The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 61: The Name of Jesus (2024)

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Together with Fr. Mike, we examine the name above every other name: Jesus Christ. We explore the importance of this name and our reverence for it. Fr. Mike emphasizes that Christians, unlike those practicing other religions, tend to use the name of our Father in heaven “in vain.” He explains how detrimental and tragic that can be. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 430-435. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 61, we're reading paragraphs 430-435, all about the name of Jesus, which is amazing. I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along

with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionientpress.com slash C I Y and lastly you can click follow or Subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications as I said, you know yesterday We talked about this the heart of catechesis is Jesus Christ At the heart of catechesis we find in essence a person and that person is Historical right Jesus incarnate On this earth, but also eternal. The second person of the Trinity, the only son of the father. And so today, in the next couple of days,

we're gonna be talking about Jesus. And so specifically, today we talk about the name of Jesus. Tomorrow we'll talk about the title Christ. Then we'll talk about how Jesus is referred to. He's described as the only son of God. And lastly, before we end this section, we'll talk about Jesus is the Lord and what that means so but today today is talking about the name of Jesus and This is so I think okay. I need to calm down. I apologize

It is such an incredible thing to be able to speak the name of Jesus One of the things that we just realized is the name of Jesus is His presence. Whenever we say the name of Jesus, we call upon the Lord God and He is present with us. In fact, the very end of this little section we're going through today in paragraph 435, we'll talk about how the name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. Now, we'll begin with just noting what the name Jesus means. It's Hebrew, Yeshua, right? It means God saves. And so here's the angel Gabriel that gave Jesus his proper name.

And yet, that is the name that has become the name above every other name. And we're gonna hear and be reminded of the fact that in the Acts of the Apostles chapter four, it says there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And the uniqueness of Jesus in the world, obviously because Jesus is fully God and fully man, we're going to dive more deeply into that as time goes on.

But we're just going to begin with the name of Jesus. And so, yeah, without anything further, let's just say a prayer in invoking the name of Jesus and calling upon God, our Father in His name and asking for the Holy Spirit to come Be with us Father in heaven. We know that you have revealed your son You've given your son to us and your son has revealed you because he is the image perfect image of the Father Lord God We trust in your son Jesus Christ. We call upon his name. We make our prayer in his name. We ask that you please

Through the work of Jesus Christ, your only Son, we ask that you please send us your Holy Spirit, that we can truly have a real sense of reverence and awe for your being, of course, but also for your very name. Let the name of Jesus always be on our lips. Let the name of Jesus be tattooed upon our hearts. Let the name of Jesus always be closely present and guide our lives. Lord God, we make this prayer. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, amen. As I said today, it's just a few paragraphs. It is six, 430 to four thirty five, six paragraphs, but we're just going to talk about what is it to talk about Jesus, who is the only son who is our Lord. Article two, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord Jesus. 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. In the history of salvation, God was not content to deliver Israel out of the house of bondage by bringing them out of Egypt. He also saves them from their sin. Because sin is always an offense against God, only he can forgive it. For this reason, Israel, becoming more and more aware of the

universality of sin, will no longer be able to seek salvation except by invoking the name of the Redeemer God. 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. The name of the Savior God was invoked only once in the year by the high priest in Atonement for the sins of Israel after he had sprinkled the mercyat in the Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood.

The Mercy Seat was the place of God's presence. 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 Savior 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. The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. The eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus prayer, says, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Many Christians, such as Saint Joan of Arc, have died with one word, Jesus, on their lips. Okay, so as I said, the teaching today, this whole section today, is just about the name

of Jesus. And so before we go any further, I think it is worth it. It is worth it because it is so pervasive in our culture, in our society to highlight the fact that while Jesus' name is the name above every other name, it is also a name that is widely abused. And it's one of those things where it is so, we are so used to it, we are so accustomed to taking the name of Jesus in vain, whether that is carelessly, casually in anger or in frustration. It is tragic because here's, I mean, think about this. There is, I remember, I might have shared this before, but I remember a young woman, she had gone to a Bible college and she said, one of her Bible college instructors pointed this out.

It was his understanding. He said, you know, out of all religions in the world where they believe that they have a name for God It's only Christians It's only Christians who take the name of their god in vain on a regular basis like this Like you'll have Characters fictional characters talking about these, you know fictional gods like greek gods or or roman gods, you know They'll say something like, you know, Beisus, such and such. But that seems to be more like, it's kind of anachronistic. I'm not sure that that is actually a thing people do. But we do take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ so carelessly. And yet here, as being taught to us so clearly is this is the name through which God has saved us from our sins.

This is from Qur'an 4.32. 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. Hear this, here's this. 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. Now think about this. God has made it possible. Remember in paragraph 433, it says the name of the Savior God. Remember that Tetragrammaton, right? The Y-H-W-H, that holy name of God that God revealed to Moses in the burning bush. The name of the Savior God was invoked only once in the year by the high priest in Atonement for the sins of Israel after he sprinkled the mercy seat of the Holy of Holies with that sacrificial blood. Right, so you can only utter that name one time, one person would enter the Holy of Holies and would say the sacred name

of God and yet, how do we treat the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Now remember, it says, right, that was paragraph 433. Go back to paragraph 432, we just read this. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation. Henceforth, all can invoke his name. Jesus united himself to all of us, so we can all invoke his name. And yet, what do we do?

This is, and I don't mean this to be a little lecture on taking the name of the Lord in vain, but kind of, maybe a little bit We can all invoke his name And yet how many of us are willing to take his name in vain? You know, it's one of those things where When we realize the value of something when we realize how precious something is then when it's abused then when it's broken Then when it's misused then when it's broken, then when it's misused, it's, we realize, oh my gosh, that's horrible. If I don't realize the value

of something, if I don't realize the worth, the weight of a thing, then of course, you know, it gets misused, it gets abused, it gets, you know, whatever. And I'm like, oh, yeah, meh, whatever. And I think sometimes we underestimate the significance of the divine name of Jesus Christ. And so, yeah, anyways, that's lecture over. But let's go back to this. What is this section of the Catechism teaching us? Well, not only manifesting the great power of Jesus as paragraph 434 says, it says, Jesus's resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior God. For from that time on, right, right after the resurrection, from that time on, it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the name, which is above every name.

You know, in Philippians chapter two says that that here's Jesus, who is the name above every other name paragraph for 34, it goes on to say the evil spirits fear his name. That's, That's true. In fact, if you ever find yourself in a place of temptation, you ever find yourself in a place of spiritual battle to just prayerfully utter the name of Jesus with your lips to even hold the name of Jesus in your heart is to be guarded, is to be defended by our Lord. The evil spirits fear his name, goes on to say, in his name, his disciples perform miracles. Remember in the Acts of the Apostles where Peter and John are walking up to the temple

area to pray and there's a beggar there who's lame. He can't walk and he looks to Peter and John because Peter and John are looking intently at him and they're like, oh yeah, we have no gold or silver. We have nothing to give you. But in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ stand and they give healing in his name, his disciples perform miracles for the Father grants all that they ask in this name. It is incredible that we have the opportunity to even know who Jesus Christ is. This is amazing.

And also that right now in this very, I invite you in this very moment, if you're in a place where you can, you can do this, to let the name of Jesus be a prayer right now. Paragraph 435, the last paragraph we read today, the name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. So all liturgical prayers, right? All the prayers in the mass and all the prayers that we celebrate through the other sacraments, they all conclude with the words through our Lord Jesus Christ. He notes this and notes that the Hail Mary reaches its high point with the words,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. That's the high point. The whole thing is the name of Jesus, the center of the Hail Mary. And I love this. I love the Eastern prayer of the heart. It's called the Jesus prayer. Maybe you've prayed it before,

but the Jesus prayer says, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. There's a way of praying that prayer that just goes throughout the whole course of the day. You know, Saint Paul had said, pray without ceasing. And there's many ways to pray without ceasing. But one of the ways of praying without ceasing in the Eastern Church is this Jesus prayer is recognizing that at any moment, I can just simply just inhale and just Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, and then exhale have mercy on me a sinner and let that be actually part of your day. Just Lord Jesus Christ, Son of

the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. Now I will insert the word living God even though here in the Catechism this prayer very simply Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. You know, there's even an easier way. And sometimes it's just Jesus on the inhale and mercy on the exhale. Jesus on the inhale and mercy on the exhale. That the name of Jesus actually is a prayer. Here's my invitation for us today.

Is to let the name of Jesus be on our lips. You know, the name of Jesus is often, as I've lectured already today, the name of Jesus is often on our lips as a curse or as just this, this word that just falls from our lips carelessly. But to allow the name of Jesus to be a prayer, because it is, his name is a prayer. But to allow it to be a prayer in your life, with your lips, with your voice, in your heart, that is remarkable.

And so here's my invitation. The invitation is to even where you're at, again, if you're a place where you can do this, to simply utter the name Jesus in a prayer. Like, Father, let me pray the name of your son, Jesus. Even come, Holy Spirit, teach me how to pray. Jesus, Jesus be present, Jesus be glorified. Just to be able to say the name Jesus, you know, there was a time I was out on the Sea of Galilee

with a number of young adults who had, I mean, they are prayers, right? They're people who pray and we had prayed about, I mean, they're on pilgrimage in the Holy land. It's amazing. And I was inviting them to just pray the name of Jesus out loud. And just again, it's the only people on this boat out on the Sea of Galilee are other pilgrims, people who believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus. And I was just saying, okay, just right now,

guys, just just pray the name of Jesus. You don't have to say it loudly, but just out loud with your voice. Jesus. And it looks around. No one's moving their lips. I'm like, okay, wait, how hard is this? And I think that's part of it, though. The reality is once I really understand the solemnity, right, the holiness of Jesus' name, sometimes it's kind of hard to say, because I don't want to take it carelessly. I don't want to utter it without meaning. But right now, the invitation to be able to pray the name Jesus. Not only to pray the name Jesus,

but maybe even that Eastern prayer, the Jesus prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. And let that be a, let that, here's my invitation, let that be the prayer that just permeates your entire day with every breath. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This is the name above every other name, right? This is, there's no other name under heaven given

among men by which we must be saved. This is the name of the God who reconciled in Christ, the world to himself. Ah, man, gosh, the name above every other name. I will say it five more times. It is amazing. And you and I have access to this name because you and I have access to this person, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the only Son, our Lord. Tomorrow, we'll have the opportunity to talk about Christ because here's Jesus Christ we refer to, our Lord and God God our Lord and Savior as Jesus Christ What does that mean and what does it mean in our lives as well?

So I can't wait until then keep praying keep praying the Jesus prayer keep praying for each other and please And pray for me. I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike, and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless