Holy Name of Jesus
One
Where Two or Three
Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.
Have you ever thought about all the ways that God is present to us? Theologians have come up with a long list:
God is present by his power. He can do anything, anywhere, anytime. God is present by his sustaining causal power. If God didn’t keep you and me and the whole universe in existence at every single second, we’d fall back into nothingness, we’d be annihilated, instantly.
God is present by his knowledge of everything. He sees intimately, everything that happens everywhere. Most importantly, Jesus makes God present to us. Jesus is present in his humanity that walked the earth. Jesus is present in your soul by the grace of Baptism. Jesus is present in the ordained priest and Bishop. Jesus is present in the poor. Jesus is especially present in the Eucharist.
But there’s a very special way in which Jesus is present, and maybe we don’t think about it enough. Jesus declared, “Where two or three gather in my name, I am there with them.” When we gather in the Holy Name of Jesus, He powerfully joins us.
Two
Physical Presence Matters to Christ
If we’re going to understand this presence of Jesus when two or three gather together in his name, we have to begin by understanding that for Jesus, physical presence is crucial.
The whole Incarnation is based on the idea that physical, immediate presence, really matters. When God came to save us, He came in human form. And He actually came. He didn’t use some kind of media to come to us remotely. He didn’t send a voice message. He didn’t send a link to his latest video from heaven. He didn’t just publish a book and make sure it got a good press release and wide distribution.
He came Himself. He came physically to earth, to us. He came to be with us because being physically present to us mattered to Him. And being physically present to one another should matter to us.
There must be some special sense in which Jesus wants us to come together in small groups so that He can be there in a special way. That means, if we aren’t gathering together in small groups we are missing out on one of the crucial ways that Jesus wants to be present to us.
Three
Souls and Bodies – Time and Place
We should stop and ask ourselves, why does physical presence matter so much? The answer is pretty simple: human beings are composite beings made up of both body and soul. Human beings are creatures of space and time because we’re body as well as soul. So if you want to save human beings, you literally have to “meet them where they’re at.” You have to go to the place they are or invite them to the place where you are.
So, the question is, with whom do you gather together, so that Christ can be present?
Our Lady wants us to gather our family and friends around her and pray the Rosary together and then have some good conversation based on the content of the meditation. But if you are like me, then you have people in your life that just won’t do that. So, now what do we do?
Well, we have to build a bridge through friendship and good conversation.
Four
Friendship and Good Conversation
Friendship takes time doing good things together and having conversation while we do those good things. But its really hard to build that bridge with people who aren’t interested in God. So how do we build the bridge?
Well, we can’t start with a frontal attack like, “Hey, if you don’t go to Mass or confession you’re going to hell.” Forcing our ideas, even if we are right, never works. It is counterproductive. This principle is summed up with the phrase: A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Instead remember this principle: curiosity before judgment, seek first to know and understand. Every person wants to be known, understood, loved and cared for. So, the first goal of a conversation is not to tell people stuff, it’s not to make them think the way you think.
And the first goal is not to share your faith with them. Rather, the first goal of conversation is to have a genuine curiosity, wonder, and fascination in the other person that causes you to seek to know, understand, love, and care for them. We do this by asking good questions, listening carefully, and then asking good follow-up questions.
Five
Getting to Know People
The best way to build a bridge with someone is to learn what the other person cares about. Think about the people you interact with most. Do you know what they are interested in most? Do you know what their favorite thing to do is? If not, then you do not know them very well and you need to learn the art of asking good questions.
Ask them what podcast they’re listening to or the last good movie they watched or book they read. Ask them what they liked about it and why. Ask for their opinion and ideas. Ask them why they think people think or do this or that. Or ask them how a certain experience made them feel.
Then you can get to more important questions like: What do you desire? What do you want most out of life? What are your fears and struggles?
Through questions, we find out what their interests. Then you be interested in that. Because that shows you are interested in them. By this you demonstrate their inestimable worth and validate their existence. In a sense, you are saying to them “It is good that you exist, how wonderful you are.”
See, you have to be genuinely interested in them before they will be interested in God. And if you keep it up and are patient one day you will be able to gather together with them in the Holy Name of Jesus.