EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW

A SERMON FOR THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

Those of you who have had children know what a hard thing it is to come up with the right name for them. You have to make sure it doesn’t rhyme with their last name, or have too many of the same letters, or ends up just sounding stupid.  If you’re naming the baby after a member of the family, you have to be careful you’re not offending another family member by not naming it after him.  And so on.  It’s a tricky business.  Our blessed Lady had no such problems in finding a name for her Child.  In the case of Our Lord there was no discussion.  The holy name of her Baby was already chosen by God, and given to Our Blessed Lady at the time of the Annunciation: “Fear not, Mary,” said the Angel Gabriel, “for thou hast found favour with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.”

Why was this name chosen by God?  Because the meaning of the name Jesus is “Saviour.”  St. Bernard of Clairvaux explains this name in his sermon on the Circumcision.  “My Jesus,” he says, “doth not bear this Name as an empty, honourific title, as did all others before him who were so named.”  In the Old Testament there had been plenty of men who bore this fairly common name of Jesus, or in Hebrew, “Joshua”.  Even today, in the Spanish-speaking world, there’s no shortage of men called “Jesus”.  They use the name “Jesus” like we do with “Bobby” or “Fred.”  After all, it’s just a name, something we’re called and by which we’re known.  But “In him,” continues St. Bernard, referring to the divine Christ Child, the “Saviour”, “this Name is not the mere shadow cast by the great Name of God as our Saviour; rather it is he himself that giveth the true meaning to this Name.”  In other words the meaning of the name Jesus is Saviour, but for Our Lord, it is not just a name but the essence of who he is.  He isthe Saviour.

St. Bernard goes on to say that “it is fitting that the Child which was born for man should, at the moment of his Circumcision, be called Saviour by man: because from that moment he began to work for our salvation by shedding for us that most pure blood.”   On the very day the Christ Child was given the name of Saviour eight days after he was born, he immediately he began to be that Saviour, he began to save us by those first few little drops of Blood spilled by the knife of circumcision. 

This name of Jesus is then truly a Holy Name.  It’s why we bow our heads whenever we say this Name.  And really, bowing our heads is only a simple token of the honor we should give to this Name.  St. Paul tells us that actually, “at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.”  Angels, men, and demons, in other words, should all fall to their knees at the very pronunciation of the Name of Jesus.  Small wonder though, that demons and the men under their influence, like the scriptwriters of Hollywood for instance, prefer to abuse the Holy Name and turn it into the vilest of curse words, rather than the source of blessing that it should be.

 It is a name that brings help in bodily needs, consolation in spiritual trials, and protection against Satan and his wicked snares.  It is in the Name of Jesus that we obtain any and all blessings from God, and all we ask of God, we ask in Jesus’ Holy Name.  It’s why we hear those words at the end of every collect at Mass, Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, and so on—“Through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord…”. For what we ask in his Name shall be granted.

The greatest promoter of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus was St. Bernardine of Siena, a Franciscan priest, who lived from 1380 to 1444.  He is known as the Apostle of Italy for all his efforts to revive the faith in that part of Europe.  He preached in particular against gambling, witchcraft, sodomy and usury, and it is interesting to note in passing how these vices raise their ugly heads whenever the Christian faith is in decline.  As the faith wanes, so does the devil replace the desire for God with the kind of base practices that are so prevalent today—gambling, witchcraft, sodomy and usury.  

Today, the love of money has far surpassed the love there once was for God.  The vices that St. Bernardine fought against in the fifteenth century, gambling and usury, have become the huge financial industry that thrives, usually to the corruption and downfall of the people it entraps.  We no longer gamble so much on horses, but on the stock exchange, the commodities exchange, and so on.  We wake up in the morning and check on our Apple stocks, or find out what is the price of oil, rather than making our Morning Offering to God.   And usury?  This isn’t just asking for a bit more back on a loan than the amount lent.  No, today, it is the banking industry.  What was once a simple way of keeping our money somewhere safe, has become, thanks to the work of folks like the Rothschild family, a huge interlocking machine of lending and borrowing, designed for the sole purpose of making the bankers themselves ever richer.

St. Bernardine also railed against sodomy and witchcraft.  We hardly need to mention the first of these, as it’s in our face on a daily basis.  There isn’t a movie or a TV series on our screens that doesn’t feel compelled to promote some variation of sinful relationship on a level more debased than anything we’ve seen since they figured out how to make moving images.  But what about witchcraft?  You may not have come across examples of this in your life, but be assured that not only Wicca but even out-and-out Satanism are alive and well, particularly amongst the so-called “elites” of our society.  Those who have time on their hands and minds ripe for idling, provide the Devil with his ideal workshop for sewing the most contaminated filth you could imagine.  

A good priest, Fr. Malachi Martin, exposed the use of Satanism by many of the cardinals in the Church, and some of the evidence emanating from the pedophilia investigations in that institution has provided plenty of backup for those charges.  Modern popes don’t seem so anxious these days to preach against these evils.   They seem more anxious to protect the rights of homosexuals than to preach against them, preferring gay rights to God’s rights.   When it comes to false religions, including even voodoo, popes and bishops seem to ignore completely the words of St. Peter in today’s Lesson, that “Neither is there salvation in any other {name]: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Today’s popes don’t seem to have a clue what those words mean, and instead of preaching against witchcraft, John Paul II actually became the first pope in history to praise the religion of voodoo, which explicitly worships the devil.  Now this man is placed on once Catholic altars to be venerated as a saint.  In reality the institution of the Roman Catholic Church has become the seat of satanic worship, with its flat refusal to acknowledge the words of St. Peter that it is only by the Holy Name of Jesus that man shall be saved.  For as we have seen, once you take away Jesus, the devil rushes in to take his place.

And if these “churchmen” are supposed to be the salt of the earth, what does that make us suspect about, let’s say, our congressmen and senators, our leaders of industry, all those in positions of power and influence?  How many Harvey Weinsteins, and Jeffrey Epsteins are there out there, we may wonder?  And how far does all that human trafficking really go? 

St. Bernardine combatted all this in his own day by devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus.  It was by his efforts, for example, that the Name of Jesus was added to the Hail Mary after the words “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”  When St. Bernardine traveled about the cities of Italy, he carried with him a copy of the monogram of the Holy Name, surrounded by rays, painted on a wooden tablet.   With this he used to bless the sick, and many great miracles attest to the efficacy of his devotion to the Name of Jesus.  This monogram or emblem representing the Holy Name of Jesus consisted of the three letters “IHS,” which are the first three letter of Jesus in the Greek alphabet.  Whenever St. Bernardine finished his sermons he would display the monogram on his wooden tablet to the faithful, exhorting them to prostrate themselves and adore the Redeemer of mankind.   It was his practice to recommend that the monogram of Jesus be placed over the city gates of the cities and above the doors of each dwelling place.  If you walk around the city of Siena today you will see countless examples of where this was put into practice, and one can scarcely walk more than a few yards without seeing the IHS monogram prominently displayed. 

Until the Second Vatican Council, Catholics held the Holy Name in great reverence, and the Holy Name Society used to organize grand processions to honor that Name on today’s feastday.  Before Vatican II the Society boasted over half a million members in the United States alone. The majority of men in every parish were members in those days!  Since Vatican II of course, as with every other Catholic institution, numbers have dwindled to almost nothing.  If blasphemy runs riot today, it is thanks to the wandering Novus Ordo Church herself, and not to the enemies of that Church.

Today we are the ones who must stand in for those hundreds of thousands of members of the Holy Name Society of ages past.  We are few in number, and the individual burden of responsibility is all the heavier now it is no longer shared among so many.  But we must at least try to uphold the objectives of the Society, firstly by promoting love and reverence for the Holy Name of God and Jesus Christ, and then by suppressing blasphemy, perjury, forbidden oaths, profanity, unlawful swearing, improper language, and, as far as we can, by helping to prevent those vices in others.  Let’s make our actions and our attitude one based on St. Bernardine’s great battle against the corruption of society with its love of greed, and its corresponding lack of faith and morals.

Whether we are members of the Holy Name Society or not, today’s Feast should instill in us a renewed reverence for the Holy Name, so that we may forever hold it in awe and never as a casual curse word to be uttered without thinking.  He who bears the Name of Jesus told us himself, that his yoke is easy and his burden light, so let us embrace this duty fervently and with enthusiasm.  If we can’t walk in procession today as in days of old, carrying the Holy Name aloft on our banners, let us at least carry the Name of Jesus always in our hearts, that all men may hear from our lips, and see from our example, the shining light of salvation that this Name brings.