SPIRITUAL MATTERS

that I am”(3:14). To me, this is God’s profound “unmoved mover” philosophical name. All existence flows from and rests in Him. In God, creation both comes into being and is sustained in being. God wills the universe and everything and everyone that is in it. I like knowing that God thinks of me at every moment—and has since the beginning of time. We can all rest in that knowing. Our Lord loves to think on us and from that, we draw our very lives.

The Second Person of the Holy Trinity is the Word of God, Jesus (John, Chapter One). Jesus means “God saves” and is the name the angel Gabriel revealed to Mary (Luke 1:31). Jesus is both Who God is and what God does. He saves. Whom does He save? “…all who call on the name of Jesus (Romans 10:13). The name of Jesus is the name of salvation. St. Paul holds the Holy Name of Jesus to be above all other names as he writes in Philippians (2:10) “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” We Catholics have a beautiful prayer called the “Litany of the Holy Name” which meditates on all the beautiful names and titles given to Christ (“the anointed One”). Glorious and tender names like “brightness of eternal light,” “meek and humble of heart,” “good Shepherd” and “King of Glory” among many more. It’s no wonder meditating on the Holy Name of Jesus has been a centuries-old prayer tradition in the Church. In that Name is our life and our hope. Our redemption.

The name of Jesus that is dearest to my own heart is “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.” A prophetic title first used by Isaiah (7:1-8; 15) it is the name St. Matthew references in his infancy narrative (1:22-23). God with us. Jesus is God with us, in us, living through us. In the Temple, there was a beautiful seamless curtain that enclosed the Holy of Holies which was, for the Jews, the very presence of God Himself in the Ark of the Covenant. At the moment of Jesus’ death on the Cross “the curtain of the temple was torn in two” (Matthew 27:51). Everything that had separated us from God under the law was made accessible to us through grace, through Jesus. He opened the way to heaven for us by opening His arms on the Cross. God with us. Emmanuel. Every Advent season begins with us singing my favorite Advent hymn: O Come O Come Emmanuel. Whenever we sing those words it reminds me that He, my Lord and Savior, is with me. He left heaven to save me and you—to ransom captive Israel, as the hymn says. To love us and to take us home to heaven. These days, we can forget just how very much God loves us and that, no matter the chaos that is around us, God is always in control. He has a plan for us. He has a plan for our world. Emmanuel is always with us and for us.

“…for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name.” — Luke 1:49