Monday:       The Most Holy Name of Jesus.
Date:         January 3, 2025.
Year:         C
The readings: [1 Jn. 3:22-4-6; Mt. 4:12-17, 23-25]
The message:  At the Name of Jesus every knee should bend.
Prepared by:  Catholic Doors Ministry.
Total words:  1459

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My friends, what a beautiful Feast we are celebrating today! It is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Did you know that the Holy Name of Jesus is so great that it is repeated 977 times in New Testament of the Douay-Rheims?

Today' special celebration, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, is associated with the Feast of the Circumcision. For in accordance to the Jewish culture of the days when Jesus dwelled on earth, a child became a full member of his family when he was circumcised, at which time he received his name.

What is the origin of this Feast you may ask? The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus was officially granted to the Franciscans on February 25, 1530. From there, it spread over a great part of the Church. The Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustinians kept this Feast on January 14th. the Dominicans on January 15. At Salisbury, York, and Durham in England, and at Aberdeen in Scotland, it was celebrated on August 7 th, at Liege on January 31 st and at Compostela and Cambrai on January 8 th.

Around 1643, the Carthusians obtained permission to celebrate this Feast on the second Sunday after Epiphany. Before long, this date was extended to Spain. About eighty years later, on December 20, 1721, the celebration of the Feast on the second Sunday after Epiphany was extended to the Universal Church.

A few years ago, the Catholic Church implemented another liturgical change as to when this special Feast was to be celebrated. This year, its place in the liturgical calendar is found between the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God on January 1 st and the feast of the Baptism of Jesus a week later.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." [Cf. Ex 3:14; 33: 19-23; Mt 1:21] The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him." [Rom 10:13; Acts 2:21; 3:15-16; Gal 2:20] (C.C.C. 2666)

"The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, [Cf. Mt 6:7] but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." [Cf. Lk 8:15] This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus." (C.C.C. # 2668)

On the matter of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, Saint Bernard (A.D. 1090-1153) expressed:

"The sweet Name of Jesus produces in us holy thoughts, fills the soul with noble sentiments, strengthens virtue, begets good works, and nourishes pure affections. All spiritual food leaves the soul dry, if it contain not that penetrating oil, the Name Jesus. When you take your pen, write the Name Jesus: if you write books, let the Name of Jesus be contained in them, else they will possess no charm or attraction for me; you may speak, or you may reply, but if the Name of Jesus sounds not from your lips, you are without unction and without charm. Jesus is honey in our mouth, light in our eyes, a flame in our heart. This name is the cure for all diseases of the soul. Are you troubled? think but of Jesus, speak but the Name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? so that you fear death? invoke the Name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy Name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name. Are you surrounded by sorrow and danger? invoke the Name of Jesus, and your fears will vanish."

"Never yet was human being in urgent need, and on the point of perishing, who invoked this help-giving Name, and was not powerfully sustained. It was given us for the cure of all our ills; to soften the impetuosity of anger, to quench the fire of concupiscence, to conquer pride, to mitigate the pain of our wounds, to overcome the thirst of avarice, to quiet sensual passions, and the desires of low pleasures. If we call to our minds the Name of Jesus, it brings before us His most meek and humble heart, and gives us a new knowledge of His most loving and tender compassion. The Name of Jesus is the purest, and holiest, the noblest and most indulgent of names, the Name of all blessings and of all virtues; it is the Name of the God-Man, of sanctity itself. To think of Jesus is to think of the great, infinite God Who, having given us His life as an example, has also bestowed the necessary understanding, energy and assistance to enable us to follow and imitate Him, in our thoughts, inclinations, words and actions. If the Name of Jesus reaches the depths of our heart, it leaves heavenly virtue there. We say, therefore, with our great master, St. Paul the Apostle, 'If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.'"

Around the Most Holy Name of Jesus is found the nucleus of all creation. It includes the Divinity of God. It is the Name of the fullness of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For Jesus revealed to us the Name of the Father when He said, "Holy Father, protect them in Your Name that You have given Me..." [Jn. 17:11-12]

The Most Holy Name of Jesus includes all the mysteries of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that is found in its liturgy. It is the central point of all the Sacraments.

It embraces the Christian life. The believer begins his journey through faith in Jesus. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, he dies with Jesus, is buried with Jesus and is raised as a new creation with Jesus. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the believer for the growth of the Church that was instituted by Jesus on earth. The believers live their faith in Jesus by manifesting love towards their brothers and sisters in Christ. Individual salvation depends entirely on the final judgment of Jesus.

As the central Feast of all the mysteries of Christ, the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus unites all the other Feasts of the Lord. If there was no Jesus, there would be no birth of Jesus, no celebration of Christmas, nor the celebration of the glorious resurrection of Jesus, no Easter. There would be no Sacraments, no being reborn again, no resurrection and no salvation. A world without Jesus would be a world without faith, without hope and without charity.

As the name of each individual person embraces the totality of the person, the Most Holy Name of Jesus also embraces the totality of the Divinity. When we think of a person, we remember the name and we visualize their image. Equally, when we think of Jesus, we remember His Name and we visualize the image of God in Jesus. "For in Jesus the whole fullness of deity dwelled bodily." [Col. 1:19, 2:9]

So great is the Most Holy Name of Jesus that "God highly exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend; 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." [Phil 2:9-11]

Finally, the Most Holy Name of Jesus by not given to our Lord by man; it was given to the Incarnate Word by God Himself. [Lk. 1:31] Because the Name of Jesus is synonym to love and righteousness, many will be hated because of this Name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [Mt. 10:22]

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The readings...

[The readings were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (C) 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America.]

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First Reading...

"My dear people, we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." [1 Jn. 3:22-24, 4:1-6]

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Gospel Reading...

"Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan." [Mt. 4:12-17, 23-25]

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