New Year’s and Sunday’s Reflection
“They called Him, Jesus, the Name the angel gave Him before He was conceived.” God does not do anything without deep purpose and the choice of the Name of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was not up for grabs. It was a definitive choice and a powerful statement about the Love within the Heart of the Godhead. So let us take a few moments to take apart the name of our Lord. J…E…S…U…S
In the first place the Justice of God must be manifested in the actions of the Son. Justice is that action in which each is given what is due to him. If someone steals from you, Justice demands that to be forgiven that which was stolen must be returned to the owner. Justice requires that a debt be paid. Every sin committed by mankind has an immediate punishment and one which is remote. In Jesus, justice takes its own medicine and pays the price for the lack of love in us by the abundance of Love in Him. All the pride, lust, greed, anger, laziness, gluttony and envy needs to purified from our souls in order to achieve the salvation so desired. In effect the first movement of the divine is to wash all this sin in the Blood of Love Incarnate.
Why does God desire to do this? In order to exchange our humanity for His Divinity. In Mary the Divine was given what He did not possess: a human nature. He receives this nature from the most pure and most humble of His Creation and now directs our lives to accept the exchange He initiated. Our human nature must decrease while in us His Divine Nature must increase. This is the effect of the Divine Invasion. This is exemplified in the most holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We must exchange our humanity for the Divine Person Who unites the human with the divine in order to complete the plan of the Father for the extension of the Divine Family. Humanity is the lost sheep that the Divine Shepherd came to recover.
At the heart of the divine name is the special mission of Jesus: He has come to save us from our sins. Jesus is our Savior and there is no other. There is only one name given in heaven by which our salvation comes to us. Praise the name of Jesus. Give thanks to the name that is above all names and which when spoken every knee in the heavens above, on earth and under the earth is required to bend. So precious is the gift of salvation that only the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity could effect the design of the Father. For this reason the basic truth about the Catholic Church resides in His Name: there can be no salvation apart from His Mystical Body.
To carry on the salvation of men throughout the ages our Lord formed a Mystical Body which has as a mission to be the vehicle of salvation for us all. Catholic is universal. Go to all the corners of the world and baptize everyone in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Those who believe and are baptized will find salvation. Those who reject this gift from almighty God go to the place of their own choosing. God is Love and Love calls all His creatures but Love does not force its will. Instead our reason must recognize the truth of God’s charity and faith leads us to choose to be with our Father and this choice is confirmed by our Charity toward God and toward one another.
Finally, there is the conclusion of the name of Jesus: an “S”. This is most significant because it tells us of the humble love in God. In order to draw us to Himself He climbed upon a Cross. He became what St. Paul calls a “doulos”, which means a slave. He is our Slave and He will do the “dirty” work of paying the price for our salvation. Can you imagine the Love of God? Think about the life and death of the eternal Son and marvel in awe. I couldn’t do that. To go to a Cross in innocence and to pray for those who were mocking you, spitting at you, stabbing you. Humanity shudders in the presence of the Divine. How much we need to understand the Name above all names. Preach the name of Jesus, love the name of Jesus, and live the life that Jesus has lived for you.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
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