How Wonderful His Name in all the Earth

After the Octave of Christmas and its attendant celebrations, it is sometimes easy to forget the subtle but powerful sense of expectation which is conveyed in the last days of Advent. The “days after Christmas” before the Epiphany seem rather nonchalant compared to the cornucopia of special feasts which accompany the beginnings of the Christmas season.

There are some real gems though in the time after the Octave Day of Christmas, one of which is the Liturgical Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus. We spent seven nights before Christmas invoking God under all the majestic, but somewhat impersonal, titles of the Old Testament. There is an almost exact parallelism between the last O Antiphon, “O Emmanuel”, on December 23rd falling two days before the Octave, and the Memorial of the Holy Name, which falls two days after the completion of the Octave. The timing of our Feasts sometimes have something to say to us about their significance. In the dark nights of late December, we prayed for Our Lord’s Coming. Now, we rejoice, that not only he came, but that we know his name. God is truly with us, and his name is Jesus.

We as Christians often forget how powerful the name of Jesus really is. The Jews still have to this day immense reverence for the Divine Name as revealed in the Torah, a fact even noted in the document Liturgiam Authenticam, where the Holy See asked Catholics to cease using hymns which make explicit use of the Tetragrammaton YHVH, which is the mysterious name of God given to Moses during his encounter at the Burning Bush. Although this name is very profound, it says as much as it conceals. Most translators interpret YHVH to be “I am who am”, or, as the Septuagint translators attempted to render it, ho on, which means “the one who is”. This is a neuter participle, which is significant in that God did not apply to himself via grammar any sort of gender, instead perhaps seeking to emphasize his transcendence. This was certainly the understanding of many translators. Some Hellenistic Jews, in an attempt to perpetuate the reverence of their ancestors for The Name, simply said Kyrios, or “Lord”, much like they substituted The Name with Adonai in the Old Testament, which also means Lord. Of course, some scribes simply wrote the original יהוה in order not to break with tradition.

The significance of The Name to the Jews is well attested to by both Biblical and Extra-Biblical sources. Only the Priests in the Temple would use The Name. The High Priest himself mentioned The Name ten times on Yom Kippur. There are several hypotheses as to why the Jews would guard the name of God with such zeal. Some believe it was primarily out of a desire to guard The Name from misuse by the Gentiles. Others say that it was the will of the Priests and the Rabbis who followed after them that the name not be widely known and spoken, so that no one would ever use it casually. All of these, and any other interpretations, seem to possess validity.

The reasons why Our Lord was named “Jesus” have been a subject widely discussed throughout the centuries. The name means etymologically “YHVH saves”. It is a perfect name from many perspectives, but especially when we consider the mystery of what the Tetragrammaton signifies, it’s a wonderful manifestation of the theology/economy dichotomy. That is, what God is in his nature, and what he does in history, are distinct, but related, subjects. God is by his nature what the philosophers call necessary, which means his existence has no other cause outside of himself. It is true then, that he is the one who is, complete in himself. Yet in his interaction with creation, especially as the Savior of the Human Race, how appropriate that the Second Divine Person should receive the name “Jesus”, because he came to save us.

The most famous and emphatic praise of the Holy Name of Jesus in Sacred Scripture is the marvelous Philippians 2:10, where St. Paul rhapsodizes that “at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth…”. It is for this reason that the majority of the world’s Christians have been taught to bow their heads or make the sign of the cross when the Holy Name is mentioned. As majestic as the Divine Name is, it is also wonderful in that with the Incarnation, it is so accessible. It is both theologically and psychologically personal. To have a Divine Person with a Human Name should highlight for us how truly radical this union between the divine and the human became in the Incarnation.

What can we make of all this? Firstly, it highlights for us the grave evil of blasphemy, and also the practice of taking the Lord’s name in vain. The name of Jesus is a name of love, but also a name of power. People are healed, and devils are cast out, by that name. As we are reminded by Moses, “the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Deuteronomy 5:11).

Second, I think we should, especially in the era of “dialogue” and the spectacle of Pachamama in Rome last autumn, freshly understand what our beliefs about the Holy Name imply for inter-religious relations. It is clear from a Biblical point of view that when all is said and done, everyone will acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus. The willingness of some of our leaders, and even ‘average’ Christians, to acknowledge other religious figures or deities as if they were greater than or equal to Jesus should be troubling to us. Having respect for persons and their deeply held convictions does not mean that we abandon our own.

Thirdly, as we celebrate this Memorial halfway between the Octave Day of Christmas and the Epiphany, it may be helpful to recall prayerfully what an answer to prophecy, and to the yearnings of patriarchs, the Name of Jesus is. All of us know by experience that it is hard to be on intimate terms with someone if we don’t know their name. The same is true of God. The name of Jesus is an introduction to the relationship of discipleship. If more Christians used the name of Jesus with the respect and sweetness it deserves, perhaps more people would be interested in what we have to say about Him. Jesus gave us his name, even though he surely knew that doing so would risk our own casual misuse of the same. Risk is always a possibility with love, and The Holy Name of Jesus is just one more avenue by which we can understand how much Our Savior loves us, and what is intentions toward us are, in spite of our own indifference and apathy.