No other name is powerful as the name of Jesus! On Wednesday, January 3, we celebrated the Feast of His Holy Name. Considering the outstanding power of the name of Jesus, this feast is indeed crucial for our faith.
The Bible is full of quotations that squarely show the mighty power of Jesus’ name. Referring to the name of Jesus, Acts 4:12 tells us: “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.” The Letter to the Philippians explicitly speaks about the majesty of Jesus’ name when it states: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 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” (Phil 2:9-11). John 14:13-14 assures us that only when we pray in Jesus’ name can our prayers to the Father be heard. “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it”. Because the name of Jesus is so powerful, even the demons are subjected to his dominion. In Luke 10:17, after their missionary activity, “the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’”.
The Cathecism of the Catholic Church gives us an ample catechesis on Jesus’ name. This it does from numbers 430 to 434.
“Jesus means in Hebrew: ‘God saves.’ At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission. Since God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, ‘will save his people from their sins’. In Jesus, God recapitulates all of his history of salvation on behalf of men… Because sin is always an offence against God, only he can forgive it. … The name ‘Jesus’ signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation, so that ‘there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’ When St Paul speaks of Jesus whom ‘God put forward as an expiation by his blood’, he means that in Christ’s humanity ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.’ Jesus’ resurrection glorifies the name of the Saviour God, for from that time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the ‘name which is above every name’. The evil spirits fear his name; in his name his disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name”.
Even the saints recognised the extraordinary power of Jesus’ name. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux magnificently shows the power of the name of Jesus in Sermon 15 in his commentary On the Song of Songs: “Jesus to me is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a song in the heart. Again, it is a medicine. Does one of us feel sad? Let the name of Jesus come into his heart, from there let it spring to his mouth, so that shining like the dawn it may dispel all darkness and make a cloudless sky. Does someone fall into sin? Does his despair even urge him to suicide? Let him but invoke this life-giving name and his will to live will be at once renewed. The hardness of heart that is our common experience, the apathy bred of indolence, bitterness of mind, repugnance for the things of the spirit – have they ever failed to yield in presence of that saving name? The tears damned up by the barrier of our pride – how have they not burst forth again with sweeter abundance at the thought of Jesus’ name?”
Invoke with faith the name of Jesus in whatever situation you find yourself and He will reveal Himself to you as He is, Jesus – your personal Saviour!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap