Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of
the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may
use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change
or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies
is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some
aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from
glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).
More Than a Sound
During
our high school or college days we might have heard this passage from one of
the dramas by William Shakespeare. "What's in a name? that which we call a
rose, By any other name would smell as sweet." These lines are from the
play Romeo and Juliet and are one of the most famous lines from the works of
Shakespeare.
Those
words are from the mouth of Juliet who comments on the name of her lover Romeo
Montague. The audience is led to understand that the guy, the lover, can have
any name other than Romeo Montague and he still will be loved by Juliet, just as
a rose can have any other name but it still smells as sweet as a rose.
In
our Gospel reading today we have a word which is not just a word, a breath of a
voice or in the famous Latin phrase flatus vocis. It is more than a sound as
other names are for all practical purposes merely sounds. It is a name which
cannot be taken out and substituted with another name because this name is the
reality of the person. Take out the name and the person referred to by this
name is no longer the same, because his name is his reality. It is a name that
is not like the word “rose” in Shakespeare's play.
That
name is Jesus.
Listen
to the last sentence in our Gospel reading today. "Whoever believes in him
(that is, Jesus) will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has
already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God."
The
name of the only Son of God is Jesus and this name not only describes Jesus but
is the reality of Jesus so that it is as powerful as Jesus himself. That is
what the Scriptures tell us.
Saint
Paul in his letter to the Philippians says, "Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him (that is, Jesus), and given him a name which is above every
name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (2:9-11 AV)
Our
Catechism tells us: "But the one name that contains everything is the one
that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not
be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity The Word of God hands it
over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." The
name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of
creation and salvation." (2666)
Before
I proceed I recommend to you 2 reading materials which if properly read will
inspire you to have a genuine love for the name of Jesus. Both reading
materials are very short but very powerful.
The
first is from "Jesus": The Shortest, Simplest, and Most Powerful
Prayer in the World, in the book Prayer for Beginners which you can access from peterkreeft.com
The
second is THE WONDERS OF THE HOLY NAME by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P. which you
can access from olrl.org.
These
two reading materials can revolutionize your life when you pronounce the name
of Jesus. Time does not allow us to read these materials but I strongly
encourage you to get these reading materials and let them transform your
spiritual life.
I
usually do not make such recommendations during my homilies but this is
something very different. Those readings can bring back a dead soul to life. After
the Mass I will be giving to those interested a piece of paper which contains
information where you can get these reading materials, free in the Internet.
For
now I only want to relate to you two stories about the name of Jesus from Debbie
Przybylski which she related last June 10, 2015 in this website,
intercessorsarise.org.
The
first story concerns her husband, Norm. Let her relate the story. "A few
years ago my husband, Norm, had an opportunity to test this promise (of using
the name of Jesus for a miracle) at a movie theater with his nephews. Lord of the Rings was an exciting movie, but right in
the middle of it, a teenage boy stopped breathing. Those in the theater could
hear the agonizing cry of a father pleading for his son to start breathing. He cried out with all his heart, “David, breathe! David, breathe!” But David just lay there without moving, without
breathing.
“The
movie stopped abruptly, and people in the theater began to fear and panic. The
atmosphere was extremely tense. Not knowing exactly what to do, Norm
walked right over to where the boy was lying motionless. He then stooped down,
and with an act of faith, he laid his hands on David and
quietly said, “In the name of Jesus, breathe.” Suddenly David came to life and began to breathe! God had
answered believing prayer."
Then
Debbie adds, "There is power in the name of Jesus when we link our faith
with heaven."
The
second story is about a young boy. It is humorous but it illustrates very
simply the power of Jesus' name. Here is Debbie's record of that story.
“The
news reporter, Paul Harvey, told the story of a three-year-old
boy at the grocery store with his mother. She sternly told him before entering
the store, “No chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask!” In the store she put him in the little child’s seat in
the cart, and they wheeled down the aisles. He was quiet until he got to the
cookie aisle. He saw those delicious chocolate chip cookies, stood up and said, “Mom, can I have the chocolate chip cookies?” With a strong voice she said to him, “I told you not to
even ask. No!”
“He
sat down. They went down the aisles but later had to come back to the cookie
aisle again. He asked for them again. She told him, “Sit down and be quiet. I
said no.” Finally arriving at the checkout lane,
the little boy knew it was his last chance. He had to do something quick. So he
stood up in his seat and shouted as loud as he could, “In the name of Jesus,
may I have some chocolate chip cookies?”
"Everyone
around him began to laugh and applaud that little boy. And because of the generosity of the other shoppers, the
little boy and his mother left the grocery store with twenty-three boxes of
chocolate chip cookies! He was very happy. God loves to answer persistent
prayers that are prayed in the name of Jesus. This may be a funny story but
let’s not forget the message. There is an authority attached to using the name
of Jesus.”
And
now let us go back to our Catechism. It tells us how to pray with the name of
Jesus. I quote:
"To
pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is
the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One,
and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him
and who gave himself up for him. This simple invocation of faith developed in
the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual
formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt.
Athos, is the invocation, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us
sinners." It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 with
the cry of the publican and the blind men begging for light. By it the heart is
opened to human wretchedness and the Savior's mercy. (2667)
“The
invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.
When
the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not
lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings
forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all
times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only
occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in
Christ Jesus.” (2668)
Today
is the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and it is very appropriate that we
reflect on the wonders of the name of Jesus for this name contains the initials
of the Trinity. “Jesus” contains the initials of the Trinity. J is for Jehovah,
the Germanized pronunciation of Yahweh, the name of God in Hebrew which is
appropriately ascribed to God the Father. S is for Savior which is
appropriately ascribed to God the Son. And the second S is for Spirit, of
course the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of both the Father and the Son.
Our
first reading emphasizes the name of God in the Old Testament. Moses in the
early morning went up Mount Sinai taking with him the two stone tablets. Having
come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name,
"LORD." The word Lord here is all capitalized. When this happens to
be written in our English bible it means that in the original Hebrew God's name
YHWH is written there but the Jews would not pronounce that name. Instead they
pronounce the word Adonai or Lord.
In
the second reading we have the formulation of the greeting used in our Mass
which includes the three persons of the Trinity. "The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
all of you."
There
is no need to think how the three persons can be one God. All we need is to
pronounce the name of Jesus with reverence and love and the Father and the Holy
Spirit will come and do their work in our life. We may not be able to
understand the Trinity, but we know the three persons are there because they
live within and through us.
Let
us now say the doxology with reverence and love as we bow our heads.
Glory
be to the Father and to Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
- - - - - - - - - -
Note for the readers:
The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised
Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.
NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This
is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this
translation.
AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more
commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in
English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking
world.
