The Most Holy Name of Jesus
1 John 2:29—3:6  +  John 1:29-34
January 3, 2023

“Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.”

The feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus holds, in the Church’s liturgical calendar, the humble rank of an optional memorial.  At most Masses celebrated today, even if the proper prayers—the Collect and so on—for the feast are prayed, the Scripture readings that are proper to the feast will not be.  Nevertheless, the entire season of Christmastide celebrates the mystery found in the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

The name “Jesus” literally means “God saves”.  The Most Holy Name of Jesus reveals to fallen man that God saves.  The divine person of Jesus Christ, in all that He does and says during His days on earth, reveals to fallen man that God saves.

Of course, God the Father did not have to send His Son into our world in order to save fallen man.  God the Father could, in justice, have left fallen man to its fallen state.  Having chosen, however, to save man, God the Father could have chosen any number of ways in which to save man.  He was not limited to the choice of sending His divine Son to offer His Body and Blood, soul and divinity on the Cross.  God the Father could have chosen any number of simple ways in which to forgive fallen man.  Yet the Incarnation, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ reveals the full depth of God the Father’s love for us fallen creatures.