Holy Name of Jesus
One
The Name Reveals the Mission
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The name Jesus means in Hebrew “God saves.” Not “God teaches.” Not “God inspires.” Not “God explains.” God saves.
Salvation is not an idea. It is a Person. And that Person has a name, Jesus! When we speak the name of Jesus, we are asking Him to come into our lives and save us. Scripture tells us that “all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus.”
That is why the Church bows her head at that name because heaven and earth recognize it, even when we forget. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter said, “For of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.” Acts 4:12
Two
St. Bernardine of Siena was one of the greatest Apostles of the Holy Name of Jesus.
Siena was not “spiritually lukewarm.” It was violent. Factions ruled the city, rival families, political clans, vendettas passed down like inheritances. Men walked armed. Hatred was normal. Revenge was expected.
Bernardine arrived in Siena physically broken. He was not a charismatic preacher, and his voice was so ruined from illness that at first he could barely speak above a whisper. So he did something strange. He preached one word: Jesus.
One day, standing before a packed square seething with resentment, Bernardine lifted a small wooden tablet. On it were three letters burned into the grain: IHS, a shortened form of the name Jesus, taken from Greek. The crowd laughed at first. Three letters? This was the solution?
Bernardine raised his arm higher and said, in a voice sharpened by years of suffering, “This is the Name before which the proud will kneel, the violent will disarm, and the hardened heart will convert.” Then he commanded something unheard of. He ordered the men to bring their weapons, knives, clubs, swords, and pile them in the square. Silence. No priest had ever dared that. But one man stepped forward. Then another. Then dozens. Then hundreds. Steel clattered to the ground. Bernardine had them burned.
Next, he ordered symbols of vanity and corruption, gambling dice, obscene books, objects of hatred and feuds, thrown into the same fire. This was not a bonfire of enthusiasm. It was a public exorcism.
Families long divided reconciled publicly. Enemies embraced. Debts were forgiven. The city council formally placed Siena under the Kingship of Jesus Christ, enthroning the Holy Name above the civic hall.
The chaos didn’t return. Bernardine repeated this across Italy. Same pattern. Same result. Why? Because Bernardine understood something modern Christians often forget: the Name of Jesus brings the presence and power of the King.
He taught that when the Holy Name is honored, Christ takes possession, the enemy loses ground, and disorder cannot maintain its claim. And when Bernardine lifted those three letters over a city, he was doing one thing: Declaring who ruled there.
Three
There is power in the Holy Name of Jesus
A devastating plague broke out in Lisbon in 1432. All who could fled from the city, but they carried the plague to every corner of Portugal. Thousands were swept away by the cruel sickness. Some described the plague as flashing like lightning from person to person by coat or hat or any garment that had been used by the plague-stricken. Among those who assisted the dying with unflagging zeal was a venerable bishop, André Dias, who urged the people to call on the Holy Name of Jesus. He was seen wherever the disease was fiercest, urging and imploring the sick and the dying, as well as those who had not as yet been stricken down, to repeat, “Jesus, Jesus.”
“Write it on cards,” he said, “and keep those cards on your persons; place them at night under your pillows; place them on your doors; but above all, constantly invoke with your lips and in your hearts this most powerful Name.”
And through the Holy Name of Jesus, wonder of wonders, the sick got well, the dying arose from their agonies, the plague ceased, and the city was delivered from the most awful scourge that had ever visited it. The news spread to the whole country, and everyone began to call on the Name of Jesus. And in an incredibly short time, all of Portugal was freed from the plague through the Holy Name of Jesus.
Four
There Is Power in the Name of Jesus
Most of us try to grow in holiness the wrong way. We try to white-knuckle our way out of sin. We grit our teeth. We make resolutions fueled by willpower alone. And it always ends the same way: failure and discouragement. It is much harder to sin when you are aware of God’s presence.
And it is much easier to do good when you are relying on Him instead of yourself.
That is where the real effort belongs, not in fighting sin directly, but in staying close to Jesus. One of the simplest and most powerful ways to do that is to say His Name. Jesus. Jesus, help me. Jesus, I trust You. Jesus, I surrender to You, take care of everything.
The Name gathers the mind. The Name steadies the heart. The Name brings us back into reality.
Holiness is not heroic independence. It is constant dependence on Jesus.
Five
The Same Name, the Same Power — Today
Jesus is no less powerful today than He was then. The Catechism says it plainly, “The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always” (CCC 2668).
One person who prays can change everything. God would have spared Sodom for ten faithful souls. Moses saved Israel by prayer. Judith saved her people by prayer. You may feel small. Hidden. Ordinary. But you can say the name of Jesus hundreds of times a day. And every time you do, you place yourself and those you love under His saving power.
Let us then recover what we have forgotten. Let us speak the Name with faith. Invoke it in temptation. Whisper it in fear. Proclaim it in hope.
Jesus. Save us. Do in us what we cannot do on our own.