Most Holy Name of Jesus
Phil 2: 1-11
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also 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 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
What’s In A Name?
We do not often reflect on the meaning of names. They signify the people who bear them but also the meaning that has been lived in the actions of their lives. This is what is celebrated on today’s solemnity of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The reading for the day, generally considered an ancient hymn, contemplates the meaning of Jesus’ life and presents it as a model for his followers: “In humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (2:3). But why must Christians do this? Because “though [Jesus] was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped at, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (2:6-7). The claim is extraordinary: Find your identity by not insisting on asserting it. Rather, be yourself by entering the world of others and taking up – as far as possible – their perspectives and interests. This is the meaning of the Society that bears the name, Jesus (the Jesuits), and of the lives of all who practice an Ignatian way of living.
What is one way that you can more deeply enter into this way of living?
—Timothy Perron, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province studying theology at Fordham University.
Prayer
O my Jesus, thou art the Savior who hast given Thy blood and Thy life for me, I pray Thee to write Thy adorable name on my poor heart; so that having it always imprinted in my heart by love, I may also have it ever on my lips, by invoking it in all my necessities. If the devil tempts me, Thy name will give me strength to resist him; if I lose confidence, Thy name will animate me to hope; if I lose confidence, Thy name will animate me to hope; if I am in affliction, Thy name will comfort me, by reminding me of all Thou hast endured for me. If I find myself cold in Thy love, Thy name will inflame me by reminding me of the love Thou hast shown me. I have fallen into so many sins, because I did not call on Thee; from henceforth Thy name shall be my defense, my refuge, my hope, my only consolation, my only love. Thus do I hope to live, and so do I hope to die, having Thy name always on my lips.
—St. Alphonsus Liguori