The Holy Name of Jesus

The entire month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, and we celebrated the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus on January 3rd, an optional memorial with a rich tradition of devotion. The Franciscans were the first to obtain official recognition for the feast in 1530, and the Carmelites, Augustinians, Carthusians, and Dominicans were early adopters.

Though the feast has been widely celebrated in January, different orders chose different days for the observance. The Church eventually set the feast for January 3rd, a date that now serves as the titular feast day for the Jesuit order because the name Jesuit is a celebration of the name of Jesus. In fact, the word Jesuit originally meant someone who used the name of Jesus too frequently. It was a word invoked as a rebuke against members of the Society before they decided to embrace the title, seeing no shame in boldly proclaiming the saving power of Jesus' name.

In Acts of the Apostles chapter 3, we read of a crippled beggar who lay outside the temple every day. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Then we read, "Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, 'Look at us.' And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, 'I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.'" Then Peter took him by the hand and raised him up, and the man walked of his own accord into the temple, where he leapt for joy.

The Apostles knew that it was the name of Jesus through which they were able to bring healing into the world, just as countless believers throughout the centuries have invoked the name of Jesus to invite people into miraculous encounters with God so they can find healing, both physically and spiritually. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, "The name of Jesus is light, and food, and medicine. It is light, when it is preached to us; it is food, when we think upon it; it is the medicine that soothes our pains when we invoke it. . . . For when I pronounce this name, I bring before my mind the man, who, by excellence, is meek and humble of heart, benign, sober, chaste, merciful, and filled with everything that is good and holy, nay, who is the very God almighty - whose example heals me, and whose assistance strengthens me. I say all this, when I say Jesus."

In every age since the Resurrection of Our Lord, those with the courage to preach the saving power of His Holy Name have been raised up, from Saint Peter to Saint Bernard to all those in our own time who share Christ's message with others in a myriad of ways. We have a chance to be those courageous people today, pointing the way to Jesus by echoing the words of Saint Paul when, in his letter to the Philippians, he encouraged his brothers and sisters in faith to believe in the divinity of Jesus and reverence His Holy name, writing, "God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 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."

This essay is this week's "Light One Candle" column by Father Ed Dougherty, M.M., The Christophers' Board of Directors ; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

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