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The Holy Name of JESUS

January is the month dedicated to the Holy Name of JESUS. The name JESUS means “God saves” or “Saviour.” He saves us by reconciling us with God whom we have offended. Without JESUS, there is no reconciliation! And we know that this is a name given by God Himself, because at the Annunciation the Angel Gabriel said to Our Lady, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS” (Luke 1:31). The letters IHS which you often see on a stained glass window or on the back of a vestment is an ancient way of writing the name JESUS Christ. In the early Church it was often used as a secret symbol and could be found on the tombs of Christians.

Our Lord Himself tells us the great power of His Name. “Whatever you ask for in My name, I will do” (John 14:13). “Whatever!” And then in Matthew’s Gospel, He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you” (John 16:23). So that’s an order from Our Lord, that we must ask, beg and invoke in His name, and then He promises everything. If God doesn’t always give us what we ask, it’s probably because in His infinite wisdom, He knows that in the long run, it’s not going to be good for us, but that’s a topic for another occasion.

Then in the Acts of the Apostles (3:6), Peter tells the paralytic, “In the name of JESUS Christ, the Nazarene, walk!” So what Our Lord had promised worked, because the man got up and walked. If there is one main theme of the Apostolic Church it is the power of JESUS’ name – to work miracles, both physical and spiritual.

The second commandment instructs us to reverence the name of God, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” and since JESUS is the name of the incarnate God, we reverence His name. But as we know today, people use the Holy Name recklessly, in anger and even as a curse. We see this often on TV and in films. This is very displeasing to God and is a sin.

The early Christians had profound reverence for the Holy Name of JESUS. In one of the early Christian hymns, which we find in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:10-11) we hear: “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.”

Liturgically speaking, the bending of the knee has been replaced by the bow of the head. This is really for practical reasons. So when the priest celebrates Mass, when he says the name of JESUS he should bow his head. There was a time when many people did this, but like many of our Catholic traditions, it’s fallen by the wayside. But it is a good devotion for all of us to practice, because other people do notice and they may start to imitate you.

But in all dangers and temptations we should call upon the names of JESUS and Mary. And we should pray for the grace to do this especially at the hour of death. St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) said that to pronounce Our Lord’s name or Our Lady’s name at the hour of death is a special grace God gives only to those He intends to save. What a great sign this is of predestination and of salvation.

So let us pray that we will always use the Holy Name of JESUS with love, devotion and reverence. As St Peter himself preached, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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“We have Seen His Star in the East”

With this being the first newsletter of 2024, on behalf of Fr David and myself, may I wish you a very happy New Year! Today is the Solemnity of the Epiphany when we celebrate the three wise men from the East coming to worship the Child JESUS, bringing Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is a continuation of our celebration of the birth of our Divine Saviour, God made man. Up until this point His birth had been revealed only to Israel. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and the shepherds tending their flocks in the field had been told by the Angel of Our Lord’s birth and that they should seek Him out. They were all Jews of course. But God didn’t only come for the people of Israel. He came for the whole of mankind. This truth is represented today by the coming of the Magi.

So who were the Magi? They were pagan kings and astrologers who could never have come to know the True God without what we call the divine condescension (God becoming man). We might wonder how they could have known of the birth of our Saviour by means of a star. St John Chrysostom (ca 349-407) gives us an answer in his Sermon for the Epiphany:

“We read in the books of Moses that there was a certain prophet of the Gentiles, Balaam, who foretold in definite words the coming of Christ and His incarnation from a virgin. For among other things he said: A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel (Numbers 24:17). The Wise men, who saw the new star in the East, are said to be descendants of this Balaam, a prophet from the Gentiles. And seeing the sign of the new star they accordingly believed, knowing that the prophecy of their ancestor was fulfilled.”

However, this was no normal star. It was something entirely supernatural. It appeared on the night of Our Lord’s birth and then promptly disappeared again after the arrival of the Magi. It moved with them and rested exactly over the house where the newborn Child was. Normal stars do not do this. The star was also extraordinarily bright, and although smaller than a normal star, it appeared bigger as it was closer to the earth. These peculiarities are all in the Gospel account. Therefore it seems attempts to explain the star scientifically are rather pointless, since God put it there simply so as the Magi would know the location of the newborn King. The closest parallel we have, according to St Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), is the pillar of fire and cloud which led Israel out of Egypt in the Old Testament. Just as God had liberated His people Israel from slavery in Egypt through the pillar of fire and cloud, He has now liberated the Gentiles from slavery to sin by the guidance of this star. As we sing in the well known Christmas carol: “Oh, star of wonder, star of might. Star with royal beauty bright. Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light.”

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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A virgin shall conceive

With our carol services and Rorate Mass, we have already heard St Luke’s account of the Annunciation several times this Advent, and it’s our Gospel for Mass today (1:36-28), the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

In Isaiah chapter 7 we hear about how “a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel” (7:14). Then in the Gospel of the Annunciation we learn how the prophecy is to be fulfilled. After all, how can a virgin conceive a child, because then she would no longer be a virgin? The paradox is unlocked in the Gospel. The virgin of Nazareth conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit, and she doesn’t just conceive any child, but One Whose human nature is hypostatically united to His divine nature, so that He can truly be called “Emmanuel” – which means, “God with us”. That is God in the flesh, God in the midst of mankind. And His first dwelling is the spotless womb of the most pure Virgin Mary, immaculate from the moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, St Anne.

This is a powerful reminder to us of God’s activity, because without His action, this miraculous conception couldn’t have happened. In other words, He initiated it – He intervened in history to bring about our salvation. God desires our salvation and arranges the events of history to help bring it about, including taking on our human flesh and then suffering in it. This was the purpose of His coming. In the past, people had spoken of God in all kinds of different ways, and God has spoken to us in many different ways. But with the Incarnation something new has happened – He has actually appeared among us and is visible to us. God is no longer merely an idea. We no longer have to form a picture of Him in our minds on the basis of mere words, because He has now actually appeared in human form. As we read in the letter to the Hebrews, “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days, He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world” (1:1)

May God bless you all, and on behalf of Fr David and myself, I wish you a very Merry Christmas (Mary, Christ, Mass) and a blessed New Year.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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St Francis of Assisi and the Crib

Today, as well as being ‘Gaudete’ Sunday is also ‘Bambinelli’ Sunday when it has become traditional to bless the figure of the Baby JESUS for your cribs at home. This tradition was begun by Pope St John Paul II when the children and adults would bring their Baby JESUS figures to be blessed by the Pope in St Peter’s Square on the Third Sunday of Advent, and it continues to this day.

The origin of the Christmas Crib is attributed to St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). He had recently been in the Holy Land where he had visited the traditional birthplace of Our Lord. So he was inspired to recreate the scene in the woods of Greccio near Assisi, on Christmas Eve. St Francis had a friend by the name of Giovanni Velitta to whom he said, “If you desire that we should celebrate this year’s Christmas together at Greccio, go quickly and prepare what I tell you; for I want to enact the memory of the Infant who was born at Bethlehem and how He was bedded in the manger on hay between a donkey and an ox. I want to see all of this with my own eyes.” Giovanni did exactly as Francis asked. Hay was brought in and even the ox and the donkey! Then all the villagers came with lighted candles and torches and sang hymns. Holy Mass was celebrated at which Francis, who was a Deacon, solemnly chanted the Gospel and preached, where he “spoke charming words concerning the birth of the poor King, and the little town of Bethlehem.” It is recorded that after Mass, Francis went to the crib and stretched out his arms as though the Baby JESUS was there, and that the Babe appeared and the empty manger was filled with the radiance of the new-born King.

St Francis, by creating the crib, wanted to show us what God had done for us and how poor He became for us. Our Lord was not a Divine Person hiding behind the facade of a human being. He truly became one of us and “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “His poverty enriches those who embrace it and Christmas brings joy and peace to those who, like the shepherds in Bethlehem, accept the Angel’s words: “Let this be a sign to you: in a manger you will find an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes” (Luke 2: 12). This is still the sign for us too, men and women of the third millennium. There is no other Christmas.” So may our cribs at home help us to come to a much deeper understanding of God’s great humility and what He has done for us.  And let us ask Our Lady to help us enter into the true spirit of Christmas, the coming of the God Man into our world and into our lives.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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Prepare the way of the Lord 

With Christmas falling on a Monday this year we only have three weeks of Advent, so we must make the most of this time. Our Gospel reading today is the beginning of Mark’s Gospel (1:1-8) where we have this extraordinary character of John the Baptist, dressed in camel-skin, feeding on locusts and wild honey, preaching in the desert, and calling everyone to repentance. We are told that this is to prepare a way for the Lord and to make His paths straight. This doesn’t refer to anything physical. We’re not suddenly going to get rid of all winding roads! Rather it’s a matter of preparing our hearts and souls for the coming of Our Lord at Christmas. That’s the point of this reading. 

So is there anything standing between you and God that needs to be got rid of? What are your crooked ways? If you were to stand before the judgement seat of God today, what would He hold against you? Whatever it is, that’s what you are called to try and eliminate. This is how we make the Lord’s paths straight and prepare for His coming.

Advent, therefore, is a very good time to make a good and humble confession of our sins in the Sacrament of Penance. We can easily dream up all kinds of excuses not to do so. For example, “Why do I have to confess my sins to a priest?” Well, Our Lord made the Apostles His first priests and commanded them to preach penance to the whole world. He gave to them and to their successors the power of forgiving sins in His name when He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained” (John 20:22). He wills us to confess to His priests so that we may obtain forgiveness of our sins and be delivered from eternal punishment. Is it possible to be forgiven outside of Confession? Yes, but only in extraordinary circumstances when there is no priest available and we make an act of perfect contrition, which can be very hard to do – to have deep sorrow for our sins purely out of love of God and for having offended Him, and even in this case we must have the intention to confess to a priest at the first available opportunity. 

Another excuse is, “I used to go to Confession but it didn’t stop me sinning again.” We could also say there was a time when I washed but it didn’t prevent me from getting dirty again. I used to eat but now I’m hungry again! The soul is like the body and it has to be cared for. Our Lord said, “Only he who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Just as you wash and eat for today, so you need to take care of your soul for today.

A further objection might be, “My sins are far too terrible for God to forgive.” On the contrary, there is no sin too great for God to forgive if we tell Him we’re sorry. This is a matter of faith. JESUS pardoned great sinners throughout the Gospel. Think of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10) and the thief on the cross (Luke 23: 39-43) to name a few. If your sins are great, throw yourself at the feet of JESUS like the prodigal son in the parable (Luke 15:11-32). Have no fear. Repent, receive pardon and be at peace.

People are sometimes so foolish as to think they will confess as they are about to die and not before. I say foolish because generally people die as they live, and so the way to die well is to live well. Don’t allow yourself to remain in mortal sin out of pride. And what if you die before a priest can get to you? What if you die suddenly in an accident? We hear all the time of people dying unexpectedly. To think you will confess only on your deathbed is taking a great risk with your eternal salvation.

God’s mercy is a great gift. So don’t hold back from letting Him restore you to a state of grace should you have lost it, and reconciling you to Himself. And the way God wants you to do that is through the ministry of His priests. “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”                                      

Fr Paul Gillham, IC

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