Monthly Reflection - Spiritual Life Committee

July 2002

 

Holy Name of Jesus

Jesus Christ today, yesterday and tomorrow, just as informing, just as enlightening, and that Name of His is just as powerful today to those who invoke it.

Fr. Judge, Sermon-Holy Name of Jesus Hospital Dedication, Gadsden, AL, Nov. 1930

If you do a word search in the Meditations of Father Judge, you=ll find that the >Holy Name of Jesus= appears at least twenty-five times. Why so many times? As early as 1919, Father had outlined the purpose of the Cenacle, and one of those stated purposes is to exalt the Holy Name of Jesus. So if it was important to Father=s spirituality, then it should be important to our=s now.

In a letter conference to the Missionary Servants in 1928, Father wrote:

We must remember - we cannot forget - that we have a special grace; yes, so specially is it ours, that it is a life work, a destiny and perhaps a destiny given to few-to extol the Holy Name of Jesus. We must, therefore, use it in our hearts and give it to others that they may make use of it in theirs. We must use it in our words and in our writings, use it in season and out of season. Praise be to the Holy Name of Jesus! We can begin and end and carry on our works with that Holy Name, and resolve and work to this end: that all things may confess the Holy Name of Jesus.

There is an incident some twenty years ago concerning the Holy Name of Jesus that I am reminded of: I was home on vacation and went with my parents to visit an older, married cousin of mine. She was showing us something new in her house and I exclaimed Ajeez,@ and she immediately reprimanded me for taking the Lord=s name in vain! I was so stunned I could only mumble a weak apology. After we left I started to get upset about it and thought - How dare she accuse me, a vowed religious, of taking the Lord=s name in vain!

I=ve meditated on the incident many times. And although my cousin probably overreacted, it can also be said that she was probably more attuned to the Holy Name than I was. There is a direct connection to what is in our hearts and what is in our speech. Father Judge wanted the Cenacle to be a power for good. We accomplish that by how we act and by how we express ourselves.

As we become more of the persons we hope to be and of what God wants us to be, we realize that we cannot accomplish it alone. So we come to community to help each other grow. We seek counsel from each other because we don=t have all the answers. And we invoke the Holy Name of Jesus because it is powerful.

So, Afor Christ=s sake,@ and your own, take a moment and reflect on the following:

As we strive to make our whole day a prayer to God, we should ask ourselves: Is Jesus in my mind, on my lips and in my heart?

How often do we invoke Jesus= help during the day? How do we call others to proclaim the Holy Name of Jesus?

Steven Vesely, S.T.