Merry Christmas!
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Please keep in mind that there will be a Mass offered in the Extraordinary Form on the proper day of the Epiphany which is January 6th. This Mass will be offered at 6pm. This feast of the Holy Name fell out of the calendar following the reforms, but thankfully it has been restored in the current Roman Missal and thus this feast was offered in the Ordinary Form this past Friday.
This is an important feast because it presents us with the name of Jesus. From the account of the Annunciation we are told: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. We are also told from the account of His circumcision: “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.” We are also told of the importance of this name from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians: “Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which 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.”
The Hebrew meaning of the name “Jesus” means “God saves.” Some Greek fathers of the Church would also relate this name to healing and thus “God heals.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “The name “Jesus” signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation, so that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
In the year 1274 Pope Gregory X desired the faithful to foster devotion to the Holy Name especially when they attended the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He therefore wrote and requested of the faithful: “We have also judged it proper to persuade the faithful to demonstrate more reverence for the Name above all names, the only Name in which we claim salvation- the Name of Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us from the bondage of sin. Consequently, in obedience to that apostolic precept, “In the Name of Jesus let every knee, be bent,” we wish that at the pronouncing of that Name, chiefly at the Holy Sacrifice, every one would bow his head in token that interiorly he bends the knee of his heart.”
