When we
recite that Litany thoughtfully, we know that “Jesus” means, first of all, “Son
of the Living God,” and, as Son of God, the “Splendor of the Father,” the “Brightness
of Eternal Light,” the “King of Glory,” the “Sun of Justice.” Secondly, “Jesus”
means the “Son of the Virgin Mary,” and as Son of man, the “Model of all
Virtues,” “amiable,” “admirable,” “most powerful.” Thirdly, “Jesus” means “our
Redeemer,” “zealous for souls,” who by the mysteries of His life from His Incarnation
to His Glory, “must deliver us from all evil,” from “eternal death,” to be our “Christ
of Glory.” The life of Jesus explains and illustrates the Name of Jesus. Our
devotion to the Holy Name must not be separated in thought or word from the
personality of Jesus, even as the Church forbids us to picture or paint the
Sacred Heart separate from the Divine Body. All the devotions to the Son of God
have in common that sacred personality of Christ, even as in the Masses which
commemorate the various mysteries, the Canon is practically the same. The Collects,
Epistle, and Gospel differ. They call our attention to and fix it upon some
special mystery or some special virtue of Christ, thereby casting a new,
bright, heavenly light on the Canon of the Mass. They make the whole Mass, for
instance, in honor of the Holy Name, seem to differ much from that of the
Sacred Heart, or from that of the Precious Blood, thus proving the greatness of
Christ, and our littleness.
As St.
Paul was called to carry that Name to the Gentiles, to the kings, and to the
children of Israel, every priest has that same sublime mission. Even every
Catholic layman, in this respect, belongs to the “Kingly Priesthood.”
“Carry My Name to all nations,” said the Master to all His disciples. A great,
providential help to bring that adorable Name in its full meaning before the
people is the Holy Name Society. Its end is not merely negative, to avoid and
prevent sins against the Second Commandment. Its first and most important end
is positive, to make known the meaning of that Name, to plant it in the heart
of every individual that it may take root, grow and bear fruit that every man
may feel the sweet, adorable sentiments so well expressed in the hymn of the
Vespers of the Holy Name:
Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest.
No sound, no harmony so gay,
Can art or music frame;
No thought can reach, no word can say,
The sweets of Thy blest Name.
Jesus, our hope, when we repent,
Sweet source of all our grace;
Sole comfort in our banishment;
Oh, what when face to face!
Well,
therefore, may Levites, priests and prelates, join the Holy Name Society
themselves, fully to enjoy its many advantages, to gain its great indulgences,
to pledge themselves publicly and solemnly to endeavor to fulfill the first
obligation of membership, namely, “to labor individually for the glory of God’s
Name, and to make it known to those who are ignorant of it.”
The Crucifix, the
Great Book of the Holy Name
St. Paul
studied that Name as he saw it nailed over the Sacred Remains on the Cross of
Calvary. He knew nothing “but Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified.”
The Passion of Christ was the great subject of His meditations, as it has been
that of all the great Doctors and mystics of the Church. “Pilate wrote a title
also, and he put it upon the Cross. And the writing was: Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews.” “This title, therefore, many of the Jews did read: because
the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in
Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin.”
As we see the Holy Name there, blood-stained, we perceive its value. The cold,
pale, wounded, pierced, nailed, thorn-crowned corpse indicates clearly the
price a God paid for that Name. “You are bought with a great price,”
says St. Paul. There we see that it cost our Saviour much to become a Jesus, a
Redeemer, a Christ, which means the Anointed, the King.
In that
book St. Paul and others study to see the divine power of that Name. It darkened
the sun; it shook the earth; it tore the rocks in two. “Holy and terrible is
His Name,”
but to the good it is like “oil poured out.”
It healed the wounds of the penitent robber, it strengthened the soul of the
adoring, loving Mary Magdalen. Like oil poured out, it gave light that
enlightened the centurion. Like oil consumed, it consoled the Blessed Mother
and the Beloved Disciple St. John. On the Cross, St. Paul studied it and
learned to realize its breadth. He saw that it is Catholic, all-embracing. He
saw it in the three languages of the world, indicating that it was meant for
the whole world. He saw representatives of all nations standing under it,
looking up to it, and for all of them it was as “music to the ear,” as “honey
to the lips,” as “joy to the heart.” St. Paul saw its breadth, and his own mind
began to broaden in it. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of
the Cross, for which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name
which is above all names, that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.”
Notice in this quotation how St. Paul indeed saw its breadth and depth,
reaching from the heights of heaven to the lowest regions of hell.
Saul,
who had been breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, became the Paul, the lover of all nations. The Name on the Cross taught
him to “become all things to all men,” that Christ-like he “might save all.”
That Name on the Cross taught him to “count all things to be but loss for the
excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ; for whom,” he says, rejoicing, “I have
suffered the loss of all things, and count them but dung.”
That Name caught his mind, broadened and purified it, lifted it up to Paradise,
to the third heaven, and enabled it “to hear secret words, which it is not
granted to man to utter.”
“Be ye followers of Me, as I also am of Christ.”
Like St. Paul, we must study the Holy Name in the Book of the Crucifix. In the
history of two thousand years we cannot find a better book to enlighten and
broaden our mind, to help us that the mind which was in Christ and in Paul may
also be in us. The frequent meditation on the Name of Jesus nailed to the Cross
will help us as it helped Paul to go beyond the narrow views of self, of
worldly considerations, of national limits, and inspire us to communicate with
equal zeal the unsearchable riches of that Name to the Gentiles, the King and
the children of Israel. All who follow St. Paul in studying Christ Crucified
will, like St. Paul, have the mind of Christ, and hear the secrets of heaven.
In the different languages of the people was the Name nailed to the wood of the
Cross. In the various languages of the people must that Name be explained to
the people.
The Crucifix, the
Book of Love
No
apostle expresses his love for Jesus so fervently and emphatically as St. Paul.
“Who, then, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword? Nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
These noble words pronounced by St. Paul, studying that Name on the Cross, he
indeed proved true. Tribulations and distress of all sorts he experienced “in
journeying often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils from my
own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren.”
But all these perils could not separate him from the love of Christ. There came
imprisonments, shipwrecks, scourgings; but all the pains and tears they brought
could not separate Paul from that love of Christ. Finally, kneeling he saw the
sword lifted over his head. It separated his head from his body, but that sword
could not separate the heart of Paul from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This
love which Paul learned from Christ Crucified made his own heart Christ-like,
Catholic, apostolic, zealous. It made him long to “preach among the Gentiles,
the unsearchable riches of Christ,” to make known to all “the charity of Christ
which surpasseth all knowledge.”
It pressed him— “the charity of Christ presseth us”
—to carry that Name to the Gentiles, to the kings, to the children of Israel.
So great was his love for all nations that, if possible, he was willing
"to be an anathema from Christ,"[27
to bring the Name of Christ to them. The Name of Christ on the Cross lifted the
heart of Paul to the Cross—“God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the
world; for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body.”
Let all
the members of the Holy Name Society, “meditate upon these things, be wholly in
these things,”
These words which Paul wrote to Timothy, apply to every priest. Every priest
must meditate on the Name as it stands on the Cross, the expression of greatest
love. The love of Jesus must make the priestly heart love the people, and all
classes of the people. Jesus on the Cross had a loving parting word for all—His
Mother, His Disciple, the penitent Mary Magdalen, the penitent robber, the men
who in ignorance reviled and blasphemed Him. Thus, a priest must have a good
word for all, to help all in the Name of Christ. The Name of Christ on the
Cross transformed the heart of Paul, and formed the heart of Christ in him.
That love of the Name of Christ made him the Apostle of the Holy Name.
Paul Loved the Holy
Name with All His Strength
St Paul
honored his ministry and gave himself to it with all his strength. His long,
arduous mission journeys we all know. He did spend himself according to his own
words, nobly and fearlessly to bring that Name to all nations. Christ had said:
“I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name's sake.”
He suffered with joy “who now rejoice in my sufferings,”
for the sufferings made him Christ-like, and helped him to attain the end of
his mission, “always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies.”
Preaching the Holy Name was the first and principal means he used to make that
Name known. The word coming from so loving a heart, is a living word, and
touches the heart of the hearers. Frequently he used the pen to prepare the
work, and to make the fruit of that work lasting. His fourteen Epistles, as we
have remarked before, indicate clearly that he knew nothing but Jesus Christ.
His
apostolic zeal made him pray for and seek help. Such help he found in his
disciples Timothy and Titus. How he exhorted them to “stir up the grace of God
which was in thee”
as to “meditate upon these things, to be wholly in these things”
to “hold the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in faith, and in
the love which is in Christ Jesus,”
and then to “preach the word, reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and
doctrine.”
All this to make known Jesus Christ. St. Paul appreciated much the help the
saintly women gave him. It is true, he wrote to Timothy: “I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to use authority over the man; but to be in silence,”
yet he names and salutes many of them “who hath much labored in the Lord,”
as “helpers in Christ Jesus.”
Every
pastor, every priest needs help. He sees the harvest great and ripe, but the
laborers few. The laborers are there, but they stand idle, because no one hires
them. The best way to hire the men and get them to work in the fertile fields
of the Lord’s vineyard is to make them Holy Name men. It is most edifying to
notice how enthusiastic and energetic Holy Name men become for the holy cause,
how willing and ready they are to help, if only they have a leader. What good
they can accomplish! Every zealous director will soon find men, young and old,
like Titus and Timothy, ready and willing to help, and able to help. Every
priest and spiritual director will instruct the good women to encourage the men
in their Holy Name duties, and to teach the children at home to bless the Name
of Jesus with their innocent lips. Every pastor and priest should, like St.
Paul, make use of the pen and write about the Holy Name, or the Society of the
Holy Name, in church calendars, in parish circulars, in private communications,
since for every one of us as for St. Paul, “to live is Christ: and to die is
gain.”
St.
Paul, divinely chosen and appointed to be the apostle of the Holy Name,
enlightened by the Holy Ghost, grasped well the divine meaning of that Name and
made it fully his own, “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
And then by preaching and praying, by suffering and writing, by ordaining men
and encouraging women, he taught all to give honor and glory to Jesus Christ, “the
King of Ages, Immortal and Invisible, the only God.”
He said little to denounce sin. The sins of profanity and the vain abuse of the
Holy Name were probably little known in his day. All took the Name of the Lord
seriously, whether they were for it or against it. The mission of St. Paul was
more religious; it was to make all love that Name, and call upon that Name in
their prayers. “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema,
maranathá”
(a thousand times condemned).
This
positive end of the Holy Name Society is too little understood and too much
neglected. To avoid and prevent cursing, swearing, profanity is good, but not
necessarily a religious act. Every gentleman must do that. The Holy Name
Society is essentially a religious society—whose end and means and reward are
religious. The Holy Name must be adored. Every knee must bend at the sound,
every Christian must use it in his prayer, every soul must be saved by it.
Every member of the Holy Name Society is in a special manner consecrated to Christ,
and he receives Communion frequently to remain always in that spiritual, holy
union with Christ.
This is
what is needed so much to-day, when irreligion and religious indifference are
so widespread. Our men are spiritually lame, like the cripple whom Peter and
John met begging at the gate Beautiful of the Temple. Peter said: “Silver and
gold I have none; but what I have, I give thee: in the Name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, arise and walk. And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up,
and forthwith his feet and soles received strength. And he leaping up, stood,
and walked, and went in with them into the Temple, walking, and leaping, and
praising God.”
Our workingmen especially are restless and unhappy. They seek happiness in
silver and gold. The pastor, the priest, must take them by the hand, place the
Name of Jesus on their lips, keep the image of Christ before their mind, let
the light of that Name shine before them, make the love of that Name burn in
their heart, that they may enter the temple leaping for joy and praising God.
St. Paul
received the sublime, the divine mission to carry the Name of Jesus Christ to
the Gentiles and the Kings and the children of Israel. He fulfilled his mission
faithfully. Dying, he could say: "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the Faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for
me a crown of Justice, which the Lord, the Just Judge, will render to me in
that day.”
He will be the crown of glory of all who, like St. Paul, spend themselves to
spread His Name "laboring during their whole life for the glory and honor
of the Holy Name of God, to merit to share in the glory of the apostles, the
martyrs and the confessors, who labored and died for the Name of Jesus Christ."
Clement M. Thuente, O.P.
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Volume 58,
1918.
1 Peter 2:9.
Philippians 2:5, 8, 9, 10.
