What's In A Name--The Divine Name? Series

Seventh Sunday of Easter 2024

Today we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter, so we have had six full weeks since our Resurrection day. Most US Catholics today celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, but we operate here on the calendar that prevailed for almost two thousand years, until the US bishops, thinking that people in our nation were too lazy to keep the holy day on Thursday, pushed it off three days. Is it not sad when folks can’t on occasion give an extra day to worship and devoting the whole day to God and family? And what riches are in today’s Scriptures!

Our Gospel is set in the upper room, where Jesus and His disciples have been celebrating Passover. Actually, some scholars believe that much of this last long sermon in John’s account may have been spoken by Jesus to the apostles after His Resurrection. After all, He did get to teach them for most of forty days from His glorified state in total communion with the Father. This High Priestly prayer would fit in either place.

Jesus is praying for His disciples. It’s actually a continuation of that intercessory prayer; He is standing between the Father and the people, very much like Moses on Sinai or in Jordan before they cross over into the land of promise. He prays because they are being left, but not abandoned in the world, and they will need daily, divine assistance to spread the Gospel in and to a world in great need of Jesus, but resistant to His commands.

How does Jesus pray? He says this to the Father: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them.” It’s like the divine name is a fortress in which Jesus has kept them, and now Jesus prays that the Father will keep them.

Recall that the second of the Ten Commandments focuses on the identity of God, YHWH. The name YHWH is holy, and is not to be misused. The greatest respect is afforded the holy name. In late Judaism, the high priest uses the name, once, on the Feast of the Atonement when he makes sacrifice for sin in the holiest place, before the altar where the Ark of the Covenant used to reside. The rest of the year those four Hebrew letters were to be left alone, by him and by everyone else. So the name is holy, protected, associated with forgiveness of sin. In fact, even today when Jews want to say the name, they will spell out “G-d” without the vowel, or they will just say “hashem”, which means “The Name.”

So Jesus is praying to the Father for His followers, His apostles especially, to remain holy, protected by the most powerful name in the universe. After His Resurrection, when Paul says He was given “the name” by His Father because of His obedience, the first power He gives those apostles is the power to forgive sin (if there is repentance) or retain sin (if there isn’t). So the use of the word “name” is very significant in this prayer of Jesus the High Priest.

Now it makes more sense to reflect on John’s first letter, where we learn how we remain in Jesus and He in us. It is through the Holy Spirit, which we will celebrate reception of next Sunday, Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is the binding force of Love by which our community remains together and remains effective in the world.

In the Acts of the Apostles, which Luke sets after the Ascension but before Pentecost, we hear the story of how Matthias takes the place of Judas Iscariot in the Twelve. It fits with everything else we have heard today. The Apostolic College was incomplete, wounded but not shattered by the apostasy of Judas. So they looked to the Holy Spirit for guidance in choosing his replacement. Judas, called Barsabbas, also known as “the Just One,” came with an impressive resume. But he didn’t get the Holy Spirit’s affirmation. Instead the lot fell on Matthias, who came without a curriculum vitae and about whom the Scripture says not one word more. Remember, the Church was learning that the Spirit blows where He wills. It doesn’t make a lot of sense all the time, but we can be confident that if we listen to His voice, He will make things work. One commentator says that Matthias was chosen by the Holy Spirit not because of what he already was, but because of what he would become for Christ and the Church. It’s something all of us disciples need to remember and apply to ourselves.