Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 

As we begin this New Year, we are accompanied in faith by Mary, the Mother of God, her husband Joseph and our Saviour Jesus. Around this time, the newborn child is given the name Jesus. What is the significance of a name? For the Jewish people, the giving of a name had great importance. When a name was given, it represented what that person should be in the future. An unknown name meant that someone could not be wholly known. To not acknowledge someone's name meant both denial of the person, destruction of their personality, and change in their destiny. A person's name expresses the reality of their being at its deepest level. 

A Jewish male child was named at the time of circumcision, eight days after birth. Joseph and Mary gave the name Jesus because that is the name God's messenger gave before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb. This name signifies Jesus' identity and his mission. The literal Hebrew means the Lord saves. Since God alone can forgive sins and free us from death, it is God who, in Jesus, his eternal Son became a man to offer up his life as the atoning sacrifice to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The Son that Mary bore is both God and man - the "Word who was God" (John 1:1) and who "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). That is why Mary is called not only the mother of the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah in Hebrew) but also the mother of God or Theotokos in Greek which means "God-bearer." 

​​​​​​​The name Jesus is at the heart of all Christian prayer. Through and in Jesus, we pray to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians have died with one word on their lips, the name of Jesus. May we, as a Parish, exalt the name of Jesus and, thanksgiving to the Mother of God, pray confidently in his name.

Fr John

Christmas Quote from the Early Church Fathers:  By Christ's faith, hope, and love, we are purified, by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D. "He, therefore, received in the flesh the circumcision decreed by the law, although he appeared in the flesh absolutely without any blemish of pollution. He who came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) - not in sinful flesh - did not turn away from the remedy by which sinful flesh was ordinarily made clean. Similarly, not because of necessity but for the sake of example, he also submitted to the water of baptism, by which he wanted the people of the new law of grace to be washed from the stain of sins... 
"The reason 'the child who was born to us, the son who was given to us' (Isaiah 9:6), received the name Jesus (that is, 'Saviour ) does not need explanation in order to be understood by us, but we need eager and vigilant zeal so that we too may be saved by sharing in his name." 

© 2022 Servants of the Word, source: dalyscripture.net, author Don Schwager.