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Friday, 01 January 2010 16:06 |
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Feast of Saints Basil the Great & Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop and Doctors
INVOKING OUR SAVIOUR
Approaching Our Lord in friendship and trust.
In ordinary life, calling a person by his Christian name indicates familiarity. How decisively it marks a stage, even in casual friendship, when two people begin, without effort and without embarrassment, to call one another by their Christian names! And when we fall in love, and all our experience takes on a sharper edge and little things mean so much to us, there is one Christian name in the world which casts a spell over eye or ear when we see it written on the page of a book, or overhear it mentioned in a conversation; we are thrilled by the mere encounter with it. And it was with this sense of personal romance that people like St Bernard invested the holy name of Jesus (R.A. Knox, Sermon on The Divine Name, 1956). We too call Our Lord by his first name and for this reason we approach him in complete confidence.
We call a friend by his first name. Why then don’t we call our greatest Friend by his first name too? His name is JESUS; thus he had been called by the angel before he was conceived in his mother’s womb (cf Luke 1:31). God himself gave him his name through the message of the angel, a name that signified his mission, for Jesus means Saviour, he who brings us salvation, security and true peace: … the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil 2:9-10).
Among all names, the name of God was supremely perfect (Zech 14:9). It must be blessed from this time forth and for ever more, from the rising of the sun to its setting (Ps 113:2-3), for I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High (Ps 9:2). And in the Our Father we say: Hallowed by thy name.
The Jewish people gave a child its name when it was circumcised. This was the rite instituted by God to single out, by means of an outward sign, those who belonged to the Chosen People. It was the sign of the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his posterity (cf Gen 17:10-14), and it was laid down that it should be carried out on the eighth day after birth. All the uncircumcised were automatically excluded from the pact and, therefore, from the people of God.
In fulfilment of this precept, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21), according to the Law. Mary and Joseph fulfilled what had been laid down. Christ submitted to circumcision at a time when it was still the law, says St Thomas, and in doing so gave us an example to imitate, so that we may observe the things laid down by law in our own times (St Thomas, Summa Theologica, 3 q37, a1) (cf Acts 15:1), and not look for exemptions or privileges when there is no reason for doing so.
With permission from Scepter UK. Short excerpt from IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD by Francis Fernandez. Available at SinagTala or Totus Bookstore 723-4326 or at www.totusbookstore.com (info@totusbookstore.com)
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