The twin commandments of love

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, January 3, as our Church celebrates The Most holy Name of Jesus we are invited to reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Colossians (3: 5-16), entitled “The new life of man”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop.

Reverence for the Holy Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, arose in the apostolic times. St. Paul in his Letter to the Philippians wrote, “So that at Jesus’ name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord”. Just as a name gives identity to a person and also reflects a person’s life, the name of Jesus reminds the hearer of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Keep in mind that the name Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.”

In invoking our Lord’s name with reverential faith, one is turning to Him and imploring His divine assistance. An old spiritual manual cited four special rewards of invoking the Holy Name: First, the name of Jesus brings help in bodily needs. Jesus Himself promised at the Ascension, “…In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them, they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover”. After Pentecost, St. Peter and St. John went to the Temple to preach and encountered a cripple begging; St. Peter commanded, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you! In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazorean, walk!” and the crippled began to walk. Invoking Jesus’ name, St. Peter also cured Aeneas.

Second, the name of Jesus gives help in spiritual trials. Jesus forgave sins, and through the invocation of His Holy Name, sins continue to be forgiven. At Pentecost, St. Peter echoed the prophecy of Joel, “Then shall everyone be saved who calls on the name of the Lord”, a teaching echoed by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans. As St. Stephen, the first martyr, was being stoned, he called upon the name of the Lord and prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. St. Thomas More, the patron saint of our diocese, as he awaited execution wrote to his daughter Margaret, “I will not mistrust Him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to Him for help. And then I trust He shall place His holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.”

Third, the name of Jesus protects the person against Satan and his temptations. Jesus on His own authority exorcized demons (e.g. the expulsion of the demons of Gadara. Through the invocation of His Holy Name, Satan is still conquered.

Finally, we receive every grace and blessing through the Holy Name of Jesus. Jesus said, “I give you my assurance, whatever you ask the Father, He will give you in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full”. In summary, St. Paul said, “Whatever you do, in whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus”.

Gregory of Nazianzus, was an early Roman Christian theologian and prelate who served as Archbishop of Constantinople from 380 to 381. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregorian mission, to convert the then largely pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age.

Saint Augustine was born at Tagaste in Africa in 354. He was unsettled and restlessly searched for the truth until he was converted to the faith at Milan and baptized by Ambrose. Returning to his homeland, he embraced an ascetic life and subsequently was elected bishop of Hippo. For thirty-four years he guided his flock, instructing it with sermons and many writings. He fought bravely against the errors of his time and explained the Faith carefully and cogently through his writings. He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church. His writings influenced the development of western philosophy and western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. He died in 430.

The "Tractates on the Gospel of John" are actually 124 pieces of writing. Augustine used the word "tractate" for any prepared spoken communication. Many of these tractates he delivered as homilies or sermons from the pulpit, and they were copied by stenographers in the congregation; others he dictated directly to stenographers in private, but in a way that they could later be read aloud in a church as a homily by others. His commentary on the Gospel of John is primarily pastoral rather than consciously being highly theological. Augustine's focus in these tractates is on Incarnation, or the Word made flesh. This is not only a distinctive and important theme in the Gospel of John; it was a significant part of Augustine's own conversion, as mentioned in the Confessions.