The
Cathedral Church of the Nativity
The
Feast of the Holy Name
January
1, 2017
The
Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, PA
The
Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
“What is behind this year’s most popular Lehigh Valley
Names”? This headline appeared the
Morning Call newspaper this past Thursday. It seems of course that the most
popular names used in America is tracked, and the newspaper did its own
localized version.
According to the Social Security Administration the
most popular names in America in the year 2016 were….Emma, Olivia, Sophia,
Noah, Liam, and Mason.
Locally, in a non scientific poll of course, we learn that the most popular
name chosen for new borns at St. Luke’s this past year were Amelia and Ethan.
According to this piece in the Morning Call, it seems
the trend today is that folk may have a
few names in mind when their newborns arrive. Then when they see what the
newborn looks like, a decision for naming is made. Interesting.
What is in a name? Does it matter how its chosen?
In the narrative realm of the Spiritual it seems to
matter quite a bit! Today we observe the Feast of the Holy Name. We typically fly over this feast day because
it infrequently lands on a Sunday.
The Gospel according to Luke brings us from the
Christmas birth narrative of Shepherds giving witness to an astounding God
event found in the humble beginnings of
a barn scene, to the important observance of Jewish religious tradition that
gives homage to the covenant between God and God’s people.
Under the law of Moses found in Leviticus, it was, and is customary that all male
children on the 8th day after
birth be circumcised. This was also a time when family and friends gathered for
the Naming of the child. St. Luke seems particularly focused on the naming of Jesus
and from where the name came. He was "called Jesus, the name given by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb" (Lk 2:21).
So, What is in a Name? What is hoped for in a naming?
If I said to you, who have you known in your life who
you would describe as one who had demonstrated kindness and compassion? Or who have you known (or know) in your life
who you would describe as Strength? Or
who have you known (or know) in your life who has made sacrifices for the sake
of Love? Or who have you known (or know) who may through some act of wisdom or truth, may have saved you from a poor decision, or unhealthy habit,
relationship, or pattern?
Do you know their names? I bet you do.
And so there we meet Jesus. Named St. Luke tells us by the angels who
announced his promise before he was even conceived in the womb. The name given
him that day in Hebrew, Jeshoshua, which means, Yahweh, or God Saves.
Here we meet this person! This person who will become the very
transparency of God on earth. Jesus. What is so unique and transformative about our
following, meeting, and adoring this person, is that by meeting him, we meet
compassion and kindness; we meet Strength in times of trouble, we meet
sacrifice for the sake of Love, we meet wisdom and truth that gives the power
we do not possess on our own to be liberated from anything that might hold us
captive! (Salvation)
You see this feast day which finds its context in the
narrative of Christmas we realize as Brother Geoffrey Tristram of the SSJE
writes, that Christmas is not about the arrival of a new philosophy or even a
new religion, but the arrival of a person.
Have you met Compassion and Kindness? Have you met Steadfast strength in time of
trial? Have met sacrifice for the sake of Love? Have you met wisdom and truth
and Grace that liberates? Do you know
their names? I bet you do.
Jesus. Jehosua, God Saves.
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