isn’t showing us something that’s visible to our eyes. “Behold” means, “Look with the vision of faith and see Jesus! He is here! Accept him! Worship him! Receive him!”
To which we reply with the humility of the centurion in Luke 7:6: “Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the Word and my soul shall be healed.”
With this healing, we are set free from our sins, thanks to the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass if we were truly repentant. With this healing, we receive Jesus in all of his humanity and his divinity. With this healing, we can leave church reformed and renewed into the likeness of Jesus. We become tabernacles of his True Presence.
Is Mass that kind of experience for you? It requires full attention for what’s going on in the Mass — in all parts of the Mass.
Jesus is present in the community song that initiates the Mass.
Jesus is present in the Penitential Rite, listening for sincerity and genuine awareness of our need to repent from sin.
Jesus is present in the Liturgy of the Word: the Word read and the Word preached, the Word broken open like bread to nourish our spiritual growth (and when the homily is poor or absent, the Holy Spirit preaches to us privately; straying thoughts are often an action of God). Jesus is also present in all the prayers of Mass.
Like John the Baptist, we can say: “I did not know him” (v. 31). In other words: “I saw only bread and wine, but the Holy Spirit revealed to me the presence of my beloved Savior” or “I was sinful and didn’t realize the damage I had done, but the Holy Spirit gently exposed my sins and gave me help in overcoming them” or “I was wounded and did not know how to be healed, but the Holy Spirit led me to the right resources, the right counselor, the right doctor.”
Today’s first reading says that we are God’s children now; however, what we shall be after we die in Christ has not yet been revealed. We won’t know it or understand it or experience it until we die, and then “we shall be like him.” We’re only partially like him now, because we only partially understand him. After death, “we shall see him as he is” fully, and then we will want to be like him fully; in whatever ways we are not like him we will gladly purge from us (which is the process called purgatory).
During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the bread stops being bread and becomes the Body of Jesus, and the wine becomes his Blood, time disappears and we’re united to our Lord who lives in eternity. Through the Eucharist, we experience a taste of heaven. We become like Jesus, and we remain like him after Mass in the ways that we imitate him. – Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2018-01-03
This reflection is also available as a distributable leaflet at catholicdr.com/faith-enrichment/behold-eucharist-is-lamb-of-god/.
Reflection 7 – The Lamb’s Holy Name
“The Father undoubtedly gives to all those in glory, the knowledge of the Son whose Father he is. Therefore, if they have the Name of the Father written on their foreheads, that is, if they have it in their mind, then they are not able to be ignorant of the Name of the Son….
“Moreover, Scripture tells us that the Name of the Father of the Son, written on the foreheads and mins of the saints, is written there by the finger of the Living God, which, as explained in Exodus 32, is the Holy Spirit. Thus, through the testimony of these first two, we come, in glory, to one Name in three persons, which constitutes the glory of the saints. It follows then… those who follow the Lamb are said to have his Name and the Name of his Father written on their foreheads…
“O glorious Name! O Name so full of grace! O most powerful and loving Name! By you sin is forgiven, enemies are vanquished and the sick healed. Through you the patient are given strength and the afflicted consoled. You are the pride of the believer, a teaching theologian, the strength of the laborer, the sustainer of the weak, the fire of fervor and the heat of ardent love. You are the desire of those that pray, the inebriating liquor of the contemplative soul, and the glory of those who are triumphant in heaven, with whom, O sweet Jesus, allow us also to co-reign through your most Holy Name, that with the Father and the Holy Spirit, together with all the Holy Saints in glory, we might glory and triumph and reign for ever and ever, Amen (St. Bernardine of Siena, +1444, Magnificat, Vol. 20, No. 11, January 2019, p. 51).
Reflection 8 – Most Holy Name of Jesus
In a world of fiercely guarded corporate names and logos, it should be easy to understand this feast. The letters IHS are an abbreviation of Jesous, the Greek name for Jesus.
Although St. Paul might claim credit for promoting devotion to the Holy Name because Paul wrote in Philippians that God the Father gave Christ Jesus “that name that is above every name” (see 2:9), this devotion became popular because of 12th-century Cistercian monks and nuns but especially through the preaching of St. Bernardine of Siena, a 15th-century Franciscan (May 20).
Bernardine used devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus as a way of overcoming bitter and often bloody class struggles and family rivalries or vendettas in Italian city-states. The devotion grew, partly because of Franciscan and Dominican preachers. It spread even more widely after the Jesuits began promoting it in the 16th century.
In 1530, Pope Clement V approved an Office of the Holy Name for the Franciscans. In 1721, Pope Innocent XIII extended this feast to the entire Church.
Comment:
Jesus died and rose for the sake of all people. No one can trademark or copyright Jesus’ name. Jesus is the Son of God and son of Mary. Everything that exists was created in and through the Son of God (see Colossians 1:15-20). The name of Jesus is debased if any Christian uses it as justification for berating non-Christians. Jesus reminds us that because we are all related to him we are, therefore, all related to one another.
Quote:
“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 honor to those who believe, you teach those who preach, you give strength to the toiler, you sustain the weary” (St. Bernardine of Siena).
Read the source: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1909
SAINT OF THE DAY
Catholic saints are holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives. Each saint the Church honors responded to God’s invitation to use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of us to be a saint. Click here to receive Saint of the Day in your email.
Fr Isaac Mary Reylea on The power of the name of “Jesus”. Do not use His name in vain or in common talk but use it in reverence & love. It is the most sacred name & do not use as blasphemy. Give honor to God & do not abuse it.
In 1274 the Council of Lyons commanded ALL to bow their head when hear the Holy Name of “Jesus”.
On January 3, we celebrate the optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus, a feast which gained its place on the Roman Calendar in 1721 by the order of Pope Innocent XIII. The feast had been celebrated by various orders (Franciscans, Oratorians, Augustinians, etc.) on various dates. The feast was removed from the Roman Calendar after the Second Vatican Council—although sources note that a Votive Mass remained— and Pope St. John Paul II restored it in 2002, assigning the date of January 3. On the calendar for the Extraordinary Form, it is celebrated on the First Sunday of the new year, unless that Sunday falls on January 1, 6, or 7—then it is celebrated on January 2, as it is this year.
The Name of Jesus
In the twelfth century, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (attributed) composed a poem, “Jesu Dulcis Memoria”, about the sweetness of Jesus’ Name which Father Edward Caswall, one of Blessed John Henry Newman’s Oratorian followers, translated in the nineteenth:
Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast!
Yet sweeter far Thy face to see
And in Thy Presence rest.
No voice can sing, no heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find,
A sweeter sound than Jesus’ Name,
The Saviour of mankind.
O hope of every contrite heart!
O joy of all the meek!
To those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!
But what to those who find? Ah! this
Nor tongue nor pen can show
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.
Jesus! our only hope be Thou,
As Thou our prize shalt be;
In Thee be all our glory now,
And through eternity. Amen.
In the twentieth century, Gloria and Bill Gaither, Protestant Gospel singers, agreed with St. Bernard that the name of Jesus is special:
Jesus Jesus Jesus
There’s something about that name
Master Savior Jesus
It’s like the fragrance after rain
Jesus Jesus Jesus
Let Heaven and Earth proclaim
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away
There is something about that name
Both St. Bernard and the Gaithers knew Philippians 2:5-11:
Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
because of this, 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.
Since the Name of Jesus was part of the Angel Gabriel’s message to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Annunciation (Luke 1:31), its Feast comes after the naming of Jesus during His circumcision, as described in the Gospel of St. Luke in chapter two: “When 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.” (The Gospel of January, the Solemnity of the Mother of God.)
Richard Whitford’s Jesus Psalter
Richard Whitford was a friend of St. Thomas More and a priest of the famed Briggitine House of Syon Abbey. Both Whitford and Richard Reynolds opposed Henry VIII’s Supremacy: Reynolds was one of the protomartyrs of the English Reformation on May 4, 1535, but Whitford was granted a pension and protection by Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy when Syon Abbey was suppressed in 1539 and survived on a pension in Mountjoy’s household until he died in 1542.
Whitford translated The Imitation of Christ and wrote many devotional works. One of the most popular was the Jesus Psalter, a series of 15 petitions to Jesus, praying for mercy, wisdom, fear of the Lord, and other graces. It emphasizes, with the words of Acts 4:12, that “There is no other Name under heaven given to men whereby we may be saved” and was very popular during the Recusant era. Whitford was continuing a tradition of other English spiritual writers to pray with the name of Jesus. Richard Rolle, the fourteenth century hermit, wrote “If you think on the name Jesus continually and hold it stably, it purges your sin and kindles your heart” and Walter Hilton, author of The Scale of Perfection, also encouraged meditation on the Name of Jesus, which is “full of comfort and delight.”
More Practical Piety
The name of Jesus is not just taken in vain; it is used without concern for how holy and consecrated It is. As one website notes, we should be ready to make reparation for the abuse of the Holy Name of Jesus:
the Catholic in the room will (or at least should) make reparation by crossing himself and praying “Sit nomen Dómini benedíctum!” (“Blessed be the Name of the Lord!”), to which another Catholic who might be in the room replies, “Ex hoc nunc, et usque in sæculum!” (“from this time forth for evermore!”) or “per ómnia saecula saeculórum” (“unto ages of ages”).
As Father Pius Parsch wrote in his five volume book, The Church’s Year of Grace:
The Name stands as a complete summary and description of our Lord’s character and office, and it is under this aspect that it has been regarded by thousands of saints, whose hearts have melted at its mere sound. To them Jesus is their God, Jesus is their King, Jesus is their Redeemer, Jesus is their Mediator, Jesus is their Saviour, Jesus is their great Priest, Jesus is their Intercessor, Jesus is the Captain under Whom they fight, Jesus is the Leader Whom they follow, Jesus is their Teacher, Jesus is the Giver of their law, Jesus is the Spouse and Shepherd of their souls, Jesus is their Light, Jesus is their Life, Jesus is the Judge before Whom they rejoice to think that they must one day stand, Jesus is their final and eternal Reward, for which alone they live.
The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus unpacks in a way, each of those aspects of that “complete summary of Our Lord’s character and office”, and concludes with the prayer:
O Lord Jesus Christ, You have said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Grant, we beg of You, to us who ask it, the gift of Your most divine love, that we may ever love You with our whole heart, in word and deed, and never cease praising You. Give us, O Lord, as much a lasting fear as a lasting love of Your Holy Name, for You, who live and are King forever and ever, never fail to govern those whom You have solidly established in Your love. Amen.
No wonder another famous hymn, by Caroline M. Noel, proclaims:
At the Name of Jesus
every knee shall bow,
every tongue confess him
King of glory now;
’tis the Father’s pleasure
we should call him Lord,
who from the beginning
was the mighty Word.
Amen.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Read the source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Holy_Name_of_Jesus
Altar of the Holy Name of Jesus, with the IHS monogram at the top, Lublin, Poland.
The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is a feast of the liturgical yearcelebrated by a number of Christian denominations, on varying dates.[1] In Roman Catholicism the month of January is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus.
History[edit]
The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus has been celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, at least at local levels, since the end of the fifteenth century. The celebration has been held on different dates, usually in January, because 1 January, eight days after Christmas, commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as recounted in the Gospel read on that day, “at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”[2] Medieval Catholicism, and many other Christian churches to the present day, therefore celebrated both events as the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, usually on 1 January. Bernardino of Siena placed great emphasis on the Holy Name, which he associated with the IHS Christogram, and may be responsible for the coupling of the two elements.
In the Latin Rite Catholic Church it is observed as an optional memorial on 3 January by Catholics following the present General Roman Calendar. Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians kept the feast on 14 January; Dominicans on 15 January; in some localities the date was 8 January, in others 31 January, in some localities in Great Britain on 7 August. The Society of Jesus, i.e., the Jesuits, celebrates the Holy Name of Jesus on 3 January as the order’s own titular feast. The date of the second Sunday after Epiphany was chosen by the Carthusians, then by Spain. This was the date assigned to the celebration when, on 20 December 1721, it was inserted into the General Calendar of the Roman Rite by Pope Innocent XIII. In the reform of Pope Pius X, enacted by his motu proprio Abhinc duos annos of 23 October 1913, it was moved to the Sunday between 2 and 5 January inclusive, and in years when no such Sunday existed the celebration was observed on 2 January; this is still observed by Catholics following calendars of 1914 to 1962. The reform of the liturgical calendar by the motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis of 14 February 1969 removed the feast “since the imposition of the name of Jesus is already commemorated in the office of the Octave of Christmas.” However, the Mass texts of the Holy Name of Jesus were preserved, being placed with the Votive Masses.[3] The celebration was restored to the General Roman Calendar with the 2002 Roman Missal.
In some Anglican churches including the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the feast is observed on 1 January. In the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America since 1979, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ celebrated on 1 January is now listed as the “Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.[1] In the Church of England, the calendar of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer stipulates a festival “The Name of Jesus” to be observed on 7 August as had been the practice in Durham, Salisbury and York,[4] but in the more recent Common Worship resources the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ (1 January) takes its place as the primary festival of the name of Jesus.[1]The Anglican Church of Canada‘s ‘Book of Common Prayer’ (1962) retains the date of 7 August, but as a commemoration, not a feast day.[5] Many Eastern Churches celebrate the feast on 1 January.[1]
In the Lutheran Church, the Festival of the Holy Name of Jesus is celebrated on 1 January.[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e New Book of Festivals and Commemorations by Philip H. Pfatteicher 2008 ISBN 0-8006-2128-X pages3-5
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