Second Sunday after Epiphany
The Names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
"They called His name Jesus." — Luke ii. 21.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Shakespeare. II. Shakespeare again. III. Longfellow.
I. Joseph : 1. Patriarch. 2. Saint. 3. Happy death.
II. Mary : 1. Prototypes. 2. Queen, illumined. 3. Sea of bitterness.
III. Jesus: 1. Origin: 1. God-given names. 2. Figures of Jesus. 3. Real Jesus.
2. Meaning: 1. "God." 2. 11 Jesus M or Emman uel. 3. Olive oil, poured out.
3. History : 1. Royal christening. 2. Jesus and John. 3. Influence for good, evil.
Per. : 1. Higher blessedness. 2. Invoke. 3. In deed and in truth.
SERMON.
Brethren, so portentous an event was the coming of the Messias, so minutely prophesied, so replete with mystic meaning, that every single circumstance connected therewith has its own peculiar significance. Not least significant is His choice of a name and that name Jesus. " What's in a name? " asks Shakespeare, " that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." For once, at least, his philosophy is at fault. For, as on second thought, he adds: " A good name in man or woman is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash, but he that filches from me my good name, robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed." Take away from the Christian world the saving names of Jesus and Mary and Joseph, and you dash the sun from the firmament, you snatch the moon from her nightly vigils, and deprive the storm-tossed mariner of his guiding star. So true is it, as Longfellow remarks, that these sacred names forever stand a landmark and a symbol of the power that lies concentrated in a single word.
Joseph — the name speaks to us of old and new. Of Joseph, patriarch, erstwhile the lowliest of his brethren but soon become by virtue and by wisdom next to Pharao the mightiest in the kingdom; the guardian of the king and his treasures, whose chaste intent, abhorring carnal pleasure, applied itself solely to garner in the fruits of seven years of plenty that he might become, ere long, the saviour of his famished people. Of Joseph, saint, humble, yet of men second only to the Man-God, model of chastity and protector of the Virgin of virgins and Virginity Incarnate, and ruler, withal, of that treasury— the Holy Family — from whose accumulated merits the Christian world has been enriched. Though but a word, it vividly portrays an ideal Christian life and recalling besides the picture of Joseph breathing his last in the arms of Jesus and Mary, it enables us to realize how truly blessed in the sight of God is the death of God's saints.
Mary, — the angel called her Ave Maria. Ave — it is Eva's name spelled backwards. Ave undid the evils Eva wrought. Eva filled the world with the thorns of human afflictions; Mary caused the flowers to reappear in our land. Eva plunged our Nature into sin and death; Mary lifted it to the very throne of God. Her other name, Maria, spells the initials of Mary, Anna, Ruth, Judith and Abigail. Like Mary, sister of Moses, she led us out of the land of bondage through the sea of this sinful world, herself dry-shod and without a stain. The child of her prayers she gave, like Anna, freely to the Lord. She is that Ruth whose loving heart recked not of home nor country, but only of her people and her Lord. She is that Judith who slew man's bitterest foe when she crushed the serpent's head. By her eloquent beauty she, like Abigail, so touched the king's heart that wrath turned to mercy and he spared her people. Maria, — the name is variously interpreted. It means first of all, " a Queen; " and how truly was she a queen who bore and nursed and ruled, with a mother's gentle authority, the King of kings and the Lord of lords! Again, it means "'Illumined/' for Mary is to the Saviour as the sun to the moon. The same halo surrounds Mary and the Child m her arms. If a brief vision of God on Mount Sinai made the face of Moses shine as the sun, so that the people could not bear to gaze on him, what shall we say of Mary who, for thirty long years, basked in the smiles of the Saviour? Again, it means a " sea of bitterness," but, though such was her life on earth, she has since risen above the horizon and become the fair Star of the Ocean. Fair and pure and lovely is Mary — our tainted Nature's solitary boast.
Brethren, the names of Mary and Joseph, like their personalities, have no terrors for us, but we approach with equal awe the person and the name of Jesus. " Without the grace of the Holy Ghost," says St. Paul, "it cannot be even worthily pronounced." When God confers a name it always expresses the mission of the person named. Thus, Adam means the father of the living; Abram was changed to Abraham because his destiny was to be the father of many nations; and Simon became Peter, or the rock whereon Christ built His Church. How full of meaning, then, must the name Jesus be, since it sums up the mission of the Saviour of the world! Three men, before Our Lord, had borne that name. The son of Sirach and the son of Jasedech; the one a seer, a priest the other, prefigured each the wisdom of the father and the priest forever according to the order of Melchisadech. A more striking figure still, is Jesus or Josue Nave — the immortal, as his name implies, but still a figure only of the Christ, the true immortal. Christ's it was, not merely to guide the people to a promised land on earth, but to lead the way to the kingdom of heaven. Not merely the walls of Jericho, but the very foundations of the Roman empire were shaken and shattered by the trumpets' blasts that blew at His command — the voices of His Apostles preaching the new dispensation. Josue in the throes of battle bade the sun stand still, and called down rocks and hail from heaven on his enemies; but when Christ overcame His enemies by His death on the cross, the sun fled from the heavens and even the graves cast up their dead. They bore His name, these men of old, but that name in them, as they of Christ, was but the shadow of the reality.
Brethren, to Christian ears the Saviour's name sounds more sacred even than the name of God. The interpretations of this name, God, are manifold; but principally it means one that sees or one that runs, as a consuming fire. The name as such can rightly signify only the one true God, for false gods are seen but see not, while ours sees and is not seen. Not only does He see, but by His grace and providence He runs to our assistance as a mother to her tottering babe. Irresistible is His coming, as a conflagration cast upon the earth and ever tending heavenward. Now, all this Jesus' name implies, and something more. The first three letters stand for God; the other two for His body and soul, — for our humanity. It, therefore, signifies something more than God — it means Emmanuel or God with us, or God incarnate. It teaches us a deep dogmatic truth, that man, indeed, redeemed the fall of man; but had not He been man and God alike, He never could have conquered death by death, and led captivity captive. Jesus, then, means Saviour, because, as St. Matthew says, " He saved the people from their sins." Saviour both in time and from eternity — Saviour of men and angels too, for, says tradition, " 'twas homage to the future Christ the Father chose, wherewith to test the angels' loyalty," and Luke relates His name was called Jesus — Saviour — which He was called by the angel ere He was conceived in the womb. Christ, then, was always Saviour, and Jesus is an. eternal name. Thus it is we soon forget our awe of the divinity hidden in the humble Saviour. He is one of us and His sacred name, on second thought, sounds sweet : " sweeter," as the Psalmist says, " than the honey and the honey-comb." The Canticle of Canticles compares the name of the Lord pronounced, to olive oil poured out. How beautiful are the scriptural figures! That sacred name like the oil lights and heats — lights us to God's truth and inflames us with His love. To learn that name, to be saturated with it as with oil, to be rendered inflammable by it ere the coming of the spirit of fire, was the pagan's first step towards Christianity. Like oil again that name is a spiritual food, nourishing and refreshing, and a wholesome condiment for every action of our lives. " Whatever ye do," says St. Paul, " in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Again, it is, like oil, a lubricant, minimizing the bitter cares and the friction of this world. It is, besides, a healthful medicine. How many a poor, sorely-wounded wayfarer, abandoned on the highway between the Jericho of this world and the heavenly Jerusalem, has been restored to life and hope by the elixir of that name, as was the robbers' victim by the good Samaritan's wine and oil. " Amen, I say to you," says Christ, " if you ask the Father for anything in My name He will give it to you." Let the miracles it has wrought attest the curing power of that name. Let him attest — the cripple from his mother's womb, by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, whom Peter and John, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, caused to rise and walk; let him give testimony — the blind man, by the walls of Jericho, who had his sight restored because he shouted to the passing Saviour, " Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Witness they from whose bodies the Apostles, in pursuance of His promise, cast out devils in His name; witness they from whose souls Christ's ministers, in later years, expelled the demons of sin; let these and countless others testify how true are Peter's words that there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be healed and saved.
Brethren, to prove to you the dignity of Jesus' sacred name it will suffice to briefly trace its history. What pomp and ceremony accompany the christening of a royal babe, and yet, how paltry that compared to the naming of the Prince of peace. From heaven to earth, the King of kings sent Gabriel, the highest in His court, to Mary, daughter of a royal line, to name a child — a God-man — who was to conquer and to save the world. There is a sharp antithesis between the insidious serpent whispering to Eve, and the angel of light declaring unto Mary that, after all, humanity was to be not merely like to God, knowing good and evil, but should be God Himself. John the Baptist said of himself and Christ: "My name must decrease, but His must increase." Hence, John was born at the summer solstice when Nature begins to wither and the days grow shorter, but Christ came at the winter solstice when begin to return the light and the life of the world. John's name was like a strain of music dying away in the distance, but Jesus', though its first mention was as soft and low as an angel's whisper, swelled into a grand crescendo until it filled the whole world. To Mary first, as first redeemed, that name, that tidings of great joy was first revealed, and then to all the people. Its spiritual meaning, Saviour, is kept ever to the fore, even in the Temple where, at the circumcision, it was first officially conferred, and where, for the first time, the Redeemer shed His blood. Since then the history of that name has been the history of the Saviour and of Christianity. Who shall estimate the vital factor it has been for good and sometimes alas! for evil in the affairs of men! How many a soul, amid temptations, doing battle for its life, has found that name as Solomon calls it: " a tower of strength " ! How many a soul already dead has been by it restored to life! What favors have been through it obtained, what miracles it has wrought! How many sins crying to heaven for vengeance have had their voices stilled by a single invocation of that name! The tender youth and gentle virgin and aged martyr went bravely to the lions and the stake, encouraging one another with that name; or, like the Apostles, went forth from the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. And then alas! for how many has it proved a rock of scandal set for their ruin, and a sign that should be contradicted and blasphemed! But for many, oh, let us hope for many, many more it has been a saving factor in their lives, from the moment when first 'twas lisped by their childish prattle until it trembled on their dying lips. Ah! no wonder saints have burned it on their breasts; no wonder JHS, its monogram, confronts us on the altar and falls in vivid colors from the stained windows to the floor; for Jesus is a name above every name, at the mention of which every knee should bend on earth, in heaven, and in hell.
Brethren, Jesus means Saviour, Emmanuel or God with us. " The Lord is with thee," the angel said to Mary, and hence he called her blessed. It is our rare privilege to be accounted blessed, if we will, in a higher and a nobler sense. " Yea, rather/' says Our Lord, " more blessed still are they who hear the word of God and keep it." Next to our worship of the Divinity, a proper reverence for His sacred name is the gravest precept of religion. " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain," is the second of the ten commandments. Reverence, then, that name, remembering St. Paul's promise to the Romans, that " whosoever shall reverently call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Reverently, I say, for says Our Lord: " not every man that calls Me Lord, Lord, shall be saved, but only he that does My Father's will." Invoke His name, not alone in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth. A virtuous career is a lifelong invocation of the Lord, and the surest pledge that our names will be enrolled beneath the sacred names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the illuminated book of life.