From my religious calendar, I see that Jan. 3 is the
feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Is this new? The parish
where I grew up had a Holy Name Society. What is the origin
of this feast day? — A reader in Sterling
Reverence
for the Holy Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, arose in
apostolic times. St. Paul in his Letter to the Philippians
wrote, "So that at Jesus' name every knee must bend in the
heavens, on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue
proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is
Lord" (2:10-11). Just as a name gives identity to a person
and also reflects a person's life, the name of Jesus reminds
the hearer of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Keep
in mind that the name Jesus means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh
is salvation."
In invoking our Lord's name with reverential
faith, one is turning to Him and imploring His divine
assistance. An old spiritual manual cited four special
rewards of invoking the Holy Name: First, the name of Jesus
brings help in bodily needs. Jesus Himself promised at the
Ascension, " ... In my name they will cast out demons, they
will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if
they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them, they will
lay their hands on the sick and they will recover" (Mk
16:17-19). After Pentecost, St. Peter and St. John went to
the Temple to preach and encountered a cripple begging; St.
Peter commanded, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I
have I give you! In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean,
walk!" and the crippled began to walk (Acts 3:1-10). Invoking
Jesus? name, St. Peter also cured Aeneas (9:32).
Second, the
name of Jesus gives help in spiritual trials. Jesus forgave
sins, and through the invocation of His Holy Name, sins
continue to be forgiven. At Pentecost, St. Peter echoed the
prophecy of Joel, "Then shall everyone be saved who calls on
the name of the Lord" (2:21), a teaching echoed by St. Paul
in his Letter to the Romans (10:13). As St. Stephen, the
first martyr, was being stoned, he called upon the name of
the Lord and prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts
7:59). St. Thomas More, the patron saint of our diocese, as
he awaited execution wrote to his daughter Margaret, "I will
not mistrust Him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening
and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall
remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink
because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call
upon Christ and pray to Him for help. And then I trust He
shall place His holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold
me up from drowning."
Third, the name of Jesus protects the
person against Satan and his temptations. Jesus on His own
authority exorcized demons (e.g. the expulsion of the demons
of Gadara (Mt 8:28-34)). Through the invocation of His Holy
Name, Satan is still conquered.
Finally, we receive every
grace and blessing through the Holy Name of Jesus. Jesus
said, "I give you my assurance, whatever you ask the Father,
He will give you in my name. Until now you have not asked for
anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy
may be full" (Jn 16:23-24 ). In summary, St. Paul said,
"Whatever you do, in whether in speech or in action, do it in
the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col 3:17).
Both St. Bernardine
of Sienna (1380-1444) and his student St. John of Capistrano
(1386-1456) promoted devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus. In
their preaching missions throughout Italy, they carried a
monogram of the Holy Name surrounded by rays. In its origin,
the monogram IHS is an abbreviation of the name Jesus in
Greek: I and H representing an Iota and Eta respectively, the
first two letters of the name; to which later was added S, a
Sigma, the final letter. (A later tradition holds that IHS
represents the Latin Iesus Hominum Salvator, meaning
"Jesus Savior of Mankind.") St. Bernardine and St. John
blessed the faithful with this monogram, invoking the name of
Jesus, and many miracles were reported. They also encouraged
people to have the monogram placed over the city gates and
the doorways of their homes. Dispelling the objections of
some who considered this veneration superstitious, Pope
Martin V in 1427 approved the proper veneration to the Holy
Name and asked that the cross be included in the monogram
IHS. Later in 1455, Pope Callistus III asked St. John to
preach a crusade invoking the Holy Name of Jesus against the
vicious Turkish Moslems who were ravaging Eastern Europe;
victory came in their defeat at the Battle of Belgrade in
1456.
In 1597, Pope Sixtus V granted an indulgence to anyone
reverently saying, "Praised be Jesus Christ!" Pope Cement VII
in 1530 allowed the Franciscans to celebrate a feast day in
honor of the Holy Name, and Pope Innocent XIII extended this
to the universal Church in 1721; the feast day was celebrated
on the Sunday between Jan. 1 and Jan. 6, or otherwise on Jan.
2. (Unfortunately, the feast day was dropped with the
revision of the liturgical calendar in 1969 by Pope Paul VI.)
Pope Pius IX in 1862 approved a Litany of the Holy Name of
Jesus, which Pope Leo XIII later endorsed for the whole
Church because he was " ... desirous of seeing an increase in
the devotion toward this glorious name of Jesus among the
faithful, especially in a period when this august name is
shamelessly scoffed at."
Pope John Paul II reinstituted the
feast of the Holy Name of Jesus to be celebrated on Jan. 3.
Moreover, the reverential invocation of the Holy Name of
Jesus as part of prayer or work, and the recitation of the
Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, still convey a partial
indulgence for the reparation of sin. The Holy Name Society,
first organized in 1274 and granted the status of a
confraternity in 1564, continues to promote at the parish and
diocesan levels an increased reverence for the name of Jesus,
reparation for the sins of profanity and blasphemy against
the Holy Name, and the personal sanctification of its
members.
Fr. Saunders is pastor of Our Lady of Hope
Parish in Potomac Falls and a catechetics and theology of
Christendom's Notre Dame Graduate School in Alexandria. Please note: 100 articles of this column have been compiled
in a book, Straight Answers, and another 100 articles
in Straight Answers II. These books are available at
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