A Homily for the Feast of the Holy Name

+ In nómine Iesu omne genu flectátur, cæléstium, terréstrium et infernórum : et omnis lingua confiteátur, quia Dóminus Iesus Christus in glória est Dei Patris. Thus, the Church sings in the Introit of this Holy Mass. “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.” 

Despite the fact that this particular feast of the Holy Name is a relatively later addition to the Church’s calendar, and even though the devotion it fosters may sometimes be spurned as seeming too old-fashioned (or even as too modern!), we need to remember that the words of the Introit come from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians—a text originating in the very first generation of Christian life and faith. Hence, the reverence and ‘devotion’ to the Holy Name to which it gives witness, and the profound faith that gives rise to them, is by no means outdated. Nor is it a peculiar fruit of the devotio moderna of the late Middle Ages taken up and promoted by a-liturgical sixteenth century religious orders. 

Rather, profound reverence for the name of Our Saviour is literally fundamental to Christianity. It is, of course, deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition of reverence for the name of God, which is seen as so holy as to be unpronounceable. The name of God Incarnate, however, is pronounceable, ushering in an intimacy with God previously unthinkable. Christians call upon the Saviour by His name!  

And as we see in the words of St Paul in this morning’s Introit, Christians have sung of this new and personal relationship with God since the very beginning, calling upon His Incarnate Son by name, invoking His power and His strength in times of need and of persecution, giving thanks to Him by name for the graces and blessings received in this life, calling upon Him in their last agony. The name of Jesus has been on their lips throughout their lives on this earth in the Church’s liturgy and in their preaching and teaching.  In the face of the orders of pernicious potentates of different epochs to be silent and no longer to speak of Jesus, the Christ of God, many have died martyrs' deaths utterly confident in the salvation that He brings.

Again: this is utterly fundamental to Christianity. In fact, it is fundamental to humanity. Jesus of Nazareth, God become man, the Anointed One of God, is the unique saviour of all of mankind. By calling upon His name in faith and by persevering in living according to the teaching of the One True Church He founded we shall receive the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life that no secular authority can take away. How can we not sing of this reality? How can we not preach and teach this truth? The eternal salvation of all men and women is at stake!

To do so today, however, brings us face to face with the raging spiritual cancers of our age that go untreated and unchecked to the ruination of countless souls. I speak, of course, of the relativism that denies the possibility of absolute truth in any discourse about faith and morals and of the syncretism that maintains that any and all religions (or even none at all) are equally valid paths to God and to salvation. In the face of the confusion these egregious errors sow (in which the devil thrives) we would do well to listen carefully of the First Letter of St John:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. Little children, you are of God and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 Jn. 4:1-7)

This insistence on the unique nature and role of Jesus Christ is not some traditionalist propaganda or rant. It is the divinely inspired Word of God, nothing less. It is the faith of the Catholic Church faithfully handed on from its origins down to us today. This is why we reverence the name of Jesus by bowing our heads when it is mentioned. This is and with other pious customs. This is why it is the grave sin of blasphemy to take His name in vain and use it profanely or as a swear word. This is why we celebrate this feast, so 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,” and that in so doing every human person might find eternal salvation. Amen. +